Kathryn McGregor - Church Visit #3

Willow Creek Casa de Luz
 67 Algonquin Rd, South Barrington, IL 60010
November 1, 2015
Multicultural

The church felt very different from my home church, and also different from other hispanic churches i had attended before, mostly because of its size. This spanish service was one of the larger ones I had attended, and the sheer magnitude of Willow Creek was a bit distracting. However, one thing that was similar to my home church here in Wheaton is that they are faithful to greet people and are very intentional about welcoming the visitors that come to the church, which is always for refreshing for me. Obviously, the language barrier was also something that I'm not very used to. I am working to get a minor in Spanish, so my Spanish is not horrible, but it is always a challenge to understand the sermon fully and difficult to communicate with the other native speakers before and after the service. 

I have always enjoyed worshiping in the Latino context. I attended Iglesia del Pueblo my sophomore year for an assignment in my Spanish class, and ended up attending the church for a couple months. The people that i met there, and at casa de luz, were so incredibly welcoming and loving. I felt genuinely accepted and not like an outsider when i attended Casa de Luz, which is a testament to the way they love Jesus and seek to spread his Gospel. I also enjoyed the way they were very scripture oriented. The pastor was speaking on Nehemiah, and had working through the book for the past 2 months, chapter by chapter, also drawing from other passages in the Bible. I really enjoyed his method of preaching, and always enjoy using the Spanish i know.

While I thoroughly enjoy using my Spanish, it was also the most challenging part of the service. The sermon was fairly long, and it took a lot of energy and focus for me to stay engaged and also be constantly interpreting the message in my head. While I could understand most of what he said when I was focused, there were definitely times where I lost my concentration and missed most of what he was saying. The language barrier was definitely something I struggled to overcome on my visit. If the sermon had not been as lengthy, I may have been more successful. 

Worshiping in other cultures and languages has always illuminated the unity of the body and universality of Christ for me. It is so incredible to be able to worship God in another language, and see how hearing sermons in a different language can bring new light to the way i view God and also the body of Christ. While I was worshiping at Casa de luz, i was reminded that Christ supersedes every language and cultural barrier that we are limited by. It is so easy to get trapped in the "Wheaton bubble" and forget that all over the world, in many different tongues, millions of believers worship the same exact God. This was a super helpful reminder of how big God is, and also how united we are as body of Christ through our common worship of a God who is bigger than every cultural, geographical, and language barrier that exists.