Noah Anthony - Church Visit #3

Victory Cathedral Church
369 N Weber Rd, Bolingbrook, IL 60440
Date Attended: 11/1/15
Lower socioeconomic

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
There were quite a few different aspects to this worship service compared to my regular context. The service was in what looked like to be a store at one point. My regular church service takes place in a large gym but it is actually inside and part of the church. So being at church in an old store was something I had not experienced before. The church was mostly African American whereas my church is predominantly white.  The pastor's sermon took up the majority of the service but the sermon was much longer than I am used to. The sermon lasted over an hour whereas a typical sermon in my regular context is around 30 minutes. Usually worship music at my church will take up about half of the service whereas the worship at Victory Cathedral was much shorter.

What did you find the most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
What I found very interesting was the environment/feel of the service. At my church, my pastor will typically ask us to greet others in the service which usually consists of a hand shake. The pastor at Victory told everyone to greet each other with a hug which was very different from my usual context. This gave it a warming and welcoming feel. Another thing that I found interesting was the activity of the audience during the sermon. My regular context has very little audience interaction with the pastor. He may sometimes ask a question for the audience to answer but that does not happen too often. At Victory, the audience was very engaged in the sermon. The pastor would tell the audience to tell the people next to them certain points that he was making and they would turn and actually say it to them. This is something I usually do not encounter at church, I think it was a good way to engage the audience and reinforce the pastor's points.

What did you find the most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
What I found to be the most disorienting or challenging was a part of the pastor's sermon. I found that he was making the audience feel bad about themselves. This I understand can be used to help get your points across but I felt that he did it a little too often. He was telling the audience things that they were doing wrong and it felt like he was degrading the audience at times. This was different from my usual context. I understand that the pastor was trying to motivate the people but I think he could have done it in other ways.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
I really liked how the sermon involved a good piece of Scripture that was very applicable to everyone in the sermon. One piece of Scripture that the pastor talked about was from the story of Gideon and the Midianites in the book of Judges. God has a purpose for all of us just like he did with Gideon and his 300 man army. God used Gideon and his 300 man army to show his power and that anything can be done through him because his plan and purpose is good. Gideon came to learn that God was in control. This passage made the sermon very applicable and was clear to understand. God has a purpose for all of our lives no matter what good or bad things may happen. We have to overcome ourselves in the fact that our purpose is not always God's purpose. Trusting God's plan and purpose for our lives is key to that.