Madeline Baltzer - Church Visit #1

Church name: Rock of Our Salvation Church

Church address: 118 N Central Ave, Chicago, IL

Date attended: September 20, 2015

Church category: Church of a different ethnic demographic and socioeconomic group

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

The worship service I attended was slightly more charismatic than what I am accustomed to; well, it was slightly more charismatic until the impromptu prayer of healing over a church member. At that point, the service crossed into much more charismatic than I’m used to. Additionally, the church was comprised of almost exclusively black members while I regularly attend churches that are predominantly white. It was similar to my church at home in that they are both Evangelical Free churches. It was also about an hour longer I am used to, running nearly 2.5 hours.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

I was especially moved by worship, which was sung loudly and was accompanied by shouts and dancing. Members of the congregation were actively participating in creating the music, adding a syncopated clap, pulling out a tambourine and even sounding a spiral horn instrument I didn’t recognize. The emotion shown during worship was very appealing to me. One of the most interesting parts of worship was how the worship leader pumped up the church and worship team before beginning. That and the cheering that came after a song or prayer reminded me of the Ed Sheeran concert I attended this past week. Obviously, the object of the cheering in the two cases is very different, but it had the same enthusiasm.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

The most challenging part of the service was how conspicuous I felt. The members of the church were very kind in introducing themselves to me, but I am more comfortable if I blend. This was especially difficult because I went alone and am rather introverted. The pastor also had all the visitors stand for a special welcome during the service, making me feel extremely visible. Normally, it wouldn't bother me so much, but I felt a little like a tourist at the service anyway. Certainly, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ, but because I don't live in their community, I felt a bit like an interloper.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

The immediacy of need and intervention was more present in the worship service. In my regular context, I often feel like the attitude is toward some distant future, but at Rock of Our Salvation, the focus was on the present work of the Spirit and the needs that people felt this week. This view requires a dependence and reliance on God that isn't as obvious in my normal context.

David Batdorf, Church visit #1

Church Name: St. Michael's Catholic Church
Church Address: 310 South Wheaton Avenue, Wheaton, IL 60187
Date Attended: 9/13/2015
Church Category: Liturgical

Describe the worship service. How was it similar or different from your regular context?

The service followed (from what I understand) the outline of a typical Catholic mass: Introductory rites, Liturgy of the Word, and Liturgy of the Eucharist. Within in each of these portions there were several rites which flowed from on to another. While the flow from each of these rites to the other was seamless, as one who had never participated in an English Catholic (this summer I attended a French Mass and was completely lost...) I was very unsure as to what to expect next. Even though there was a bulletin to follow, I had to rely on the people around me to know when to kneel, when to stand, and how to respond to respond to the priest. If you were to attend my church you would know what what to expect and have all the information to participate in the bulletin. Here, deep familiarity with the service was required for full participation. It also differed in that there were many brief portions of service, as well as no differentiation between worship time, scripture reading time, preaching time. Aspects of each of these more evangelical notions interwoven throughout the Mass.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

I particularly appreciated the attitude of reverence which people expressed throughout the service. The congregants dipped their hands into a large pool upon entering and crossed themselves before entering. As they left, most knelt briefly at the end of the pew and crossed themselves before exiting. As I entered the service, many were kneeling in the pews, praying. Throughout the service, we knelt during several of the prayers which were given. As displayed with these actions, there seemed to be a deeper sense of one's self, the holiness of God and as these two were meant to interact in some way during the service, the necessity of entering the service with a posture of reverence and humility.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

As mentioned above, perhaps the most disorienting aspect of the service was not knowing the routine of service. Because I did not know what to expect and feared doing something inappropriate,  I felt unable to fully be part of the worship experience. And although I valued the reverence with which the congregants seemed to approach the service, I did not feel this was reflective of the priest who led the Mass. The monotonous inflection of his voice, seemed to reflect that he was merely going through the motions. I found myself not taking much interest in his words because he did not seem to take much interest in them himself.

What aspects of Scripture or Theology did the worship service illuminate for you, not as clearly perceived in your regular worship context?

I left the service viewing two things differently. First was God's holiness. While much of my expanding conception of who God is, derives from our class lectures and following reflections. This service was seemed one of the first (albeit unintentional) physical applications of my expanding concept of God and therefore my response to him. The service placed high importance on repentance and acknowledgement of sin before coming to God. While I do not recall it being directly expressed, there was a sense throughout the service that God is so other than ourselves and our only path to him being through Jesus. The second aspect of theology which impacted me through the service was a broader sense of the world church. This summer I had the opportunity to spend a summer in Vietnam. While there I attended the French Mass in the center of Hanoi. While attending St. Michael's I realized the liturgy we were participating in was largely identical to that the French Mass (expect now I understood what they were saying). The thought of Catholic churches across the globe worshiping in the format and agreeing to the same tenets of faith weekly is particularly beautiful and profound to me an Protestant. Although I didn't share many of their beliefs, I really felt as if I were part of something greater than the immediate congregation at hand.

Ryan Chae-Church visit #1

Church name: St. Joseph Church
Church address: 412 Crescent St Wheaton, Illinois 60187
Date attended: 9/20/15
Church Category: Liturgical

1.  I attended the Divine Liturgy service in English. Most of the service was a time of call and response as well as singing hymns. The priest stayed in the iconostasis at the front of the sanctuary and faced away from the congregation. Most of the call and response was actually sung and we were given large pamphlets at the beginning of the service. The congregation recited the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed without the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. Orthodox Christians then partook in communion and the priest made announcements and gave a sermon. This service was very different from my own church tradition in that 1) my church says hardly any liturgy, 2) worship only takes about 20 minutes at my home church, while here the singing took about 1.25 hours, and 3) there was much more congregation participation in this service due to the extended singing and liturgy.

2. The aspect of the service that I found most appealing was the involvement of the congregation in the service. My voice was hoarse from singing for that long and the congregation, while small, participated fully in the singing, crossing themselves whenever the Trinity was mentioned, and getting down on their knees to bow. This service required a lot more dedication on the part of the worshipper than many of the evangelical churches I’ve attended. Another part that I found very interesting was that most of the liturgy was sung by the congregation. The singing was unaccompanied and so very different from even traditional evangelical churches that use an organ and choir. The spoken liturgy was said very fast and would have been hard to understand if it had not been written in the pamphlet we were given.

3. The parts that were most challenging about the service were the Hymn of the Cherubim, communion, and singing and praying to the Saints and the Virgin Mary. About halfway through the service we sang a song that attributed us to in some way representing the cherubim. This was very confusing to me and I had not heard anything said like this before in church. Learning more about this hymn and what it means would help my understanding of the Orthodox Church. Like Catholic Churches, communion in the Orthodox Church said that the sacraments became the body and blood of Christ. Coming from an evangelical background, I was very uncomfortable with this and chose to look over the words but not sing them. Finally, many prayers said during the service were directed towards Saints and the Virgin Mary. Once again, as an evangelical, this did not sit well for me.

4. One part of theology that the service illuminated for me was the acknowledgement of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Every time the trinity was mentioned throughout the service, the congregation would cross themselves. Added to this was the saying of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed which speaks of the relationship of the Godhead to each other. This orthodox church placed a major emphasis on the Trinity throughout the entire divine liturgy. This is something that, while mentioned often, is not present as much in many of the other churches I’ve attended. The service also had more aspects of community than most other churches. In between communion and the sermon, there was a time of announcements in which congregational members could speak about life events that had occurred or were coming up. There was also a fellowship hour following the service in which all were invited for food and conversation. This was much more feasible in this church of about 150 than for a megachurch, but it still felt more like a community than other larger churches.

Kira Dittman - Church Visit #1

Church name: Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church

Church address: 701 S Eola Rd  Aurora, IL

Date attended: 9/19/15

Church category: Significantly more/less liturgical

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

This mass was extremely different from my usual worship experience at my nondenominational church home in Roselle and slightly more similar to my Lutheran (Missouri Synod) childhood church. First, the priest’s sermon essentially consisted of him reading word for word off of a paper sitting on a lectern for what could not have been more than ten minutes. His style (which I’ll admit I found disengaging) was the near opposite of my home pastor’s, who sheds tears more often than not as he fervently shares the word. Also, I am used to listening to the explication of a distinct passage of Scripture with others brought in for reference, but I cannot remember (though this may be in error) that the priest preached from any specific text. Finally, the piano-led hymns we sung obviously differed stylistically from the usual guitar-heavy contemporary worship songs at my nondenominational church but were actually very similar to the worship music of my childhood since my dad favored the early morning traditional Lutheran service. The way the music differed from both my usual contexts, though, was the level of participation—I quickly became self-conscious about singing at my normal volume because the room was so quiet during the hymns.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

The things that appealed to me most were not strictly elements of the Mass itself but the physical church building and some of the more devout (for lack of a better word) worshippers. Having spent almost a year attending a church-in-a-box that gets popped up and put away every Sunday at a high school, it was really nice to walk into a beautiful building and finished sanctuary. I particularly love the way light streams in through stained glass windows; I find it an incredible reminder of God’s beauty and also His grace in imparting humans with the ability to create something so lovely. Second, though in my answer below I express my frustration with many of the worshippers, I was quite struck by the utter seriousness some individuals displayed toward the mass. A few bowed and crossed themselves before entering and exiting their pews and recited all the parts of the mass from memory. Their solemn, peaceful behavior was quite different from the excited chatter that usually surrounds me but in a refreshing, humbling way.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

Whenever I attend mass, I am always very frustrated by the apparent apathy with which most of the congregants (and oftentimes even the priests and worship leaders) conduct themselves. I realize a lot of this perception may be due to my unfamiliarity with the context. However, seeing worshippers begin to stream out of the back doors even as the last hymn is being sung makes me quite sad at the nonchalant stance these people take towards church. It is very challenging for me to maintain an attentive spirit when so many others around me are clearly distracted and disengaged. I found that the communal prayers and recitations (such as the Nicene Creed) exhibited the feeling of the attendees toward what they were partaking in; the Creed was mumbled so fast I could hardly even think about what I was saying (and I am used to reciting this creed at my Lutheran church) and the short, blunt prayers were in a way poignant but also felt too routine and hollow. I stand in renewed appreciation of the focused, fervent attitude of the regular attendees at my church.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

Although I am quite undecided as to whether I theologically agree with the reasoning behind certain sacramentals at Catholic churches, I must admit I find their observance striking and a great reminder of the long history of the church. Seeing the congregants all dip their hands into the holy water upon entering and leaving the church (and not doing so myself) made me wonder if perhaps I (and Protestant denominations more broadly) do not enjoy so great a sense of the everlasting sovereignty and long-standing mercy of God as do more liturgical believers. Also, having grown up with weekly communion but now only taking it once or twice a month, I appreciated the administration of the Eucharist (theological concerns about my “eligibility” to receive it aside) at the service. I think that these rather small rituals have power to properly position our hearts toward an almighty God and bring us back to the basic tenants of our faith.

Hannah Hacker - Church visit #1

Blog title: Hannah Hacker - Church visit #1

Church name: Wheaton Chinese Alliance Church

Church address: 1784 S Blanchard St, Wheaton, IL 60189

Date attended: September 13^th, 2015

Church category: Different Ethnic/Racial Demographic

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

         The worship service style and structure was surprisingly similar to services at my nondenominational home church but fairly different from the Anglican church I attend in Wheaton. The time of praise included a mixture of contemporary songs and hymns and the worship leaders played a variety of instruments, including guitar, saxophone, piano, and drums. There was a time of prayer, an offertory, announcements, and a sermon. However, the service began liturgically with a recitation of the Nicene Creed. Although the congregation was slightly more reserved in their praise (no clapping or raising of hands), the way the prayer was led seemed to give it greater intensity or urgency than what I am familiar with. Since Church of the Resurrection has communion every Sunday, I was a little surprised that there was no communion at this church's service.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

         I found the amount of participation in the worship service by members of the congregation to be most appealing. Because of the relatively small size of the church body, a large percent of the people seemed to be involved in the service, whether by handing out bulletins, reaching out to newcomers, reading scripture, or leading congregational prayer or praise. Instead of just listening to scripture being read, everyone read the scripture out loud together. All of this created a sense of unity throughout the whole service. Even the domed design of the building contributed to this feeling of unity by creating a small space for worship with no distant corners. The time of announcements focused on encouraging church members to volunteer at World Relief and an elder urged the congregation to participate in casual small group discussions of the sermon following the service. This suggested that the church body was not just united during Sunday morning service, but through the shared commitment to a lifestyle of following Christ.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

         On the whole I felt very comfortable during the worship service because of its similarity to my usual worship context. However, a few things were a bit disorienting. The interaction between people seated in the congregation and the person giving the announcements was unexpected. After the announcement about service opportunities was made, one person from the congregation just shouted out another volunteer opportunity. During the transition time after the service the lobby was very chaotic due to the combination of people speaking in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese and the amount of people pushing their way through a very small space. Many people wanted to speak with the preacher and some people greeted us very graciously. Interestingly, to encourage people to enter the worship halls for the Mandarin and Cantonese services, a few women walked around ringing bells. This unique method very effectively communicated the message in a crowd and crossed potential language barriers without forcefully disrupting meaningful conversations.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

         First of all, the sermon was on creation care, a topic that I have never heard preached on in any church. But even more powerful than the explanation of the scriptural and theological foundations for creation care was the simple fact that the church considered the topic worth preaching on, rather than offering an extra seminar for those interested. The act of delivering a sermon on creation care was consistent with the message that stewarding creation is an essential part of the Church’s role and our identity as worshipers of Christ. The preacher called the congregation to not just hurt less, but to bless more. This church’s emphasis on aligning life with scripture was evident every aspect of the service, from the encouragement of ministry involvement, to the sermon topic, to the post-service small group discussions. Attending this church service helped me to see what the body of Christ can look like when living in fellowship and serving others.

Silas Helm – Church Visit #1

Church name: St. Michael Catholic Church

Church address: 310 S Wheaton Ave, Wheaton, IL 60187

Date attended: September 16, 2015

Church category: Significantly more liturgical

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

The worship service I attended was significantly from mine in a few ways. The first, and most prominent, was that it was Catholic. While the structure of the service was generally the same as College Church’s, the content and prupose of various elements was different. When I first entered, there were children with Holy Water with which I was supposed to cross my heart. You’re also supposed to kneel on the ground before you sit down in the pew. Throughout the service we sang hymns, heard scripture read, and prayed. There was also a sermon. Maybe it was because I visited on a weekday, but the teaching was more conversational. All the Catholic school children were also at mass. The passage we went through was from 1 Timothy 3:15, where Paul tells Timothy:

“but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

The speaker cut the verse off at how to conduct oneself in the household of God. From there, he explained the important of respecting the church, the fact that Jesus is present in a tabernacle in the sanctuary (which is signified through the special candle), that you should silence your phones and not talk to your neighbors. I felt like I learned some interesting things about Catholicism, but didn’t hear what God’s word actually was referring to. This was very different from College Church, which values exegetical preaching, and explaining God’s word verse by verse.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

I really like the idea of mass. Especially thinking ahead to post-grad, it seems appealing to have a collective service each morning where believers come together to corporately proclaim their beliefs and realign their hearts toward truth. The regular service just seems like a good reminder that we need Christ every hour and that our faith is bigger than ourselves. I think that college makes it easy to personalize your faith and make it solely a relationship between yourself and God. But, Christianity is so much bigger than my faith, and mass was a good reminder of that.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

I felt really out of place because I wasn’t sure when the kneel, what the appropriate responses where. The customs they did were not familiar to me. I wouldn’t say it was challenging (it was easy to just follow the other people, and few things felt unbiblical) but it was disorienting and very unfamiliar.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

The service illuminated the importance of grounded, prescribed texts. I value the importance of spontaneity and trusting on the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts in passionate worship. For some reason, mass (more than College Church, which isn’t charismatic, and more similar to mass than my preferred style of worship) reminded me that liturgical services show the steadfastness of Christ, that he is our Solid Rock, and that we can trust in Him. I’m not saying that spontaneous worship is bad, but should be balanced with routine- to remind believers of realities that remain true even when we aren’t “feeling it”.

Matt Paprocki - Church Visit #1

Matt Paprocki - Church Visit #1

Buckhead Church

3336 Peachtree Rd, Atlanta, GA 30326

9/13/2015

MegaChurch

The worship service at Buckhead Church had a similar format from the church services I am used to attending at home but the delivery was probably the biggest difference. The service began with worship songs from a band. The church I normally attend opens with worship songs as well, and the music is similar in genre being a more modern, Christian music style. The worship songs were followed by a sermon as well. The biggest difference I noticed was the delivery from the pastor. Maybe it was due to the primarily southern demographic he normally speaks to or simply his style but he delivered his message from a platform rather than creating a sense of community with his audience. I noticed this through his diction of consistently saying what “you” are doing wrong, rather than what “we” are doing wrong. Also, he did not use much scripture in his sermon but rather application of ideas from the Bible. I was not used to this as scripture is utilized more frequently in my home church. The reason for this could be because as a MegaChurch with a diverse audience demographically, socially, etc., Buckhead wants to reach out to as many as possible and by applying ideas instead of direct scripture they may feel they have a better chance to reach out to a wider audience who is not as familiar with scripture.

Both of these differences are what I found interesting about the experience as well as how many series the church offered for people. Personally, the diction gave me the feeling that I was being talked down to and that the pastor was on a higher plane than his audience. This came after the church had advertised multiple different series trying to encourage community for a multitude of people, such as adults, high school students, college students, couples, singles, divorces, etc. I’ve seen series presented before for separate, specific groups of people but the large variety of group meetings made the church feel a bit divided. The church encouraged community but it seemed to me divided at the same time. The use of little scripture was also interesting. The church’s stance is that scripture is the Word of God and without error, yet with such little emphasis in practice I did not sense this as one of their goals.

This particular service was the middle of a series on prioritizing happiness over pleasure so as guests we had missed prior context but even so the pastor did not review certain elements that he was building upon from previous sermons. Coming from a smaller church setting at home the MegaChurch concept of trying to reach as many people as possible in that one sitting caused the entire message to seem generic, rather diving into specifics and details. I think this takes away from the power of the message. Since the sermon was trying to reach such a large audience it could not effectively connect with individuals. This also led to it feeling like a business. One series it offered for married couples was a single night that for two hours would cost those attending $20 to be part of a discussion on married life.

By not emphasizing on Scripture or specifics of theology the experience showed me just how important those elements are to a service. As previously mentioned, the sermon felt generic so that it could reach a vast audience. As a result the impact of the message was diluted and I walked away not feeling a strong connection or application of the message to my journey.  Regularly being part of a small church setting where the pastor reaches out on a more personal level caused me to expect that from most services. Experiencing Buckhead showed me how fortunate I am to have that environment in my life. Covering the ideas of pleasure and happiness in a generic fashion did not create a sense of impact.