Basye Peek- Church Visit #2

Basye Peek- Church Visit 2

Church name: Church of the Beloved

Church address: Thorne Auditorium, 375 E. Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611

Date attended: 09/25/2016

Church category: Different Racial/Ethnic Congregation

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

            I regularly attend Church of the Beloved, which is a church plant that meets in the auditorium of one of the Northwestern Graduate School buildings just across from Lake Michigan. The church is predominately Asian American, and draws college students from Northwestern, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, and Wheaton.  The starkest difference between my regular context and Church of the Beloved is the racial make-up of the church and the homogenous age range. I have traditionally attended large, non-denominational churches that are predominately white and of mixed ages, with lots of families. Church of the Beloved is almost exclusively college-aged, and the majority of its congregants are Asian American.

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

          The actual style of worship is pretty similar to my own background, as the church is a fairly “modern” (i.e. non-liturgical, contemporary worship). The worship service doesn’t feel all that dissimilar to what I’m used to, and the environment is fairly comfortable. The main differences that are extremely appealing are the length of the service and the style of sermon. Church of the Beloved meets for over two hours, which contributes to what feels like a more active, involved, and invested church body, rather than a group of congregants checking off an obligatory Sunday service. There are certainly quicker places to do so. Additionally, because of the age of the congregation, David Choi (the pastor) really tailors his messages to my age group, and as such they are extremely relatable, and more readily applicable.  

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

            One of the main challenges that I face at Church of the Beloved is the negative aspect of one of the things I enjoy most- the fact that most of the congregation is my age. While it certainly feels comfortable and often times easier to get connected to the other members of the church, it is unfortunate that there is a lack of spiritually and physically mature elders, leaders, mentors, and role models within the church. The lack of age diversity certainly contributes to a lack of diverse opinion and engagement with issues that may strike different age groups differently. I have found that some of the most robust moments of learning come from listening and engaging with perspectives different to my own, especially when it comes to opinions influenced by age and generational difference. Elders have a great deal to teach us, and a great task in humbling us as twenty-somethings who often believe we know best, and Church of the Beloved certainly lacks those elder-figures.

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

            One element of theology that is well illuminated for me at Church of the Beloved is the effect that our racial or ethnic upbringings have on our interpretation of the gospel, but not the fundamental truths of the gospel. Pastor Dave often preaches through a distinctly Asian-American lens of understanding, telling stories about being expected to fulfill the “model minority” stereotype and how that effected his view of salvation. Race often comes up in his sermons as both beautiful and divisive in a way that predominately white churches rarely engage.