Christina Calderon Church Visit #3, Hermon Baptist Church

Hermon Baptist Church

1754 N Clark

Nov 6

Different Ethnic/Racial

1. I really enjoyed Hermon Baptist Church. When I first arrived I was immediately greeted by friendly faces who asked me if it was my first time. When I told them “yes”, they handed me a brochure and warmly told me a bit about the church. The service started with about five gospel songs. These were sung by the church choir. After the choir sang, the all mens choir sang a slower, soulful song as well. The pastor then greeted the congregation and proceeded on with the sermon. The messaged was based on Ephesians 2:4-2:16. I listened intently as Pastor Edwards discussed how God built His church to be in unity but the Devil builds walls to divide the church. He then talked about how racial disparities tear apart the church and the political election coming up. Finally he proceeded to discuss how we are all sinners and Jesus brought peace to make his people one in Him and through Him. After this the choir sang once more and there was a congregational prayer. After the prayer were tithes and the finally announcements. Closing, the pastor said one more prayer and dismissed everyone while the choir continued to sing. This was different from my typical service because of the racial disparities. At home, my church is mostly white. While there are some blacks and asians, it was refreshing to go to a church where the majority was African American.
2. I loved the energy of the church. You could feel the Spirit in the room as we sang uplifting gospel songs and the throbbing in your heart when the mens choir came onstage to sing their song. I loved how no one was ashamed to jump up and down and sing at the top of their lungs. Moreover, I personally have always loved gospel music and I really connect to it when singing even though my church at home doesn't incorporate gospel music at all. I also really enjoyed the sermon and how Pastor Edwards tied it to real life events occurring right now (the election, Black Lives Matter). But his sermon also left everyone with hope as well. I really loved his preaching style too. It was a very “in your face/direct” preaching style, but I liked that and how he did not “sugar coat” anything. What I loved the most however were the people who made up the congregation. Everyone was so friendly and seemed to know each other well. Even though I was new, they greeted me so warmly I felt I had gone to church before. It felt nice to know I was welcomed and cared for even though they did not know what my name even was.
3. While there was not much of a challenging part of the service for me, I could see how there could potentially be pressure to be on a “spiritual high”. For instance, if one does not feel like jumping up and down and worshipping, but rather just sitting and reflecting, would they be judged? I want to say no, but perhaps someone who is new to Christianity coming to this church for the first time might be overwhelmed with the worship style. Another challenging issue with the worship service I had was making sure my “spiritual high” did not end after the hour and a half of service. I feel it is really easy sometimes to do that after attending a church where everyone is very “loud” during worship. But I do not think that is something the church can fix, but more of an individual issue between oneself and the Holy Spirit.
4. What I really enjoyed about this worship service was the connectedness of Scripture to real life issues. Sometimes preachers will give messages but your still not sure how to apply it to life scenarios. However, Pastor Edwards continuously applied his message to real life social justice issues and politics. As someone who is always debating how to react to political and social injustice issues from a Christian perspective, it was helpful and refreshing to go to a sermon that did just that. I also liked how it was all Bible based and Pastor Edwards constantly went back to Scripture to support what he was saying. While my church at home also applies the sermon to real life scenarios, they often stay away from the topics of political and social justice issues. While I understand they do not want to be biased, I do think being aware and incorporating some aspects of what is happening around the world and making headlines news is imperative. Christians have to stay connected to society and what is happening and know how to react (or at least try their best to) based upon Scripture. Therefore I really appreciated that Hermon Baptist Church did just that.