Elise Lopez - Church visit #3
Church name: First Lutheran Church of Logan Square
Church address: 3500 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL 60647
Date attended: Sunday October 30th
Church category: More liturgical
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or
different from your regular context?
The service was similar to
what I’m used to but also very different. The church was a majority Latino
church so that felt very familiar. Many of the members spoke Spanish and the
service was in Spanish. I have been a member of a Spanish church before and I
know Spanish pretty well so I understood for the most part what was going on.
The service process was very different. I was not used to the use of liturgy in
Spanish so that threw my off a bit but it also added to what we were doing.
There were many people who spoke in between songs on the bible and gave verses,
so it felt a bit disorganized but I knew they did this every Sunday.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
What I liked most about the
service was the friendliness of the congregation towards me. They asked me to
stand while they sang a welcome song, then during the welcome part of the
service many people came up to me and asked me about who I was and what I was
doing. It was also interesting to see many of the people who live in my
grandmas apartment building in the service because the church is located very
near there. It is a retirement building so a lot of the congregation was
elderly but there was still a good mix between everyone who was there. Many of
them even recognized me and came to talk to me after the service was over.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship
service?
The liturgy felt a bit awkward
to me, partly because it was in Spanish but also because I am not really used
to a lot of liturgy in my normal church. But going to Wheaton has given me a
bit more appreciation for the practice of liturgy so I tried to keep an open
mind. It can be hard to feel comfortable in a church when everyone knows what
to say already and how to respond to the callings and I don’t know any of them
making my execution feel very clumsy and not spiritual at all. I would be
intrigued to know the stories of some of the elderly people I spoke with
because I think many of them grew up in similar churches which is why they love
it there so much.
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 was about the
Israelites in Egypt and how God used Moses to get them out of slavery. I found
that pretty interesting especially thinking about how the people in the
congregation have probably come from Mexico or other South American countries to
America for a better life. I felt like the message really resonated with the
congregation in a way that I don’t normally see in churches in Wheaton or at my
church, where there aren’t as many immigrants or elderly people. It made me
think of how hard it must have been for the Israelites to wander through the
desert but these people came to America and found a very difficult life as
well. Many of them boast in what their children have accomplished because that’s
why they worked so hard.
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