Jenna Herskind - Church Blog #3

Church Name: Church of the Beloved
Church Address: Northwestern University 375 East Chicago, Chicago IL 60611
Date Attended: 10/30/16
Church Category: Racially Different

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

Church of the Beloved followed a similar trajectory to the majority of the church services I attend in Wheaton.  There was an initial time of worship with contemporary worship songs, followed by a series of announcement, and a message by the main Pastor, David Choi.  It concluded with a series of slower hymns, and finally a time dedicated to thanking Pastor Choi, as it was Pastor Appreciation month.  The room was an auditorium with all seats facing forward.  It was darkly lit during the second worship time, and there was time during which congregation members could raise their hands to ask for salvation or ask for prayer for belief.  The message was derived from the first several verses in Galatians, and Choi was beginning a new series. There were jokes interwoven into a compelling message about the grace offered through Jesus Christ, and there was a strong emphasis on believer's tendency to try and earn God's grace. 

The service lasted 2 ½ hours, which is different than my regular church experience (as an often times perfectly timed 1.25 hour long endeavor).  Otherwise, I mostly saw similarities between my church and COB.  The kind of music played, the emphasis on salvation by faith alone and not works, and a pastoral style that was relational while authoritative all felt familiar to me.  Of course, the major difference was the racial makeup; it is not often that in the fellowship mall of my Wheaton church I am surrounded by people who I do not look like. But I would call this a brief part of an experience that largely felt comfortable. 

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

David Choi seems to really understand his audience. There were many, many times during which he addressed people who didn’t identify as Christians.  He explained who Paul was; he explained what the Gospels are and who the major players in them are.  He seemed to be extremely attentive to the tendency of pastors to assume things about their congregation, and tried to combat that in language and teaching. I very much appreciated the ability to both include those who could feel like outsiders, as well as convict those who were too assured of their insider status. So, as an Evangelical Protestant, unsurprisingly my favorite part of the sermon was the pastor/teaching. 

What did you find most disorienting?

This is proving to be the most difficult question to answer in this setting, and I think it’s because though I am a racial minority at COB, I am certainly not a cultural minority.  The flow of the service, the songs we sang, the way we talked to each other and the ease of anonymity all felt comfortable and familiar. I would say that David Choi’s message struck a nerve; his ability to call out his congregation on their desire to earn God’s grace, and exhibit the accepted behaviors that could do so, was a convicting and beautiful message.  While emotion is never far from me during worship services, it flowed readily and unstoppably at this one. 

I noticed the fact that there were very few white faces on stage; but I think being at this church with the lens of "I am a racial minority here" created a bias for my experience, because I very infrequently thought about my racial identity during the service.  There was likely increased bias because I was with another white friend, and we spoke almost exclusively to his white friends on our way out of church, mitigating the feeling of not belonging that could have arose upon exiting in a sea of people that I do not look like. 

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

Something I did think about several times is how important it must be to see someone who looks like you on stage, teaching, leading.  There wasn't one white speaker throughout the worship service, and while that didn't necessarily make me uncomfortable, I realized how important it is to give equal public face to people of all races.  This is the same issue I discussed in my first blog entry; it was a huge deal to me that Lawndale had an equal number of women speakers on stage as male speakers.  It seems plausible that similar feelings exist for those living as racial minorities in churches. I think it ultimately stems from an understanding of our equality as creations of God.  The recognition that God made equally wonderfully yet different people should lead us to put a huge emphasis on who, and how, we give public spaces to our church leaders. 

I also, as I said previously, was very moved by David Choi's message.  I am often concerned with how I should "rightly" approach God, and I am quick to judge the way others approach Him.  At Church of the Beloved, I felt a deep call to allow myself to be loved without needing to do anything.  How to connect that to my experience as a racial minority in that church, I am not prepared to do.  But I do wonder what sustained engagement with a community in which I am not a racial majority would do in that sense of belonging in my faith.