Carissa Kano - Church Visit #1

Carissa Kano

Church name: Iglesia de la Resurreccion
Church address: Christian Assembly of Suburban Chicago
23W420 St. Charles Rd
Carol Stream, IL 60188
Date attended: 09/06/14
Church Category: Different Ethnicity (Hispanic)

Describe the worship service you attended.  How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
Igelsia de la Resurreccion is a very small Anglican and Hispanic church.  The biggest difference was that mostly entire service was in Spanish, something I have never experienced before.  I know absolutely no Spanish, so it was pretty hard to follow along, but I tried my best to participate in the liturgical recitations and songs.  It was also different in that the majority of the congregation consisted of women and children.  I’m not sure if this is common amongst Latin-American cultures, but the number of men were far less than that of women and children.  Perhaps the fathers of the families were still at work (service was on Saturday at 4:00pm) as it seemed to be a lower socioeconomic status congregation as well.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
Even though I didn’t know what we were saying, the act of speaking and chanting/singing throughout the service in unison was a powerful experience.  There was a particular time where we all held hands and prayed together, and it was a physical manifestation of what it means to be united with my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I loved this so much!  I believe God created diversity because He wants us to experience the beauty of His creativity and vastness, and holding the hands of people from a different ethnicity than I was a beautiful experience of this.  I also really liked singing worship songs in Spanish.  We even sang a familiar song that I already knew from World Christian Fellowship.  I often listen to worship songs in other languages because it makes me so excited for heaven when a multitude of angels and saints will be singing praises to Jesus.  I am always amazed and moved by these “joyful noises.”

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
When we first walked into the church, we wondered if we had made a mistake because no one was inside the chapel.  There were a few people meeting in the lobby area praying, and this was the leadership team.  We arrived right on time at 4:00, but no one else was around.  We spoke to one of the leaders who was there and asked if we had the right time.  He confirmed that yes, we had arrived on time, but that their church normally starts pretty late.  People didn’t start trickling in till about 20 minutes later, and then the service didn’t start until about 40 minutes after we arrived.  And then more people kept coming as the service went on.  I thought that the extremity of the lateness was odd because the service itself was so structured.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
I was so touched by the friendliness of the congregation!  Everyone kept asking us if we wanted translators, and were so welcoming to us.  When we “passed the peace,” pretty much every person greeted everyone there.  This was a great benefit of Latin culture being very relaxed when it comes to time.  Though I was a little irritated by the service starting so late, I loved how the congregation took the time to greet each person who was there.  I think we are often so concerned with being structured, timely and orderly that we miss the importance of making people feel important to the body of Christ.  Solitude with God is important, but so is fellowship with other believers.  Igelsia de la Resurrecion did this so well.  It was very family oriented, and even the children were very friendly and warm to us.  This made me feel so special and reminded me of my home church in Hawaii, which is also very friendly and stresses the importance of relationship.