Mariel Beausejour Church Visit #1

Mariel Beausejour - Church Visit #1

Church name: Calvary en Espanol
Church address: 9s200 State Route 59 | Naperville, Illinois 60564
Date attended: September 23, 2014
Church Category: Different Ethnic/Racial Demographic

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

Mary Elizabeth and I attended a Spanish speaking service at Calvary, a mega church in Naperville.  It was extremely similar to my home church. The music was even a lot of the same songs, just in Spanish. Most of the congregation wandered in after church had begun. People were dressed in a variety of ways—most commonly somewhat formal. We began with musical worship, announcements, prayed, took an offering. Before the sermon, there was a time of corporate prayer and worship. Worship was happening, but you could also go to the front of the stage to one of a dozen prayer teams. The sermon was about 45 minutes long, and had several segments. There was a PowerPoint, scripture reading, and some funny interactive multiple answer questions, whose answer was extremely obvious. The entire service was in Spanish, which I speak. So that was different from my home church, but the service layout was similar to the church I attended weekly when I used to work in Mexico over the summers through middle and high school.

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

The service felt very at home for me, and I’m even thinking about attending regularly. The worship was vibrant, and engaging. The congregation was energized and connected well with the pastoral staff, prayer teams, and worship team. One of my favorite things about this church is the extremely cheesy powerpoint slide images, pulled straight off the internet, stock images, as well as the hilarious old comedic video they use. Talking about pride, we watched a 3 minute long video of a middle aged Hispanic man dressed in blue spandex with a Superman S on his chest and red underwear on top, with fake eyebrows penciled in, covering his forehead like the McDonalds golden arches, singing about how great he was and checking himself out in the mirror. It was hilarious, and most definitely interesting. I believe the pastor has some tie to Mexico, because that is where I learned Spanish, and I have no difficulty understanding him, which is simply a great perk.

They had an amazing emphasis on God’s sovereignty in the midst of all troubles and circumstances.

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

In every Hispanic church I’ve ever attended, the congregation is extremely warm and welcoming to visitors. People will walk up and ask questions, greet you, and chat, and often even invite you to lunch at their home. I was surprised to only be talked to by one woman, who introduced herself as part of the visitor’s board, who walked us to a room and promptly left while we heard the spiel on how their church works. I was very surprised, and found myself confronted by a single story of Hispanic congregations. This behavior would seem very normal if it were another white church, but it is the Hispanic congregation that led me to assume that I would be immediately welcomed in.

There were definitely parts of the sermon that caused me to question things. There was truth that really shook me, but there was also things said that seemed to irritate me and question the theology behind it.

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

It was amazing the way that while their worship experience did not shun emotion, the church corporately clung to the truth that God is sovereign beyond our circumstances. This was a theme which ran throughout the service: in the lyrics, in the scriptures chosen, in the corporate prayer. There was a liturgical moment in the midst of a very non-liturgical service. Right before we read scripture for the first time, the pastor had everyone stand to their feet and read from the screen a text written in the church that was said every week, as they opened their bibles. Here’s part of it: “This is my bible. I treasure the words that God has spoken in it. I will never never never forget who it says that I am. In the midst of heavy and trying times, I will remember. During suffering, I will cling to this. When I am overjoyed, I will read this and thank the Lord.” This was so moving. The church corporately affirmed scripture as truth which is important in our daily lives and definitive of who we are.