Church of the Resurrection
935 W Union Ave, Wheaton, IL
8-31-14
More Liturgical
I went to the morning church service at Church of the Res in
Wheaton. My first impression of the
church was that the appearance of the people and the size of the church were
very close to the church I attend at home.
However, upon closer examination of the building itself I noticed that
there are substantially more crosses, pieces of art, etc. in this church. Despite these differences in the appearance
of the church from my church at home, the service is significantly more
liturgical than my home church.
Something that I appreciated about the service was also its integration
of more contemporary worship songs alongside the hymns. This fact made me feel more at home because
the worship and demographic was not a huge change from where I usually attend
church.
Despite being a more liturgical service than my home church,
I still found an appealing beauty to the liturgy and hymns. What I found most appealing was the communal
aspect to the saying of prayers, call/response, etc. When I was younger and we attended my dad’s
church where he grew up (which was also very liturgical) I always felt weird
that everyone was talking at the same time and saying things that were written
down for them. Now, as a more developed
Christian, I was able to make the prayers and responses my own. When I allowed the prayers to be just that,
prayers and not readings, the beauty of calling upon Christ as a body of
believers became a very powerful moment for me.
Another thing that I thought was appealing with the service was the
amount of natural light in the sanctuary.
I often feel closest to God when in nature and the large windows brought
some of that nature feeling into my worship, making it more powerful.
Something I found disorienting and distracting for me was
the structure of it all. Typically, I
like to be able to know my schedule very well.
I like to be in the know of where I’m going and what I’m going to do
when I get there. However, during the
worship service, I found the booklet with the service planned out word for word
a huge distraction. My appreciation for
structure became a problem. I often
found myself looking way ahead in the schedule to see what prayers or songs
would be next and not living in the moment and soaking up the service. Another thing that led to my distraction was
the amount of things to look at in the service.
From the fountain, to the candle, to the crosses, to the huge window my
eyes would frequently stray from the service as I appreciated the beauty around
me.
In this service I was reminded of something theologically
and Scripturally that I often have to remind myself for. That is the importance of communion. I think that the communal aspect of the
service played a role in my realization of the community taking of the Body and
Blood of Christ. But I think a more
important aspect was that of the importance put on the taking of
communion. In my home church we
typically pass the bread and cup down the aisle, probably in order of
efficiency. However, this service caused
you to stand and walk up to take communion.
This gave me time to prepare my heart before walking up to take it as
well as time to sit and pray and worship after taking the elements.
No comments:
Post a Comment