Eric Friend - Church Visit #2

Church name: Alliance Mission Church
Church address: 156 107th St, New York, New York
Date attended: October 19, 2014
Church category: significantly different socioeconomic

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

The service I attended was made up completely of Latino Americans; I was the only white person there. I walked in to this linoleum floored building, with Christmas lights hung around the stage, and was greeted by five or six different people. As soon as I sat down, someone tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a clipboard, asking for my name, email, telephone number -- a typical newcomer sign up sheet. The message this morning was on failure, and the pastor would speak in English and this other woman on stage would (do her best) to translate his words into Spanish. The service was much different than my own. There was a lot of feedback from those in attendance: "amen!", "that's right!" and "thank you Jesus!" were chorused by the people after nearly every point made. It was a foreign, yet incredible, experience.

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

I loved the ethos of the whole building. There was a genuine friendliness that accompanied the morning and the people were very engaged. They seemed happy that I was there among them, and did not treat me as an outsider. For example, as I was leaving the service, I shook a man's hand who said "God bless you" and I walked out and down the street only to be stopped by him running after me saying "hey wait up, did you come here alone?". He then introduced himself, told me about the church, asked me questions and invited me back in for coffee. It was a warm gesture that showed me how this church body operated in a very tight knit fashion.

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

What I found most disorienting about the service was my response to the message and my predispositions of the people there. To be frank, there were times that a feeling of theological superiority crept into my mind, and times of casting significant judgement onto the congregation. I constantly thought about the underlying message in the sermon (which was teaching on how to not let failures get you down, and how you will rise again) as preaching this self-motivated love of self and temporal things. I didn't even know it, but I came into the service with this idea of certain people, and I unfortunately felt that stir inside of me as the message continued. I didn't like the thoughts that kept recurring in my mind, and I even asked myself "has Wheaton's theological training ruined me?" It was an honest self evaluation, but unfortunately I didn't know how to combat it very well. 

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

First and foremost, the service illuminated the diversity of the church body to me. In stark contrast to my last church visit (which was to a catholic mass), this service would seem to have a categorically different purpose than the former. However, underlying both was this genuine seeking of God and Christ and that was an amazing thing to realize and to be a part of. There were true Christ followers at both of these services, but the way their worship manifest was so very different. That was something that I will not forget -- I found it to be very encouraging.