Lydia Kang- Church Visit #2

Church Name: Armitage Baptist Church
Church Address: 2451 N Kedzie Blvd, Chicago
Date attended: October 5, 2014
Church Category: Different ethnicity

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
Armitage Baptist is a very diverse church. I saw Hispanic, Black, Asian, and White people in the congregation, and the leaders on stage (worship, pastors, prayer ministers, announcement leaders) were all ethnically diverse. Definitely different from my all Korean worship context and environment. The structure of service was pretty similar to my own though. There were people at the door who stood and welcomed us in as we entered and handed us the programs. They had a whole praise band with several instruments, the congregation stood up and clapped hands and shouted praises while worshiping. Something that was clearly different was the freedom and liveliness in the style of worship. You could see people who were obviously a little more reserved than others and who just preferred to stay standing and clapping in their pews, but there were others who came out of their pews and formed a praise chain around the chapel.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
The praise portion of the service was really exciting. The worship team leader was an Asian woman. She led songs in Korean, Spanish, and an African Dialect, and the congregation was really willing and excited to follow along with the different style of worship. Singing in Korean and switching off to Spanish and other languages was a special experience. We began a song by singing it in English, and then the leader led us to sing in Korean, then Chinese, then Spanish, then an African dialect. Switching off to other languages after singing in Korean made me really realize the power of language and how special it is to be able to sing in your own language. It's sad to admit that I don't think I would have had the same response if they hadn't sung in Korean during service because I wouldn't have experienced the same excitement that I did. Singing in different languages during a regular worship service in my regular context would definitely be very unusual and unheard of. There wouldn't be a "need" to because my congregation is mainly Korean and Korean American. 

What did you find most disorienting of challenging about the worship service?
The "Bible Drill" was a little weird for me. During the Bible Drill, the congregation raced to see who could find a scripture faster. I felt like it was a waste of time and it kind of killed it for me personally to have a great time of worship and then to kind of play what seemed like to be a youth group-ish kind of game in an adult congregation. I also didn't understand the excitement behind finding a verse before someone else and then having a time of discussion over who found it first and celebrating that. I did, however, understand that this could be a unifying, interactive part of the service. It seemed enjoyable for people in the congregation to interact and be lively with one another.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
The overall understanding I took away from my experience at Armitage was that my discomfort in this new worship environment was a step closer to the great kingdom of God and a step away from worshiping in contexts that I chose to engage myself in on the basis of mere comfort. I subconsciously avoid multicultural worship settings and search for them for the same reasons-- they're different. I am very aware of how blinded and myopic I can be by engaging with people who are like me, who think in the same way, who have the same sense of humor, who have the same "Christianese" as I do in my Korean-American worship context. This illuminated my need to choose to engage in conversation and brotherhood with Christians who come from different cultural backgrounds from my own.