First a disclaimer. Many of my friends live in the city and when I visit I church hop with some or visit those of others. I love walking in with zero expectations, so I generally don't ask many questions ahead of time. For this reason I have two churches that each fit the "different ethnicity" category about 70% as well as they should. I'm still planning to go to Lawndale but I had other commitments this week.
I attended Church of the Beloved and Soul City. Both of which were different than expected and both of which had more diversity that my home church however not as much as I anticipated.
Soul City, 10/25, 1130 W Adams St, West Loop, Chicago
Church of the Beloved, 10/18, 375 E. Chicago Ave, Chicago
Describe the worship service you attended, How similar of different?
Church of the Beloved was very similar in worship style to the way I was raised. Pastor David Choi went to Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary right down the road from my church and I am very familiar with the way the service was organized however it was much more contemporary and geared toward a younger urban crowd. It was much more ethnically diverse than my home church. Most of the Anglo-white people who attend are actually from Wheaton, but they are the minority. Most of the members of Beloved are Korean, although everything is conducted in English.
Soul City tricked me. The name "soul" immediately made me think of soul music. This is where the disclaimer comes in, I should have done my homework. A friend of a friend suggested we try it out and I assumed with a name like that, there had to be some pretty amazing music going on. I noticed more interracial marriages in the audience than I had at any other church. There were two black women on stage who had incredible voices, but the pastor and the majority of the congregation were white city hipsters. The worship service was much like youth group concerts I went to in high school. Completely dark except for colored lights, smoke machines, and a lot of repeating the words of emotional songs. Although this is not the diversity intended, it was very different from the worship style that I was raised in.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
Beloved has an incredible facility in Northwestern's Law School auditorium making the space conducive to seeing the other people you're worshiping with, and increasing proximity to the speaker even from the back rows. A mix of praise music and more contemporary, upbeat or mixed hymns seemed to fit very well with the message that was preached. It was well coordinated and when we took communion they somehow managed to keep it organized and moving without becoming distracting.
Soul City attracts a young crowd and I would bring a non-Christian there with the least amount of hesitation for their feeling uncomfortable.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
Beloved was not challenging or disorienting. Even though it fit for the mileage and ethnicity points, I felt very at home there.
Soul City was challenging because some of the emphasis seemed focused on getting more hands in the air. I hope I'm wrong about this, but it was a little bit of a distraction. Its obviously a tight group of people and the pastor explains this very well for people who don't have the background to understand religious jargon. I was challenged to find a church that not only welcomes and makes itself intellectually available to newcomers, but one that allows worship music to be organic and not over-produced.
What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
David Choi emphasized again and again that as children of God we are loved by him more fully than any love we could ever imagine. He's said this before in chapel, the church is named Beloved for a reason, but somehow I can never hear often enough that yes, as a sinner I am hideous to his perfection. But Choi explained with incredible eloquence and realistic stories that we are his treasure, his portion, and therefore have a responsibility.
Soul City's message was about the Lord's Prayer. It was dissected and used not to say "memorize these words and pray them to Me" but rather as a model from which to learn how to pray, what things to emphasize, what we ought tot surrender. How to ask and how to remember to thank. It was helpful to be reminded and if anyone had been in the audience who had never heard the prayer before would not have walked away feeling on the outside of a strange cult with memorized sayings.
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