Mariana Maxey - Church visit #1

Mariana Maxey - Church visit #1

Wheaton Community Church

520 East Roosevelt Road Wheaton, IL

October 18, 2014

Different racial and socioeconomic make up.

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

I attended Wheaton Sudanese Evangelical Church geared towards Arabic speaking Africans.  The congregation of 30-40 people meets in a windowless room deep within the larger building of Wheaton Evangelical Free Church, located on 520 E. Roosevelt Road. The sunday service mixed Arabic music with English sermon and consisted of exuberant praise songs, finishing with an emphatic sermon based on Isaiah 59. During the praise song portion of the service, a college-aged man played the keyboard and led us in worship songs. These songs utilized the rhythmic drumming blended with Arabic lyrics. I loved the ability to engage with the song leader. This was different from my experience with Western led churches that have a strong line of demarcation between the song leaders and the congregation. At times, the people in front can be seen as performers, where as in the Sudanese congregation all people were participants. 

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

In the congregation, one young man played a stretched skin drum, and a woman played an instrument made of two layers of flattened food tins, filled with small objects which made a metallic noise. This instrument which measured about 18 inches had peeling paint with arabic writing on it. Others used simple instruments or clapped and swayed and stomped. I loved the level of activity and movement which the songs invoked. After the service, the youth gathered around and sang more songs into the microphones. The Churchgoers of the church welcomed me warmly after the service, and invited me to join them to eat Kisrra, a flat pancake like bread, over which we poured a sauce made from chopped and boiled okra.

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

The atmosphere of the room was not particularly beautiful. though I’ve never been part of a church in a lovely setting or ornately decorated church, I’ve often longed for an aesthetically pleasing environment. In the case of the sudanese church, the room alloted to this congregation was a classroom or meeting room with fluorescent light and very little decoration. I often like to stare out of a window or breathe fresh air while I worship, and this was not a place conducive to the senses. 

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

I learned a few of the customs of Sudan from Julia, her sister Hawa (meaning Eve in Arabic), and their mother. Most of the congregation were refugees who came to America before the division of the countries into South Sudan and North Sudan. Julia’s mother told me that “the first official language of Sudan is Arabic and the second official language is Arabic.” 

In the praise songs, the words were directed towards Allah, and used many Arabic religious words that I recognized from speaking Indonesian. Sudanese traders are reported to have been the first converts to Islam in Subsaharan Africa. The history of region can help to explain the use of Arabic as the official language in Sudan. The use of the word Allah for God is important as we can learn that Arabic speaking Christians worship God without the obstacles that we have developed from the fear of Islam.