Larryon Truman Church visit #2

Blog Title- Larryon Truman Church visit #2

Church name: Evangelical Free Church of Bloomington

Church Address: Bloomington, IL

Date attended: March 29, 2015

Church Category: Different Ethnic

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

It was similar in the fact that they played contemporary(ish) Christian worship and had a missionary speaker as the guest. They turned the lights all the way down to encourage individual worship which is different that my regular context. It started and ended on time which is also a little different than my church. It was comprised of all white congregants with the exception of an Asia-Pacific couple that sat next to me. The preaching was engaging and was missional in theme, which is to be expected. The missionary opened an orphanage in Haiti and has several close ties with that church. It was not that much different than my church honestly.

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

It was awesome getting to hear a missionary speak about his life and his calling. He genuinely loves the people of Haiti and you could see it on his face. Furthermore, he had a very smart busieness plan on how to make his orphanage and ministry grow. It was really cool to hear that part of his story.

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

The band actually had an interesting dynamic to it. It was comprised of several different age groups from a high schooler playing piano to an elderly gentleman playing the 12 string guitar. The volume was very low and easily controlled in the back. It seemed very performance driven almost and all around kind of uncomfortable.

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

In all honesty, this church was not that much different than my regular context with the expectation that it was all white, whereas I go to an international church.