Bethany Weidemann Visit 2

Church Name: Iglesia del Pueblo

Church Address: 27W500 North Ave. West Chicago, IL 60185

Date Attended: February 22, 2015

Church Category: Ethnically different

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

The worship service at Iglesia del Pueblo felt very much like a contemporary worship service at your typical mainstream Evangelical suburban church. There was singing, offering, announcements, a sermon, and one more song to close the time. It did seem to me like the typically prayers given by the worship leaders and pastor lasted longer than the prayers at my church (but it's sometimes hard to judge lengths like that when you're trying to function in something other than your fist language). The congregation was bigger than my regular church context, and although I did not get this impression while there, from the outside it could seem more “showy” than my church (in that the lights were dimmed in the congregation during worship, focusing attention on the 8-person band up on the stage). The most different thing was that the service was in Spanish; otherwise it seemed almost surprisingly familiar to me.

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

I really enjoyed the beginning part of the service during the worship through singing. The words were projected on the screens in front, and I was totally able to follow along and sing in Spanish. One of the songs I knew in English, but the other few were new to me. I really was forced to pay attention to the words in a new way because I wanted to understand what the songs were saying. I don’t often pay such close attention to the words of songs (or prayers, or sermons…) in my usual English contexts because they just become routine. I appreciated being able to encounter truths about God in a way that made me really focus on the words of the truths. It was so cool to be able to express worship to God even in a language that is not my first.

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

Definitely the most challenging aspect of the service for me was the language. I’ve taken Spanish in high school and at Wheaton, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to hear it or practice it. Because of this, much of the sermon was hard for me to understand; I only got the main gist of the concepts. I also felt somewhat nervous about interacting with the people around me (although I didn’t have to do this much). I wanted to be able to respect them attending a Spanish-speaking church and expecting that others around them spoke Spanish, but I really have limited Spanish skills at this point. I didn’t want to make people uncomfortable by only speaking English. As a one-time visitor, this didn’t really prove a problem, but I could see it being something of a barrier to getting really involved in a church where people mostly speak a different language than I do. Not one that could not be overcome, but one that would just take more work on my part.

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

I think it’s really powerful to hear people worship, pray, and read and talk about Scripture in their own heart languages. It is a reminder that God is not bound by culture or language, that He meets each one of us powerfully through the individual languages we speak. Unlike Islam, where the Qur’an is really supposed to be read and heard in Arabic only, Christians have the opportunity to experience Scripture and worship in the language that feels most like home to them (This is also a good reminder of the importance of translation work still going on around the world even today!). This is such a personal blessing from God, and it’s good to experience people worshiping the same God in different languages as another reminder that He is worthy of all praise, not just the praise that sounds or looks or feels familiar to us.