Church name: Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship
Church address: 1808 W. Camp Wisdom Rd, Dallas, TX 75232
Date attended: March 15, 2015
Church category: Non-denominational
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
The service I attended was a Sunday morning church service at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. An enormous mega-church with an average weekly attendance of about 10,000 people, Oak Cliff is located in what historically has been the residence of many black Texans in South Dallas. Tony Evans, the head preacher at the church, was the first African-American to graduate with a Masters in Divinity from Dallas Theological Seminary. He served as chaplain to the Dallas cowboys and Dallas Mavericks sports teams for over thirty years, and has a radio program called The Alternative Urban Experience. African-Americans drive from around the city to this church hub, meaning that the congregation is socio-economically incredibly stratified but racially quite homogenous. While there were some white faces in the audience, there were surprisingly few other minorities. This service was distinct in that I usually attend in Wheaton a primarily white populated church (largely because of the demographic at Wheaton). In high school my family and I would weekly attend church services on the East Side of San Antonio with primarily black congregations, but this was by far the largest black church I had attended.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
What I found most interesting or appealing was the style of worship, the intensity of the preaching, and the sheer length of the service. I loved the gospel music, with lead cantor and following choir. The choir at Oak Cliff was huge and heavenly. As a part of worship a group of teenage women came on stage to perform a step routine, a dance I thoroughly enjoyed watching. When Tony Evans spoke, he moved around the platform, his voice in a form of yell during the entirety of the 40 minutes. His intensity and excitement riveted the audience and added emotional appeal to his very intellectually-grounded message. Sometimes I can find the archetype of a yelling Southern pastor unnerving, but his voice did not carry condemnation but rather zealousness. Third, the service was over two hours long. During my internship abroad and in high school long worship services were my “normal”, with unbounded time for prayer, reflection and worship. Wheaton chapel and many services I have attended in the Wheaton area are very time conscious, stopping even after just an hour service. I enjoyed taking the whole morning to worship, not feeling that time was a restriction or that going over time was disrespectful.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
I did not find many things disorienting about the service. The worship was holistic, the message was very well constructed and presented, and the congregation was fully engaged in a refreshing way. What I found most challenging about the service was the fact that I did not feel like I fit in, despite the friendliness of the ushers and hospitality of those seated around me. When worshipping my body felt clunky and awkward— I did not want to do something wrong. Considering that the worship service focused on a disciple growing his/her faith to be able to overcome adversity (a message which fits with a Christus Victor theory of atonement and particularly resonates with the minority population) I felt hyper-aware of myself and was hyper-sensitive to responding respectfully.
What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
As mentioned, the message of Tony Evans and the context illuminated for me the potency of a message of victory in Christ to a primarily black congregation. Tony preached on the disciples asking Jesus to increase their faith in Luke, and Jesus’ response of “if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can tell this mulberry tree to move and it would move for you”.
He discussed the quantity of our faith versus the quality. He asked, Is our faith alive, active? Do we really believe that it can overturn situates of oppression or struggle? Messages of victory over Satan are regularly preached in my normal Pentecostal church setting, especially in relation to praying for healing or miracles. But the history underpinning the plea for victorious intervention made the experience and intensity strong in Oak Cliff . I was glad to be able to sit amidst that population who, down to their very core, could resonate with this message. Oak Cliff was a space of refreshment and comfort. The church illuminated for me the reality that Christ speaks directly and specifically to each of His children in a way which challenges and comforts them. For every person it is different. The atonement was not accomplished by Christ for one reason or person but for many.
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