Allie Willig- Church Visit #3

Alexandra Willig - Church Visit #3

Church name: Calvary Naperville 

Church address: 9S200 IL-59, Naperville, IL 60564

Date attended: March 22, 2015

Church category: Assemblies of God, Spanish-speaking service

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 Spanish-speaking church service in a side room at Calvary Church in Naperville. The 40-minutes message was given by Pastor Alberto Lopez, and the service was approximately an hour and a half long.  The room for the Spanish service, separate from the main worship center, was mostly composed of Hispanic families (many with children) and the population did not fill the whole space. As an Assemblies of God church, the worship was very animated and incorporated traditionally non-Western worship songs. The sermon was presented vivaciously, with tonal changes and much movement of the hands of the speaker. I am used to attending a Pentecostal church—when inside and outside an English-speaking country—so it was interesting to see my two church “worlds” from Ecuador and the United States fused in the service. The music, guitar-focused and with a stalled Latin beat, mimicked that of my Ecuadorian house church. I was very pleased to be able to understand the whole message and connect with the congregation afterwards in Spanish. My discomfort with Spanish had been a barrier before when I visited a Spanish-speaking Episcopal church service last spring in Glen Ellyn.  

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

I found the greeting, the animated worship, and the message most interesting about the worship service. First, I loved when the congregation took time to greet neighbor and welcome one another. There was an overt physicality—kissing on the cheek, etc.—which reminded me of the common greeting in Guayaquil. Second, I appreciated the clapping and loud vocals for the animated worship. Not everyone was on tune, nor was singing on-pitch harmony necessary. People were loud and took up space and I enjoyed this “anything goes” mentality in worship. Third, I found the message interesting for Protestant listeners, especially Latino Protestants. The pastor’s message focused on the risk of death in the practice of religious tradition. He spoke to the congregation, laughing about how rituals are core to Latino identity. He walked through key traditions in each country distinctly, whether it be a food traditional around a holiday or a special dance or musical form within that country. He then moved into the passage of the Pharisee’s questioning Jesus about tradition and Jesus’ response. The message was tailored to the audience. It situated the church in contrast to what many see as the pervasive “Catholic culture” in Latin America and even here in the United States.  

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

While I found the message interesting, I also found the core proclamation challenging: tradition makes for a dead religion. This negative conflation of tradition was a trend I found often in Guayaquil and see also in many Pentecostal congregations in the United States. It is true that tradition can yield unfruitful results, but there is also deep doctrinal truths and forms of accountability that Spirit-focused churches underplay with tradition. In these congregations (and my own!) the law is seen as purely oppressive and tradition as cold and empty. For Spanish-speaking populations this is understandably the case, especially where colonial hegemonic rule linked with Catholicism have destroyed native populations and families in Latin America. However, categorizing tradition as only negative or oppressive can produce poor results. This is not the whole story, and limits the blessings possible for a united Church on earth.

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, it was insightful to step back into a Spanish-speaking congregation with their distinct cultural, economic, and political history. This illuminated for me the role of tradition and the fusion of culture in interpretations of Scripture. I loved partaking in the Spanish worship here in the United States, fusing together two worlds I am acquainted with into a complex and meaningful service. Finally, I felt an unashamed-ness and an excitement during the service and message, something that is not always obvious in my regular context of chapel at Wheaton. The congregation was not scared to look like a fool for the sake of the Gospel, or go against what were power structures associated with the Catholic church in their home contexts.