Gwen Farber - Church Visit #3

Church name: Rock of Ages Baptist Church

Church address: 1309 Madison Street, Maywood, IL 60153

Date attended: March 22, 2015

Church category: Different racial demographic

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

This church was THE most different experience from my home church than anything else I have ever experienced. Rock of Ages is a huge all-African-American Baptist church, and Ben and I were the only two Caucasians in the building for most of the service. The service began with a call to worship and a small devotional thought, which was followed by a congregational song: “Oh, How I Love Jesus.” There were three big screens up on the walls, under which a large gospel choir was seated (or standing, depending on the time), and a long well-done video by the media ministry of the church’s announcements was played for the congregation. There was an official welcome and lots of hugging and shaking hands with the people around us and then the gospel choir began to sing. Pastor Marvin E. Wiley gave the sermon, which lasted for about an hour, I would guess, and then there was an invitation to discipleship, an offertory period, and a benediction.

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

The people I saw were absolutely the most interesting thing. They were incredibly friendly, smiling at me and making sure Ben and I felt welcome. There was SO much joy in the building—everyone was nodding, crying, screaming, or laughing in agreement with the pastor and those around them. I loved watching people interacting with the Holy Spirit in ways that I don’t know if I’ve ever seen before, and I know that my view of the Holy Spirit is changing. People in this church had a beautiful, loving view of who Jesus Christ is, and their enthusiasm for God made me want to start saying “Amen!” right along with them by the end of the church service. It was also a beautiful church building—there were tall pillars and great acoustics. Everything about the church was very welcoming, and the people were the same way.

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

Like I said earlier, I have never been to a more different church than the one I grew up with. There were people standing up in agreement throughout the entirety of the service—when the pastor was talking, when the choir was singing, etc. The pastor was very loud and very repetitive, making his points with hand gestures and pointing. There was a piano and drums playing under him, cadencing with his voice as he became more and more animated. People were hopping and dancing, waving fans around, weeping, and saying “Amen” in agreement. One woman ran out screaming in the middle of the service. There was lots of hugging and speaking to your neighbor, and the offertory at the end of the service meant that everyone had to stand up and walk to the front in a single file row. It was disorienting because everything about it was different from my home church—I had no idea how to react at times.

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

The theology of the pastor was a little hard to follow for me because it was presented in such a way that I was unused to. Pastor Marvin spoke in very short statements, holding the majority of the congregation’s attention the entire time, but it was hard for me to focus at times. He spoke about joy in Philippians 4, about how we should have the joy of the Lord always because we have Jesus. He spoke about being thankful for closed doors because it means God has a better plan for our lives, and (similarly to Lawndale, the other church I visited) he spoke about the current living conditions of his congregation as something that was temporary. Yes, there are hardships here and now. Yes, people backstab and gossip and lie. But with the joy of the Lord, we can conquer anything that life throws at us. It was encouraging to hear about how we can be thankful for joy (not happiness) even in the midst of our struggles and temptations, which I think has the danger of being forgotten at a place like Wheaton where, especially during this Lenten season, it is easy to focus on grief and lament, possibly to a harmful extent.