Emma Domach - Church Visit #1

Church name: Armitage Baptist Church

Church address: 2451 N Kedzie Blvd, Chicago, IL 60647

Date Attended: September 28, 2014

Church Category: different racial or ethnic demographic

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

Armitage was different from my home church because, while my home church was predominately white, Armitage had no majority people group—instead there were people of many different ethnic backgrounds present. I noticed African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Southeastern Asians, Indians, and whites. While the makeup of the congregation was different, the service was similar. Worship proceeded in the same fashion, and the sermon focused on familiar subjects like prayer and the idea of bearing fruit. But, as all of this was going on around me, it was refreshing to surrounded by a people with a variety of skin colors. There was a sense of unity throughout the service, one that transcended race or ethnicity. Everyone was gathering to worship the same God, regardless of where they came from or who their family was.

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

As I was getting at above, I found the crowd to be of a unique makeup. For most of my life, I have spent much of my time in places that had a majority white population. Diversity is something that I hold to be very important and has been a struggle at Wheaton. In order to understand this world and its people better, people to need to learn from and interact with people who are different from them in regards to gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and economic, spiritual, and geographical background. There is so much value in a man being mentored by a woman or a white person learning from a Black person, and vice versa. And so, imagining a church that would attempt to accomplish this sounds incredible to me. Armitage was diverse in race and ethnicity, and this was a uniting and powerful aspect of the service.

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

Because of all that I have been wrestling with in the city this semester, it was interesting to attend a service where race and poverty were not on center stage. It was funny how familiar the service felt. I was expecting to be more out of my comfort zone than I actually was. The service focused on a topic that would not turn many heads: prayer. It was a little uncomfortable and naïve to me that pastor did not mention the injustices of the city. Something I have been struggling with in regards to my internship has been how some people who live in the city do not have to think about race or poverty, while others are literally immersed in it. I am not saying this was true of the members of the congregation; as I said, there were many races present in the congregation. I just wish that it had been talked about in the service because, as I know from personal experience, it is easy to forget about others when you get comfortable.

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

I tried to think how to answer this question for a while, and then I realized I should just be honest: this service did not illuminate anything for me. As someone who does not identify herself as a Christian and is trying to figure out what she believes, this service felt all-too-familiar to my home church. I think this factor was the reason that it felt too tempting to tune out the pastor. Nothing pushed me; nothing made me really feel much of anything. I have grown too numb sitting in pews I felt like I was forced to sit in, and I do not know what will shake me out of this apathetic state.