Rebecca Rhym - Church Visit 1

Church name: Armitage Baptist Church

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

Date attended: September 28th, 2014

Church category: Different ethnic/racial demographic

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

There were some similarities between Armitage Baptist Church and Korean Community Presbyterian Church (the church I grew up in), as well as many considerable differences. The worship was very similar: a simple praise band consisting of a handful of people led the congregation in singing contemporary praise songs that were projected onto the screen. The order of the service was pretty similar in both cases as well. However, everything else was pretty much different, from the diversity of the congregation, to the subjects addressed during the announcements and the sermon. KCPC was mostly Korean, and everyone was sort of hyper-aware when a person of a different ethnicity was present, while Armitage Baptist was so diverse that I couldn’t pick out a clear racial majority. The announcements at KCPC were mostly recycled reminders of Friday night youth groups or college group meetings, whereas the announcements at Armitage were about really practical workshops for adults in the community, one of which was a workshop on how to manage your money.

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

I really liked the diversity in that space. It wasn’t something that was forced, and it wasn’t uncomfortable in any way. After learning for the past month about the racial inequalities in Chicago and the need for racial reconciliation, it was really refreshing to enter this space where there was no tension between any of the people; they were all just part of one congregation worshipping the same God that has been so faithful to them thus far. The topic of the sermon was about having “joyful gratitude” in troubling situations, turning to God even when things are good, and to be filled with the Spirit. It was something that everyone could relate to: this hope of seeing the fruit of our works, and the encouragement even though “you probably won’t know about any of the fruit until you get to heaven.”

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

I know I’m recycling my answer, but I think that the diversity of the church, which I found to be the most appealing thing, was also the most challenging thing for me, but not in a bad way. I think I’m realizing only recently how culturally racist a lot of the Korean-Americans I grew up around could be, and how this has affected me and my way of thinking about race. So attending this church and seeing all of these people of different ethnicities and backgrounds worshipping together was eye-opening in that it’s challenging me to keep thinking through what my own opinions are about reconciliation and worship.

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 service wasn’t especially challenging in the themes that were spoken about, but it was a really nice affirmation of the idea of having hope through the troubles of life, and it was cool to see how this idea can mean so much to such a different array of people. No matter what their backgrounds were, they all agreed that life is hard right now, and that it is so easy to get discouraged, but that the proverbial seeds that we are sowing will bear fruit one day. It was a beautiful reminder that believing in God just when the times are hard isn’t enough, but that we should be constantly thankful of the things that we are given.