It will be difficult to describe this last Sunday experience of worship for a few from New City – Barrio Nuevo. We are partnering with Pastor Pablo who lives in our South Ranch Habitat Community. We have become friends and partners in the last couple of months. He has being doing church for over 12 years in our community. His group is fortunate to meet in a small African American Church where they allow them to use one of their small buildings to do their worship. They love their little building, which they have spent much time decorating and arranging.
Pablo and I meet every other week and talk about what we can do together. I have an extra laptop, which I am lending him. This way he has the means to do power point (Keynote) on his wall, which will help with reading Scripture together and also doing songs. We have shown a few of our video clips about different projects we are doing. I know that he is excited to have new faces in church on Sunday and the possibility of helping them grow and become more open to having different people participate who don’t speak Spanish.
This last Sunday I decided that we would attend Pastor Pablo’s church in the morning and assist with worship and also attend Terrance’s church, who is a college student that lives with us. I knew that we would end up spending at least five hours in church that day. I know that our teens and adults attending with us had little idea that this would be a marathon day with a vast array of worship expressions.
Pastor Pablo’s church sings in the ‘typical’ Hispanic style chorritos that are short choruses that are very easy to clap your hands and if the words are on the wall attempt to sing along. Pablo was great to have George, a member of his church, translate for us. I was also given many opportunities during the service to share and have what I said be translated into Spanish. It was exciting to be so warmly received by Pastor Pablo and his group. We easily doubled the size of his church that morning. The service lasted for over two hours. Pastor Pablo doesn’t preach but goes through a lesson guide that has an ongoing theme with Scripture references and questions. He has a few in the church read these passages and questions. He then explains in more detail the message and point of the lesson.
Pastor Pablo has been amazing to allow me to help with the service and actually lead songs in English, read Scripture and pray with him. The service finished with our group still awake and blessed to be given a subway sandwich lunch made by Fry’s. This was an amazing gift, which everyone enjoyed. We will have Pablo’s group come to my house on Sunday for a barbecue and also display a similar open door with hospitality. The worship style was lively with lots of hand clapping and good singing.
I knew that going to Terrance’s church would be another outside of the box experience for our whole group. We arrived on time, which meant we were early. This is a ‘Black’ church where I knew we would be the only non-Blacks in the group that night. They do more of a testimonial type of service at night. This means that individuals from the church stand up and share, sing or pray for about an hour or so. This evening the youth choir was going to sing and help lead. It is difficult to describe the energy and decibel level of this church. The worship leader, George, a good friend of Terrance, is an incredible vocalist who is more than able to sing ‘off the cuff’ with anyone in the church. The keyboardist is also amazing in that he plays by ‘ear’ and is able to blend with almost anyone who just starts singing. It was almost as if anyone who stood up to share was expected to also give forth with song. Most of those who sang were capable and just a few were vocally challenged.
I could tell that this was going to be a long service because it was already past 6:00 and we hadn’t even gotten to the offering or sermon. I have some experience with being around charismatics and Pentecostals so I wasn’t totally surprised when they had a time for the Spirit to freely direct the service. What I hadn’t expected was to have a handful of individuals, both young and old, run around the sanctuary dancing themselves into a frenzy. I loved the music and energy of what was taking place. I could tell for a few this was totally outside their experience. I was attempting to keep my ‘White’ educated notion of Christianity in check so I wouldn’t react to what was happening. After about 20 minutes of Holy Spirit time we transitioned into the offering and the sermon. At this juncture I knew this would be closer to a 2.5 hours service. The visiting pastor who preached did an excellent exposition of Eph. 6:11. This was not your typical scream and sing type of sermon. It had great content and a smooth delivery.
What amazed me again was how quickly this church embraced us as a partner church. Pastor Eddings went out of his way to give both Anne and I an opportunity to speak to the church. They prayed for us, applauded God’s work we are doing and give an overwhelming sense of love. Walking away everyone shaked our hands, gave us hugs and showered out God’s blessings. One of our painting grandpas, Earl, showed up at the last part of the service. He was shocked to see me much as I was to see him. As we walked away it was again like being in a different country or world.
We returned to the Flores house to enjoy some food prepared by Lydia, Joe’s mom or Grandma as we call her. Everyone was anxious to eat and enjoy something before having to go home and get to bed. I know that it would be easy to judge and be critical of both worship experiences. My prayer was to go with an open heart and mind and let the Spirit of God touch and mold our group. This is my heart to be able to worship and work in both cultural contexts. I know that it is easy to say all of this but another thing to actually do it. I got a glimpse that day of what heaven will be like between different languages spoken, different types of songs sung and expressions of worship.
One of the questions, which I am considering, is whether God wants us to step out of our cultural preferences. If you are a Presbyterian you pride yourself on order, doctrinal integrity and singing a certain type of hymns or songs. Whereas if I am coming out of the Black Pentecostal setting I still have a ‘formal’ side to church but have a much more opened ended approach to what can happen at church. My expectations are for God to move in powerful ways which become the norm. I am not surprised when I see someone speak in tongues, dance in the Spirit or hear expressions of God’s directives. I know that meeting in a Hispanic Church I am going to be challenged by the language barrier. I know that in both of these contexts I will love clapping to the music or songs being sung. I won’t know the words but will sense God at work. It is possible, even in Phoenix, to be a global Christian that is able to have a glimpse of the future kingdom expression of worship. I am so thankful that God isn't White, Black, Brown or Red but transcends culture and race!
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