In the beginning of this semester, I befriended a Chinese student at my university. We quickly began talking about music and where we play music. She mentioned that she played piano for her church and I asked if I could go to a service sometime and see her play piano. She seemed hestitant, not because of her piano playing but because I would not understand anything going on during the service. She forgot to mention that she goes to a Chinese church where they primarliy only speak Mandarin. When she said this she thought I would take back my desire to go to her church, but instead it made me more excited to go. There were a lot of enlightening and amazing aspects of the church that really expanding my mind on what a church community looks like.
Despite the whole church being in Mandarin and the whole congregation being Chinese, I was warmly welcomed and loved from the moment I stepped into the building. I never felt out of place because they all tried so hard to make me feel like a part of the community. I sat in the front row, with completely no expectations of how the service was going to go. I was handed a bulliten of the service and I was surprised to see it looking so familiar. They do a call to worship, then a Scripture reading, sing three worship songs (two of which were American worship songs translated into Mandarin), then the sermon, a song of response, then gave church announcments, and the last part of the servious I was surprised by. They recited the Apostle's Creed, Doxology, and the Lord's Prayer. This was a lot more structured than I thought it would be because I have always been told that Asian churches are usually more charasmatic, spontaneuous, and drawn out. But this bulliten had the service laid out to the minute. So, the structure was very familiar to my evangelical, non-denominational church background, just in a different language.
Another big difference with this church service was that the congregation was about twenty other people. The church was incredible small. But nontheless they reflected the body of Christ so well. Like I said they were all so loving and gracious to me. They translated certain parts of service specifically for me so I could understand the main points. They had me introduce myself in fron of everyone so they could all say, 'Hi!' to me. In every aspect of the service, it was evident that these people were filled with the Holy Spirit. They sang louder than I have ever heard a group that small sing. They were so engaged during the sermon. They even were laughing and praising during the announcements. This all concluded with their love for each other displayed in a meal. I asked if they always eat lunch after their service and they said yes they do because God calls the church into fellowship with each other, and what better way to do that than through food!
I was truly blessed by attending this church. I have only been there once but have been wanting to go back and visit again. I loved seeing andn hearing a broader picture of the Body of Christ. Even though aspects of the service were so different than mine, it was still a service dedicated to worshipping the same God.
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