Today, I had the opportunity to visit a church in America.
The service was at 11:00 AM, and prior to that I had slept at 5:00 AM in the morning. I had stayed overnight at the office.
Still, I had made up my mind, that come what may, this Sunday I would go to church.
For the time I've been here in the USA, I hadn't been to church.
Despite feeling really tired, I made it a priority to get up, dress up and since I have no transportation here - walked 2 miles to go to a Lutheran church.
I was lost for a while, sweating and I am sure, not in a very spectacular condition but I was very excited.
I was excited to be in the house of the Lord, excited to visit a Lutheran service, and excited to meet other Christians.
I walked in to a congregation that seemed predominantly white. I didn't think too much of it until I noticed that nobody smiled.
A little intimidated, I ended up sitting next to a really lovely, divorced single mother.
The service was mechanical, lifeless and the people had no smiles or anything. They were like zombies. When it came to greet one another, they did it with absolutely no expression whatsoever.
The service ended sooner than I thought, and I was not at peace. Everyone stared and except the kind lady on the pew, not a single person was welcoming or smiled at me.
After the service, the woman and her friend spoke to me a bit. The only ones. They almost seemed apologetic in the way they tried to describe their church. They claimed that the white population here, seemed to like only a certain worship style and that black churches have a 3 hour worship service. "People here, just like to get it done within an hour."
She was a wonderful woman, however, I felt very shocked at the whole church.
This was something that I had not anticipated at all. I thought segregation and all those stuff was done with.
Usually when people come to any church - whether local visitors or international, there is always a bit of excitement and everyone is usually happy and warm.
To be treated in such a cold and unwelcome manner was an eye opener to me.
If I think about it, I actually want to cry.
For me, I was really excited to visit a Lutheran church, because a friend on here is Lutheran and I wanted to see what the whole deal was.
I made so much of an effort to come to church and to view and understand how Americans worship. I was psyched about it.
How could they be Christian and do that?
If we as Christians are so terrible in welcoming members and being open to people of different races, what does that speak of us?
I wouldn't call what happened at church racism. However, there was just something in the air that made me uncomfortable and it's hard to explain.
Currently, I am in the Southern part of the United States, and maybe it has to do with that, with it's history etc.
So my question to those reading this thread, if you belong to a conservative church, is this how your church is? Predominantly of a different race/ a community without much diversity?
I can understand churches may be attended by a single community at large, but in case someone else of another race came, would they feel welcome?
This is mostly directed to Americans. I hope you are frank with me just as I have been.
I disliked this church a lot. If I ever, (chances are slim) have the opportunity to be in this place again, I will never come to this church.
Not only it's people, but even the service was bland. I've never seen such mechanized, rote-like worship. If I think about it, it's actually almost insulting God because of the lack of passion.
This was the only Sunday I had, that I could visit a church and I spent it on such a church. I feel an extreme loss and really hurt. To think that Americans still have such a phenomenon of "white" and "black" churches in a unsaid manner is so unfortunate.
I hope this church was only an exception and not the rule, and not all churches are like this.
The service was at 11:00 AM, and prior to that I had slept at 5:00 AM in the morning. I had stayed overnight at the office.
Still, I had made up my mind, that come what may, this Sunday I would go to church.
For the time I've been here in the USA, I hadn't been to church.
Despite feeling really tired, I made it a priority to get up, dress up and since I have no transportation here - walked 2 miles to go to a Lutheran church.
I was lost for a while, sweating and I am sure, not in a very spectacular condition but I was very excited.
I was excited to be in the house of the Lord, excited to visit a Lutheran service, and excited to meet other Christians.
I walked in to a congregation that seemed predominantly white. I didn't think too much of it until I noticed that nobody smiled.
A little intimidated, I ended up sitting next to a really lovely, divorced single mother.
The service was mechanical, lifeless and the people had no smiles or anything. They were like zombies. When it came to greet one another, they did it with absolutely no expression whatsoever.
The service ended sooner than I thought, and I was not at peace. Everyone stared and except the kind lady on the pew, not a single person was welcoming or smiled at me.
After the service, the woman and her friend spoke to me a bit. The only ones. They almost seemed apologetic in the way they tried to describe their church. They claimed that the white population here, seemed to like only a certain worship style and that black churches have a 3 hour worship service. "People here, just like to get it done within an hour."
She was a wonderful woman, however, I felt very shocked at the whole church.
This was something that I had not anticipated at all. I thought segregation and all those stuff was done with.
Usually when people come to any church - whether local visitors or international, there is always a bit of excitement and everyone is usually happy and warm.
To be treated in such a cold and unwelcome manner was an eye opener to me.
If I think about it, I actually want to cry.
For me, I was really excited to visit a Lutheran church, because a friend on here is Lutheran and I wanted to see what the whole deal was.
I made so much of an effort to come to church and to view and understand how Americans worship. I was psyched about it.
How could they be Christian and do that?
If we as Christians are so terrible in welcoming members and being open to people of different races, what does that speak of us?
I wouldn't call what happened at church racism. However, there was just something in the air that made me uncomfortable and it's hard to explain.
Currently, I am in the Southern part of the United States, and maybe it has to do with that, with it's history etc.
So my question to those reading this thread, if you belong to a conservative church, is this how your church is? Predominantly of a different race/ a community without much diversity?
I can understand churches may be attended by a single community at large, but in case someone else of another race came, would they feel welcome?
This is mostly directed to Americans. I hope you are frank with me just as I have been.
I disliked this church a lot. If I ever, (chances are slim) have the opportunity to be in this place again, I will never come to this church.
Not only it's people, but even the service was bland. I've never seen such mechanized, rote-like worship. If I think about it, it's actually almost insulting God because of the lack of passion.
This was the only Sunday I had, that I could visit a church and I spent it on such a church. I feel an extreme loss and really hurt. To think that Americans still have such a phenomenon of "white" and "black" churches in a unsaid manner is so unfortunate.
I hope this church was only an exception and not the rule, and not all churches are like this.
There's nothing more uncomfortable than visiting a cold, unwelcoming church. There are some churches that are more social clubs than anything else. Dead churches, like somebody said. I wish you had the chance to visit another church because there are some really wonderful, warm and inviting churches in the US. Sadly with the large amount of churches that we have you are going to hit some duds.
