College Church

This Sunday, I visited College Church, in Wheaton. The facilities themselves are a beautiful red brick in a classic look for a church. As the service started, there were still a dozen people on the steps of the church finishing their conversations (apparently this is a common thing in this congregation).

When I went into the sanctuary an usher whisked me to the front and squeezed me into a pew. The sanctuary is nearly standing room only, so this is one of the few places I have been where the ushers do more than hand out bulletins. However, no more than thirty seconds later, a Wheaton student who had met me the previous day was at my side bringing me to sit with the “Exegetes.” I am not sure whether this is a statement on the quality of students at Wheaton, or if it is a statement on the quality of member at College Church; nonetheless, whichever group it reflects on, it made me feel very welcome and like I was already at home with a group of friends.

The worship service has a high church feel to it, complete with communal reading of Scripture, recited prayers, and employing an organ. The church only sings hymns, which is an interesting choice since a large portion of the congregation is comprised of college students. Another facet of the music that is unusual is that they have no worship leader. The organist will play the opening line to a song, then will hold the last note to signal that it is time to start singing.

Though the church is rather large, they prayed by name for members who were sick or undergoing other serious troubles. The prayer time lasts for several minutes as the minister worked his way through the list.

As a side note, I noticed that there were quite a number of younger people who would make noise at inappropriate times in the service, but that no one in the congregation seemed bothered. I learned that the church had a vibrant disabilities ministry, and they are very welcoming of people who have disabilities, or families who have children with disabilities. In fact, the church has a staffer whose entire area of responsibility is this ministry.

This was Dr. Josh Moody’s first day back in the pulpit, as he had apparently been traveling over the summer. The sermon was very thorough, and focused more on the context of the passage than perhaps any sermon I have heard. It was obvious that the congregation was well educated in biblical studies. For instance, this was one of the few (at best) times I have heard a pastor use Greek in order to minimize its importance (“Now, regardless of how you understand the kat’ oikon, this still means…”) rather than use it to strengthen his point. That is, rather than assuming that his audience was unaware of the Greek text, he was assuming that they were aware of it, and was thus answering a potential exegetical difficulty arising from the text. As another example, his sermon illustration came from seventeenth century puritanism. However, given his personal education (PhD, Cambridge) and the demographics of the church, this highly intellectual approach made perfect sense.

Reflecting its non-denominational roots, there was no altar call, only another song followed by everyone standing and leaving while the organist played a postlude.

While many people would not be impressed with the high church style and intellectual nature of this church, I felt as though I had arrived at home.