"This is a New Year's
Song," Maggie whispered to us. Maggie had volunteered to be our Cantonese
translator just before the second service at San Francisco Evangelical Free
Church. Without her telling us that, we wouldn't have known that particular
song was a New Year's song, but there were plenty of other indicators of the
holiday.
For instance, the only English words
on the screen were "Happy New Year". A woman on the worship team and
many women in the congregation wore colorful quilted jackets. During the
greeting time, Maggie told us people were instructed to wish each other
"Happy New Year" and many people greeting us with those words in
English (maybe they thought we only understood Mandarin?). We met one woman
with a Richie Rich sweater which she said she was wearing for New Year's and
because she was teaching the fourth through sixth grade Sunday School class.
It was our second worship service in
the church for the morning. We attended the 9:00 am English language service
and stayed for the 10:15 am traditional Chinese service. After the first
service I asked one of the pastors, Chris (who preached for the English
service), whether she would be preaching at the next service, and she laughed.
Apparently fluent Cantonese is not in her skill set.
Also before the second service, I
talked to a gentleman who was leaving an adult Sunday School class on Christian
Ethics. He told me he wouldn't be attending the second service but would be
attending the third. I was interested to learn that the three services at SFEFC
mirrored the three services at the Korean church we attended in Buena Park.
There was an English language service along with "traditional" and
"contemporary" services in the native tongue.
In the "traditional"
service there were a fair number of elderly people, but the worship team looked
more typical in an American "contemporary" service; a keyboard
player, a guitarist, and three singers. The first song sounded much like an
American worship chorus. We asked Maggie what it was about, she said, "It
says 'Praise His name.' I don't really know these new songs." (She also
told us that the English language Sunday school class would be singing during
the contemporary Cantonese service the next week, in Cantonese, a more
traditional Chinese song so folks at that service would know what traditional
songs sounded like.)
The next song and most of the rest
had a much more Chinese sounding melody. One of them was a traditional melody,
Maggie said, with Christian lyrics. Several of the songs had men's and women's
parts, and so we came to recognize the Chinese characters for "men"
and "women" in parentheses on the screen, along with the character
for "all" (which looked like a house).
There were printed sermon notes,
which Maggie translated for us. The title of the sermon was "The Power of
the Holy Spirit" with the text of Acts 4:36 - 5:16. The pastor opened the
sermon with an illustration about getting a flu shot (he made shot getting
motions and used the English word "mutations"). This was an
illustration that obviously suited the older congregation, and he used it to
argue that just as we begin the New Year tending to our physical health we must
also tend to our spiritual health. As in the Korean church, there were a few
times when the congregation responded in unison to something the pastor said,
and the pastors both used humor and dramatic action to get their points across.
During the offering I recognized the
instrumental music, "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God," and I
recognized the final tune the congregation sang together, the Doxology in Cantonese.
After the service I had an opportunity
to talk with Rev. Wing So, the pastor during the founding of the church back in
1987. (The church is beginning a senior pastor search and would be forming a
search committee to that end after the annual meeting in the afternoon.) Pastor
So is mostly retired, but has been helping. On this Sunday he was preaching in
the third service, the "contemporary" service that we unfortunately
didn't have time to attend. He said that the church at one time had six hundred
members but had birthed three daughter churches.
SFEFC describes itself as a
community church and they do seem to be making an effort to minister to the
community. With their stated priorities of "continuous prayer, caring,
study, and being thankful" I'm sure their community will continue to
benefit from their presence.
Statistics:
Service Length: 1 hour
Sermon Length: 30 minutes
Visitor Treatment: we were
greeted warmly before, after and during the worship service, and during the
service first-time visitors were invited to introduce themselves. Maggie
introduced us in Cantonese during the Chinese service and in English during the
first service.
Our Rough Count: 87
Probable Ushers' Count: 100
Snacks: the "ten minute
party" happened after each service, with tea and snacks
Songs: a chorus, a
traditional tune with Christian lyrics, a traditional Chinese New Year song,
and the Doxology
Miles to place: 62
Total California Miles: 4685
.jpg)
