How to Exegete A City

4/7/2015

It’s hard to believe that it has been two years since I had the chance to visit New York City. It was the experience of a lifetime. Aside from all the fun I had as a tourist, I learned so many incredible things, because I went for a seminar class called “Exegeting the City.” For those of you that many not know the word exegete, I will try to simply the definition as much as possible: to find the original meaning or intended purpose. For Scripture or even other literature, we find what the author meant to say to the original audience. In this class, we were trained to find and understand the “cultural texts” that gave us insight into urban life and trends. If that explanation confused you, I hope you will understand by the end of this post.

This class was structured differently from any other class I had while I was in school. It was much more experiential that most other classes have the opportunity to be. Some of these experiences were organized activities we did together as a group. Others, we had on our free time in the evenings. I hope that by sharing about my experiences, you will see the difference of the culture of city life, and hopefully come to better understand the major cities in our world that so desperately needs Jesus. There were three main experiences that stood out from the rest, and gave a new way to relate to different types of people, especially the people of the city.

Theology of Traveling Culture – Airports and Subways

View from my window seat on the flight from Dallas to Newark.

Flying to and from NYC was quite the experience for me. Prior to this trip, I had only flown once round trip (from Chicago to LA with my family to go to Disneyland), and that was when I was 15. By this trip, I was 22, and was pretty nervous to fly again. I was grateful to be traveling with 6 other OCC students, most of whom had traveled before. We drove from Joplin to Tulsa, flew from Tulsa to a layover in Dallas (Fort Worth), then from Dallas to Newark. From Newark, we rode a train to the subway, rode 2 or 3 different subway trains, then walked a few blocks before reaching the hostel where we were staying.

Did that just confuse you? It certainly confused me at the time! But it amazed me how many people in the airports and in the city itself were comfortable with this traveling culture. While it was weird to be eating in the airport restaurant next to my suitcase, it wasn't weird to most of the other people in the airport, like the businessmen or the seasoned vacationers. Although I was nervous, I had a good flight with a beautiful view.

But it was exceptionally weird when we got to the subway, and we were trying to swipe our Metro Cards properly and get through the turn stiles with all of our luggage. And even when we finally got out into the city, it was weird to drag my suitcase behind me for several blocks. But the locals, both in the subway and on the street, didn’t give our suitcase caravan a second thought. Throughout the rest of my time there, I encountered many people on the subway and in the street alike hauling their luggage all over town. It was just a natural part of life in this city.

And learning how to ride the subway was a crazy experience unto itself. Aside from learning how to find to the right train or standing while riding, the people we encountered on the subway were something to behold. Performers, business people, fellow travelers, and every other type of people you could imagine. Most of them, especially the locals, would tell you that they prefer living in the city with the subway, so they don’t have to have a car. It was so easy to see the brokenness in some of their lives just by looking. As I traveled and lived life in this environment for about a week, one of my favorite songs kept coming to mind.

Are these people going somewhere? Why have I never cared?

Give me Your eyes for just one second, Give Your eyes so I can see, Everything that I've been missing, Give me Your love for humanity. Give me Your arms for the broken hearted, The ones that are far beyond my reach. Give me Your for the ones forgotten, Give me your eyes so I can see.

This gave me an important perspective about those around me, and helped me to be a better traveler.

Inside of a subway car (from the internet, because I was too scared to take one inside the car! lol)

Theology of Fashion – Berdorf Goodman’s

This part of our class was one of our first activities we did together on our first full day of class. Together we traveled to Berdorf Goodman’s, a VERY high end department store. The men went into the men’s store on one side of the street, and we went to the women’s store on the other side of the street. We were given instructions to go to the formal wear department and try on the expensive evening gowns they had there. The men were told to do the same with the suits and tuxes. Needless to say, we were all a little hesitant! We all had fears of getting in trouble because we were not rich. For a while, we (the girls in my class) were all afraid to ask to try the dresses on, but I knew I would have to ask sooner or later, so I asked first (which if you know me, is totally not me! lol). After I asked, the other girls found the courage to do the same. I definitely felt out of my element in that fancy dressing room, but I was so glad that I found the courage to try it on!

Four grand for a dress? That’s worth more than my car! I though my dress was priced high, but I was floored when the next day, one of the other girls told us that she found a dress that was the most expensive clothing item that has even been tried on for this assignment. And the totally was:

Almost 27 grand!!! That's so crazy to think someone would pay that for a dress!

But doing this was a powerful reminder for all of us that the wealthy are people just like us. There is definitely a significant cultural gap, one that our professor attempted to help us bridge with this assignment, but they are still just people. Unfortunately, bridging this gap is easier said than done. Even Jesus acknowledged the difficulties of a rich man coming to salvation. Although they are harder to reach, they need Jesus just as much as anyone else. I will never forget what it was like to wear that dress, and the powerful reminder that we are all still just people.

Theology of Worship – Different Worship Services

The other experience our class had together that stood out from the rest was experiencing worship at two churches of contacting styles and demographics. In recent years, I have found great value in being able to observe the way other churches worship. It was even more valuable to see their services on this trip, because we happened to be in New York on Easter Sunday (March 30, 2013). Churches in the city are drastically different than many of us in rural settings are familiar with, and getting to witness this difference was incredible.

The slides translated the songs into both Spanish and Mandrin

That morning, we went to the Lambs Church, and that was unlike anything else I have ever observed. The main thing that stood out about this church was it was multi-lingual. They offered services in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. It was good to see a church reaching out to these ethic groups in this way. The service we attended was English and Spanish simultaneously. Things were usually said in English first and then translated into Spanish. Most of the songs were sung in English but translated on slides.

During the sermon, it was a husband and his wife delivering the sermon as a team. He would say something in English and his wife would translate into Spanish. But, there were a few moments that they switched. He would say something in Spanish and she would translate into English. It was so cool!

Because it was Easter Sunday, they also did a simple drama while a woman sang a song in Spanish. It was beautiful. And the energy at church that day was incredible. They were so warm and friendly, and it was great reminder of every tongue, tribe, and nation that will be worshipping around the throne in heaven.

That evening, we went to Redeemer Upper West Side, and had a good but totally different experience. The Lambs Church almost didn't look like a church, especially on the outside of the building, while Redeemer was much more polished and “church-like”. There were even pews in the sanctuary, which is rare is most city churches, aside from cathedrals.

They had a totally of 5 services on Easter Sunday, 3 in the morning and 2 in the evening. The one we attended had a worship set that was somewhat jazz-like in its feel. If I understand correctly, they have different worship styles for the different services. What the other styles are, I don’t know, but jazz isn't a style I would have considered for a worship service. But they did the same songs for all the services. They even had the melody lines of the songs written out in the program.

The service itself was much more like services I was used to, except that there were so many testimonials throughout the service, testimonies of how Jesus and Redeemer Upper West Side had changed their lives. It left me thinking about the elements of a church service that are adapted to the culture around them.

The brass section of the worship band at Redeemer Upper West Side. There was a drummer and two guitarists on the other side

Other Experiences

Inside St. Patrick's Church (Borrowed from fellow traveler)

I saw so many other things while I was in New York, so I want to make an honest attempt to list the other highlights of what I saw.

-  We went to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). Among all the awesome artwork we saw, we actually got the see the original painting of “The Scream.” We also looked around at some Post Modern architecture.

-  We got to see St. Patrick’s Church, an old cathedral that was in the process of being restored. There was scaffolding all over the place, inside and out. While we looked around, we overheard some of their Good Friday service going on. It was pretty cool!

-  We looked around/ate at Dean and DeLuca, Eataly’s, and Chelsea’s Market

-  Our whole group had dinner at a restaurant called Liberty View, a great family style Chinese restaurant (for the other meals on the trip, we were on our own to find food). This restaurant was named such because we could see the Statue of Liberty from the front window! It was far away, but before dinner, we took pictures of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

-  Our last night in the city, we went to see a Broadway play together! We got to see Spiderman Turn Off The Dark, and I enjoyed it so much! I want to fully review this musical in a separate post, but it was amazing! I had seen several Broadway musicals before this point, but I had not had the chance to see one in New York City! I enjoyed getting to finally see a musical on Broadway, and it was a fun group activity to end our time together.

-  I got to see many of the famous sights in New York during our free time, including Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Union Terminal Station, the Brooklyn Bridge, Trinity Church (although we could hardly see it because it was dark when we got there), and Wall Street (including the Wall Street Bull!)

-  My favorite place of all in New York was Time Square! I got to see many of the different stores, my favorites of which were the Disney Store and Toys R Us. I also got to see the fronts of many of the theaters, my favorite of which was the Gershwin Theater where Wicked the Musical is currently playing (a play I have seen twice on the national tour). It was so much fun!

Me in front the poster at Foxwoods Theater, ready to see Spiderman Turn Off The Dark

- Aside from all the fun, we also had a great class with challenging lectures. We received great hospitality from the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association (MNYBA for short), the hostel where we were housed. We also were welcomed warmly by the Orchard Group, a church planting organization that facilities the class. We had our class lectures in a meeting room in their office space.

- One of the awesome parts about the class was that not only was there seven other students from Ozark Christian College, but there were also eight others from Lincoln Christian University! It was great to not only experience the city together, but also make new friends along the way.

Our Exegeting the City class in the Orchard Group Office, March 2013. The guy in the front was our professor, Gordon Venturella

A City in Need of Jesus

New York City is a culture in and of itself. It is so different than what I am used to in the Midwest. Before my trip, I stereotyped New York as a city of violence, crime, and sin. I was reminded that there are some Christians in New York City. They are a minority, but there are there. And while there is a high crime rate in the city, not everyone is a criminal. And although it is true that certain types of sin are prevalent in urban settings, they were still just broken people in need of a Savior. It made me so grateful to know that organization like the Orchard Group are investing their efforts into reaching these people through church planting.

My biggest takeaway from this trip is that I learned how to find “cultural texts” that taught me how to better relate to those who live in urban settings. Our professor urged us to learn how to have a situational awareness and cultural agility in all areas of our lives, and that is something for which we all should be striving. I hope that these memoirs from my trip will encourage you to pursue the same.

(Enjoy a few more pictures from my time in New York!)