Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church
Church address: 3827 W. Ogden Avenue Chicago, IL 60623
Date attended: October 25, 2015
Church category: Low Socioeconomic Demographic
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
The context that I found myself in at Lawndale Community Church was very different than what I typically experience on Sundays at Wheaton. At the church I attend here, everyone is either pretty well off or able to find help from the resources that the church has. I found it interesting that last Sunday at church we spent time discussing racial reconciliation with some Chicagoland pastors and then this Sunday I got to attend a service where I feel like I actually got to experience this being lived out. The service itself takes place in the gym in a health center which is very unassuming compared to some of the suburban churches that I've been to, but I like that. I actually felt a deep connection with my church experience growing up, where as a student I spent a lot of time in low income neighborhoods that some of my friends from youth group lived in as part of an outreach done by my youth pastor. There's a sense of community that exists within this church that reminds me of being home. Everyone was incredibly friendly and communal and engaging, especially with the police commander who reached out to the congregation with a message about the violence in the area. The church isn't just about doing your time on Sunday, but it's about coming together like what's intended in the Bible.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
Again, like I've mentioned above, I'm very drawn to the sense of community that exists at Lawndale Christian Church. As people would come up to the microphones to express either a prayer request or praise, you got the sense that there was a deep level of trust in the church body, where anyone could come and share openly about their struggles and ask for prayer. It seems silly that this would not be the case at all churches, but the open expressions of praise and need to the congregation are incredibly refreshing. In addition to this, I loved the church choir. They really engage with the simple lyrics of the songs in a way that helps them come to life as well as engaging the congregation. People in the congregation were free to sit or stand, sing or stay silent, dance or sway or remain still and the freedom in worship and the lack of any hindering influences was again refreshing - no body was looking at each other. Each person was simply engaged in worship.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
The type of message preached by Coach was a lot different than what I'm used to hearing. It's not that he's preaching in a different way, it's just that the message speaks to experiences that I'm not used to having with regards specifically to how anger so often leads to violence. It's just a product of having grown up with a certain amount of privilege. I usually feel so far removed from all the violence happening not 30 minutes from school where people are rarely personally affected by what's going on in Chicago. Yet here, it's reality. One woman from the congregation stood up and shared about a high school classmate that had been shot and killed in a senseless act of violence. And so, when Coach naturally clearly addressed these kinds of things in his sermon, it felt foreign at first. It's challenging to realize that I'm so largely oblivious to what is happening in the larger body of Christ, but it's a good challenge to have to help me enlarge my perspective.
What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
As I've emphasized throughout this post, I was very drawn to the sense of unity within the church body at LCC, along with the engagement of the community at large even through some of the programs being offered outside of the services. Again, in the suburban context I've heard my pastor many times have to ask over and over again for volunteers at the church or for donations for a community project, whereas I get the sense that people just want to help each other in Lawndale. The church wants to do their part in helping to stop violence, in teaching people to think for just a few moments before reacting to emotions as Coach exhorted the church to do. By examining Scriptures that talk about the power of the tongue, the pastor again framed everything in how to be impacting the church and neighborhood community by starting with self. In my own context, everything preached at times remains very personal about how I can change mostly to please God or improve my family, but very little is it emphasized how I can be a better person to help my neighbor or the person next to me in church. The constant interwoven call to engage those in and outside the church was refreshing and a good reminder that being transformed by the renewing of your mind also has a call to action along with it.
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