KC Gouthro - Church Visit #2

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church address: 3827 W. Ogden Avenue Chicago, IL 60623

Date attended: October 11, 2015

Church category: Significantly Lower Socioeconomic Demographic 

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

Even though it was not the kind of service I am used to, I really enjoyed the worship service at Lawndale Christian Community Church. Generally speaking, it was similar to my usual experience in the sense that it included worship, prayer, and a message. That being said, each of these aspects was presented differently than in my usual context. The music portion of the service was first done as a congregation, then just by the choir, then again as a congregation as the children were dismissed to Sunday school. This is much more frequent than the strict twenty minutes of worship included in the typical service at my home church. In addition to this, the scripture readings and call to worship were done by members of the congregation rather than by the pastor. There was also close to equal emphasis on community praise and prayer as there was on the message. This did make the service longer than the typical service at my home church, but left me feeling fully recharged rather than wishing for some more corporate worship time.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

There were many parts of this service I found so appealing that I wish my church would implement them. First, as I mentioned above, I loved the equal amounts of time spent in praise and worship and time spent sharing the message. I also enjoyed the time the church took to have members come up to microphones, introduce themselves, and share a praise report or a prayer request. What I loved even more than this opportunity was how many church members participated in it with humble hearts and pure honesty. I understand that this does not occur weekly, but taking the time every once in a while to check in with the church community is very telling of the church’s values. In addition to these things, the attention showed to the children during the children’s message seemed to empower the children in a way that is lacking in my church. Last, but not least, I appreciated the manner in which Coach presented the message in a biblically focused and easily applicable way.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

I was not as disoriented in this service as I was in the Catholic mass I attended, but the worship portion did have me slightly out of sync at times. The primary reason for this was my unfamiliarity with the songs that were chosen, but the free-structured set up also threw me for a bit of a loop. Rather than having a clear cut (x3) at the end of the refrain slide, the worship leader would just wave her hand in a circle to signal the band and the congregation to sing that section again.  Even though it caught me off guard in the beginning, by the end of the service I had a profound appreciation for this approach to worship. I believe this freeform structure can better serve the needs of the congregation in the moment than a worship portion planned down to the second.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

The power of prayer was emphasized throughout the entire service in a way I have not seen before. (Unless the sermon topic that week was the power of prayer, which it was not in this case.) The power of prayer was acknowledges through the song choice, the time set aside for prayer requests and prayer for the members who shared, as well as in the sermon. Specifically, one of the worship songs sung by the choir included the lyrics “You can depend on God to get you through, you can depend on me to pray for you.” This was so beautiful to experience, as you could tell that those who were singing truly meant every word. This, as well as other aspects of the service, also brought the Christus Victor theory of atonement to mind. It was repeated many times that God is bigger than anything you are up against, specifically current circumstances and habits that negatively affect health. This emphasis on prayer and the victory of Christ was great to experience.