Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church
Church address: 3827 W. Ogden Chicago, Illinois 60623
Date attended: 10/11/15
Church Category: Different ethnic or racial demographic
1. The service began with a
congregational praise song and reading of the sermon verse. This was followed
by a couple songs sung by the choir, a weekly bible verse reading, and another
congregational worship song. Before the sermon, there was a time called “Prayer
and Praise” where one of the pastors took praise reports and prayer requests
from the congregation and then prayed for them. The sermon was given by “Coach”
and was about Christians taking care of their physical bodies. He focused specifically
on preventable causes such as tobacco smoking, physical inactivity, and poor
diet. The major difference between this church service and my own church
background was the focus on specific actions that people could take in order to
take care of their bodies. A major action that he emphasized was utilizing the
discounted rates at the Lawndale Christian Community Health Clinic’s Fitness
Center. It served to remind me of how different the area that this church is in
compared to my church in Wheaton.
2. The part of the service that I
found most interesting was the worship style at the church. People were free to
worship as they pleased throughout the service, sitting or standing, singing or
not. Many of the churches that I’ve gone to can be characterized as restrictive
when it comes to worship. You can only stand when they tell you too, clapping
and dancing or discouraged, and applause at the end of the worship is
nonexistent. It was very freeing to go to a church that encouraged people to
worship in their own way. There were only a few directions about when to stand
and when to sit, and even when we were sitting, people were still free to stand
as they wished while the choir sang.
3. While I believe this had more
to do with the lower income level of the congregation, it was challenging to
not judge the “simpler” sermon. The
sermon focused on why it was important to quit smoking and to eat right and to
make sure you exercise. I’ve heard sermons from higher income congregations
that also stress these points, but the sermons would focus more on scripture
and not as much on how to practically carry out those plans. I think it is due
to the fact that there are more limited options in Lawndale for healthy food
choices and fitness opportunities. Yet,
I still had trouble not criticizing the message in my mind as being too
simplistic or that it wasn’t focusing enough on the scripture passage. I
definitely felt that this was a very different church than my own church in
well to do Wheaton.
4. The church service certainly
focused more on the church community helping each other out then my normal
church context. The “Prayer and Praise” time definitely highlighted this. The
whole congregation was able to hear what was going on in each other’s lives.
There was also an announcement telling people to be careful when walking to
their cars because a church member had almost been abducted after church and
had her car stolen. The church is in an environment where the congregation had
to stick together and watch out for each other more so than we do out in the
suburbs. This was prevalent even in the message, where “Coach” challenged the
congregation to hold each other accountable in stopping smoking and eating
healthy.
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