Meagan Jackson - Church Visit #3

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church address: 3827 W Ogden, Chicago, IL 60623

Date attended: 11/1/2015

Church category: Community Church in low-income community

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

The service started with songs of praise, which were led by several singers on the stage, however the band was off-stage, which was a different setup that I have ever seen before. Next, there was a call to worship, the choir sang a song, and a pastor read from scripture. The pastor also spent 10 minutes talking to the children of the church, reading them a story and teaching them about Jesus. He then dismissed the children and spent about 30 minutes talking to the adults about how Christ can transform our relationships. This was followed by taking the Lord’s Supper, something that this church does about once a month.

Overall, this worship service seemed very similar to ones that I usually attend. The children’s message was different, and I think that it displayed the church’s emphasis on ministering to all types of people, whether they are young children or people who have recently been released from prison. It portrayed the importance of healthy families within a healthy community.

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

Dr. Wayne Gordon, the lead pastor at Lawndale Church, does not speak as one would expect from a highly theologically educated pastor. Instead, the name that the congregation uses to address him, “Coach,” seems much more applicable. The sermon that he gave focused on several biblical passages, applying them very specifically to how Christians should live life. He focused on everyday situations that impact the overall lifestyle of a person, e.g. how to react to someone that you are mad at. This seems to reflect how the church values the transformational power of the gospel, which applies to all parts of life, not merely the ones that we would label as “spiritual.” I also think that it reflect how the church leaders are aware of what is needed in their community, as they can address problems that they are seeing in families that are both part of their congregation as well as characteristic of their neighborhood as a whole. The worship service seemed to be purposefully offering people life coaching, setting Jesus as an example and the source of power to change one’s life.

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

There was not much that I found challenging about this worship service, as I really enjoyed visiting Lawndale church. I was a bit distracted by the lack of observable congregational participation. There seemed to be a lot of side conversations happening during the service, which was especially distracting because of the setup of the chairs in a semi-circle around the stage. Some people were very expressive in their singing and worshipping, however some people seemed to not be truly participating in the worship, but merely sitting in their seats. I do not want to judge these people, as it could merely be that they were worshipping in a different way than I am used to or that more side conversations are accepted in the church community as a good thing to do during the worship service. I would like to visit Lawndale Church again in order to better understand the dynamics of the community at the church. However, overall I felt very comfortable in this setting, as the people were friendly and the church seemed a lot like the church I usually attend.

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

During this service, the choir sang a song which addressed the members of the body of Christ, saying, “I need you to survive.” Because of the stories which Dr. Lee has told in class about the needs of the Lawndale community, this line of the song really stood out to me. I was struck by the importance of the church in coming around people and supporting them through hard situations, which seems to be even more applicable in a neighborhood like Lawndale, where there are many financial needs and the rate of violence is so high. The members of this church truly do need each other to survive, because they are much more safe and able to live well in this environment if they support each other. This line also challenged me to think more broadly about the Church as a whole, and how we need each other to survive. The suburban churches of Wheaton need the Lawndale church to show them how important the church is in transforming a neighborhood, so that they are encouraged to support them as well as do the same in Wheaton. The church of the West needs the church of the Global South to remind us that our debates about liberalism and fundamentalism are not that important and that we often forget the parts of the Bible that talk about widows, orphans, and strangers. God created the Church with purpose, and part of our calling as the Church is to support each other and depend on one another to survive, whether in the literal sense or in a more spiritual sense of learning more about God through others.