Church name: Lawndale Community Church
Church address: Lawndale, Chicago (you know)
Date attended: 4/12
Church category: Different socio/economic level
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
The overall format of the service was similar to what I am familiar with, it started off with singing, then the pastor gave announcements, then the pastor preached, and we ended with singing again. I guess it had a few less elements than my regular context. I think it was a similar mixture of ethnicities as my church but with a different group of people; my church is mostly Korean and Korean Americans with some Chinese, Southeast Asians, a couple of other ethnicities and a good number of white people. Lawndale was mostly African Americans, with a few people of different ethnicities, and then a good number of white people; it was more diverse than I had expected it to be.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
I appreciated that it was somewhat diverse, there was definitely a majority but there were people of a few different ethnicities present in the congregation. I found it very interesting that the pastor added a blatant point about how women can preach into his sermon even though it was not a talk about gender roles or anything on that topic.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
There actually really was not much of anything that was disorienting about this worship service. It was not drastically different from my current worship service, the only challenging part was that it was with people I did not know. Being in a new place and new church is always a bit uncomfortable because the greeting time is awkward with strangers. This means that it was really not very challenging since there was not much else other than the usual meeting strangers.
There actually really was not much of anything that was disorienting about this worship service. It was not drastically different from my current worship service, the only challenging part was that it was with people I did not know. Being in a new place and new church is always a bit uncomfortable because the greeting time is awkward with strangers. This means that it was really not very challenging since there was not much else other than the usual meeting strangers.
What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
One thing that was emphasized that is definitely not in my usual contexts was the role that women have as preachers. The pastor was talking about Jesus' resurrection and then about Mary Magdalene's meeting Jesus and then going out and sharing out what he said. The pastor said that the first one to preach about Jesus' resurrection was a woman and that women can be preachers. I am not sure if the church has a stance on this or if it is more from the individual, but it was very interesting that he emphasized this so much and mentioned it even though it was not central to the sermon. This is an aspect of theology I rarely hear about and if I do it is the opposite point being made.
One thing that was emphasized that is definitely not in my usual contexts was the role that women have as preachers. The pastor was talking about Jesus' resurrection and then about Mary Magdalene's meeting Jesus and then going out and sharing out what he said. The pastor said that the first one to preach about Jesus' resurrection was a woman and that women can be preachers. I am not sure if the church has a stance on this or if it is more from the individual, but it was very interesting that he emphasized this so much and mentioned it even though it was not central to the sermon. This is an aspect of theology I rarely hear about and if I do it is the opposite point being made.
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