Sarah Spencer - Church Visit #2

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church 

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

Date attended: March 22, 2015

Church category: Lower Socioeconomic Status

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

I went to the 8:30 Sunday morning service with Kylie and Anna Claire. It was in the city. Particularly, in a poorer part of town. As we drove to the location we saw the surroundings. There were some empty lots and some garbage on some streets. There was also community art murals on the walls of some buildings. The congregation was primarily African American, which was different from my normal context. The location was in a gym and the step-up of the chairs were similar to my church Jericho Road, which meets in Lowell Elementary School's gym. People came in during the worship time of the service. There seemed to be a lot of people in the church for a service at 8:30 am. They also had an 11am service, which I did not attend. 

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

I enjoyed the worship that the worship leaders, choir, and solo signer. It was interesting to see the choir and the congregations response to the music. Someone played the drums and the piano while we sang. The solo signer prayed for her song to be a means by which God gives his people peace. I also found it interesting that when the kids were dismissed on the projector the kids were called God's property, which they are, but I had never thought of it in that way. I also like how everyone stood for the Reading of God's

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

Although I liked this aspect about the church, I have had limited interactions with the type of call and response that Lawndale Christian community worshiped with. The service was very interactive, in that the pastor would have you repeat key words in the sermon. I have sometimes participated in this in my church in Texas. More than the repetition of words, people in the congregation would say 'amen' at different times during the service. Also at the beginning of the service, the pastor said it is good to be here even after many of us have gone to the cemetery yesterday. The facing of death as reality is challenging, but necessary.

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 sermon was on Jesus's last talk with his disciples in John 14 and the believe and faith we must have in him. The message is that we are not to let our hearts be troubled, even in the midst of trouble. As a community, Lawndale has experienced trouble and each person individually experience trouble. I was able to understand another aspect of heaven in a new way because of the sermon. The preacher connected spoke about Jesus telling his disciples his father's house many rooms. I have heard this passage before in Sunday school and in connection with the kids song that sings about God's house and heaven, but never before in context of people who are struggling to keep housing and finding enough space for their family. The preacher said we don't have to worry about being evicted from God's house and that there will be space for all of us in this house. Because of my Socioeconomic Status, I have never thought about housing in that way, but hearing this preached in this way gives a new meaning to what heaven will be like.