Kurt Andres - Church Visit #2

Church name: Lawndale Community

Church address: 3827 W. Ogden Avenue

Chicago, Illinois 60623

Date attended: 3/30/2014

Church category: Lower Socio/ Economic

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

The worship service at Lawndale was great. It was primarily lead by a mixed gospel choir that was awesome. People were very involved; singing was loud, active, and very participatory. There were drums and the usual accompaniment like my current church though the songs were a little less contemporary and much more gospel centric. I really appreciated this aspect of the worship service. In some respect it was similar to the worship style at my current church, however there was much greater audience engagement and the choir was definitely a little more energetic than my church. In trying to put my finger on why two worship styles, both so similar, proved so different and I ultimately resolved it was the racial aspect of the primarily black congregation that took a hold of the gospel music and sang and danced eagerly to worship God. This does not happen to the same extent at my current, primarily white church. The service then proceeded with a pastoral teaching on Jesus and the verse “Father into your hands I commit me

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

I found this congregation itself the most intriguing part of this worship service. Their level of engagement, style of engagement, and genuine thirst for the gospel was awesome. The whole time people were commenting, mumbling critiques, agreeing, and voicing their interaction with the message. This does not happen at my current church service. I also really appreciated the way this particular service gave voice to numerous different people and provided teaching from a different perspective than my current church. I felt like the message drew less heavily on scripture and more heavily on community, people, and personal examples. I also found the acceptance of the congregation very intriguing. Right away walking into the service, the greater told me she was certain I wouldn’t be able to remain seated the whole service. I felt very welcome at this service despite obviously coming from a very different community and social/ economical standpoint.

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

Nothing about this service was particularly disorienting or challenging. I thought the sermon was difficult to hear which is a dumb thing to say and definitely not indicative of the service but rather that particular day. The man speaking spoke fast, used many idioms and the sound quality was rather poor in the gymnasium. I also found parts of his experience/ personal stories hard to relate to, mostly because he definitely drew on a very different socio/ economic class than I came from. He also strayed very far from the specific scripture in an attempt to capture the audience’s attention and I sometimes lost the point he was attempting to make. Otherwise nothing proved difficult or odd about this experience. Oh, except it was also very difficult to find the physical location of this service and Lawndale church in fact has a decoy church with signs and all one block away from the real place. Thankfully we mustered up the courage to ask someone just outside the building labeled Lawndale Community Church” and they were able to direct us to the actual location.   

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 service focused on Luke 23:46 and the verse “Father into your hands I commit my Spirit.” This verse is focused on Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for all humanity. The sermon itself failed to reveal anything hugely insightful or meaningful for me concerning this verse and in fact much of what was discussed was similar to stuff we’ve discussed in this class. In addition, Dr. Lee got a shout out from the speaker! The part of scripture this service most revealed to me was Jesus’ call for us to establish one church and I realized how divided our current church scene is in America. My current church is near 100% made up of white middle class suburban families. This service was the exact opposite. I was not so ignorant as to fail to realize there are many differences between the service at Lawndale and my current church service but honestly at the end of the day there aren’t that many differences. It’s a shame the church is so segregated and I understand there are numerous geographical, economic and social divisions in the topography of cityscapes, but I don’t think the issue is merely that of transportation but rather much deeper. I walked away from this service just realizing the true extent of which the church is divided.