Blog title: Abigail Latip – Church Visit #1

Church name: Lawndale Community Church

Church address:  3827 W Ogden, Chicago, IL 60623

Date attended: 9/25/2016

Church category: lower socioeconomic church

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context? (150 words)

The service was definitely very different from what I’m used to, particularly in the sense that worship at Lawndale felt more raw and real. It seemed congregants had the freedom to exercise their personalities and culture unlike other contexts I’ve been in, whereby social and cultural norms (e.g. saving face) constraint churchgoers from being able to fully express themselves in worship. People seemed to say and sing words with more conviction, as though declaring the meaning behind those words. I think this is tied to the simpler worship music; unlike past churches playing newer CCM songs, I felt a sincerity in Lawndale’s worship service that made me think back to how gimmicky other services I’ve been to were—where I’ve sung words I don’t realise carry a lot of weight and meaning behind. I think this idea of sincerity in community was reinforced with the seat layout, baptism celebrations, and prayer and praise. I know it isn’t perfect, but I think Lawndale exudes a quality other churches can also benefit from having.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service? (150 words)

I was especially intrigued by how sincere it felt, being at Lawndale, where your past and differences between one another do not matter—especially in a place of worship. I think this was rooted in in how communal the whole service was, from the ground up but structurally as well. There was a sense of community I haven’t seen in churches I’ve attended before. I never had a home church in Jakarta and as I grew older I also grew sceptical of the function of church when I felt like you had to fake a holiness to be there (obviously not true). Part of what exemplified Lawndale’s community feel besides the warmth and welcome was that congregants physically/verbally responded to what was being said or presented, especially during Prayer & Praise. This section appealed most to me, as I saw the real value of being in a community in Christ; I don’t recall people from my old church in Jakarta ever asking us for prayer requests, and this has shaped the way I approach prayer now as well. I was both genuinely surprised by the kind of community at Lawndale, which I think has been forged and reinforced in the midst of going through hardship together.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service? (150 words)

To be honest, I struggled with the thinking of visiting a lower socioeconomic church. This is a bit weird to explain, but I felt as though I have been visiting churches with a lens. A lot of systemic injustices were brought up in the service, even though that is probably more normal than naught at Lawndale, but each time something like that was brought up I felt like an observer rather than a fellow Christian worshipping with the rest of Lawndale Community Church. I did not feel uncomfortable or weird being at Lawndale. In fact, I felt like I could continue attending. However, I was very aware of how I come from a different world and I wish I could have just focused on worshipping with fellow Christians. I suppose these visits are to disorient them in some way, but I hope I’ll be able to focus more on our similarities and less on differences.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context? (150 words)

I thought the music sung reflected a theology of living people in Lawndale could identify more with rather than people from my regular context. Lawndale churchgoers have definitely disproportionately suffered in the hands of systemic injustice—the music reflected this and lyrics affirmed the worth of human beings as bearers of God’s image. Scripture (Matt 7:3-5 and Psalm 139) also reinforced this, as Coach really stressed the importance of finding our own masks and taking the log out of our own eyes before moving on to helping others. Simple yet meaningful, his message was interwoven with very relevant references to the oppression of African Americans in the US, which I realised would be an everyday topic of conversation, heartbreak, prayer, and concern so close to home for the majority of those in that room. I saw hints of this in my regular context, but the current oppression of African Americans is starkly different from colonised legacies of Indonesia and South Korea (my regular context). The idea of injustice pervaded throughout the service, definitely shaping how people reacted to Scripture and read it as well.

Basye Peek- Church Visit #1

Basye Peek- Church Visit 1

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church address: 3860 W. Ogden, Chicago IL

Date attended: 09/18/16

Church category: Lower Socioeconomic

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

            I attended the last 11am service at Lawndale this past week, just a week before they transitioned to a one service with preceding bible study schedule. It was similar to churches I have been in previously in that I was certainly in the racial and socioeconomic minority. The churches I attended in New Delhi and in Abidjan were both congregations in which I was quite obviously not a member of the majority. Since moving back to the United States, however, I have been in churches where my race and monetary wealth reflected that of the majority. It was a familiar sense difference to be back in that environment this past week, and I certainly enjoyed the nostalgic feeling of comfort in it. The physical space of the service was different to any church I’ve been in previously, which all had a sort of front, stage-facing seating arrangement, unlike the centered stage surrounded by chairs.  

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

         I enjoyed the lack of pageantry at Lawndale- the worship felt genuine, and while there was spectacular talent in the worship, it didn’t feel out of place or self-serving, as smoke machines and video feeds and full orchestras can often feel to me. I also appreciated this different seating arrangement, as it allows the congregation not only to look at the pastor or worship leaders but at each other, which silently communicates a sense of community and involvement in each other’s spiritual formation. In the same way, I enjoyed that the kids of the congregation worshipped with their parents before heading out to their own activities. This is not an uncommon model, but in the mega-churches I’ve attended throughout the U.S. it seems this is increasingly rare. I love the choice to prioritize families worshiping together and letting children see their parents in praise, rather than most time efficient and quiet-sanctuary friendly kids programs.

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

            Perhaps the most “challenging” aspect of the worship service this past Sunday was Coach. After CCDA, I have been reflecting on the virtue of organic leadership, of bringing up leaders within communities that replace those who perhaps kick-started development, as a model of sustainable and need-sensitive growth. This model was really praised at CCDA, and it was often said that no person should be irreplaceable. It seems almost counterintuitive then, that after 40 years in Lawndale, a pastor from the community would not have taken over or started leading sermon series. Of course, as someone who does not attend Lawndale regularly, I can’t say whether Coach preaches every Sunday or if this happens to be a time when he is preaching the series, but it was something that didn’t quite sit well with me this Sunday.

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

            My visit to Lawndale was the first time I’ve ever heard a pastor preach Black Lives Matter from the pulpit, and I would have to say that it was a theological argument I hadn’t perceived clearly in my regular context. Coach gave a sermon entitled “My Life Matters,” wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt. The sermon went through a number of points from ‘God made me’ to ‘I am precious’ as biblically based illustrations of the fact that each of our lives matter. On the surface, the message seemed theologically basic and pretty straight forward. In fact, I can remember many Sunday School lessons from my childhood that had almost identical themes. But it would have been a gross mistake to dismiss this message as basic or juvenile from my context, when Lawndale was the context this message was being delivered in. The importance of a message as basic as “your life matters” takes on a huge amount of weight and significance in a community of African-Americans consistently shown through the lack of investment in their public schools and the consistent structural racism of the policing system around them that their lives don’t matter to the people and city around them. In this context, a message as seemingly simple as “your life matters” takes on a whole new significance.

Joseph Tam Church Visit 1

Joseph Tam - Church Visit 1
Lawndale Christian Community Church
3827 W Ogden, Chicago, IL 60623
9/18/2016
Lower Socioeconomic demographic

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
The worship space itself is what first struck me as different from my home church. LCCC meets on the floor of their gymnasium. The seating is set up around a central elevated platform and at least four worship leaders sang leading each section of the congregants facing them. Though I have heard livelier music from other African American churches, the style of singing was still more spirited than my church which depends heavily on one pianist and a mix of early and recent CCM and hymns. The worship was interspersed with guest performances, though that may be simply because the service was on their "Friendship Sunday" and focused on outreach.  By meeting in a gym and arranging the seating circularly, LCCC and their service, seemed to foster a real sense of community and a real sense of connection to the Lawndale community. There are other ways of fostering those things, of course, but the arrangement contrasts with my home church which meets in a sanctuary far smaller and allows the congregants to gravitate to the seats they normally sit even if no one is sitting nearby.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
The most interesting thing I found about the worship service was the seating arrangement. Though I already mentioned it, it bears repeating that this use of space was pretty unconventional for me. I had been to a few services at a Lutheran church around Wheaton that had a similar layout, but they still used pews and not many people sit around the far side of the circle. Some people will inevitable be closer to the core/stage than others, but perhaps sitting in a circle still provides more of a sense of equality among worshipers that I appreciate. I have been in churches where the people, for whatever reason, shun sitting in the front. At LCCC every chair was filled and where someone sat didn't seem all that important. 

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
I appreciated the reading of scripture during the service and did eventually see how it tied in to the sermon topic. However, the insertion of readings between singing and performances seemed haphazard. There was a moment when one young man read one verse from Psalm that abruptly cuts off unless you read the next verse. There was a kind of awkwardness to this splicing that the congregation seemed aware of and I too went to my Bible to try and read the verse in its context. I am used to a structure of singing, then reading, then preaching. It's okay to not have service structured that way, but it's challenging to me when the scripture is not as contextualized when its read. 

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?
Even when I wasn't tracking the use of scripture, Pastor Gordon brought them back into his sermon to point to his central message that "your life matters." I noted when I first walked in both him and other congregants wearing "Black Lives Matter" shirts. It's a message that applies to anyone regardless of race, but it takes on naturally a charged meaning in a lower economic neighborhood and a larger society that devalues black lives. In my regular context, "your life matters" would be kind of a "well... yeah, of course it does." But in LCCC, the theology of God being a personal God who knows each and loves each is illuminated when affluence and comfort is not one of the challenges. It is all the more relevant when race, economic status, and safety all mix to create circumstances that run contrary to God's covenant promises. The topic itself of the sermon is what stands out to me and what is naturally cast in a different light based on its context.

Abby Schogel - Church Visit #1

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church address: 3827 W Ogden, Chicago, IL 60623

Date attended: 9-18-16

Church category: Lower Socioeconomic 

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

The service at Lawndale Christian Community Church was in many ways different what I experience at my home church but had plenty of similarities as well. The layout of the service was very different--I was surprised by the circular set-up of the chairs with the stage at the center, as this was a layout I have never seen before. I enjoyed how even the back row was not too far from the stage and the way those speaking turned to face each side made the service feel as though everyone was involved. Similarities were found in the order of the service. With the exception of the lack of communion, which is taken every week at my church, the worship, announcements and sermon aspects felt familiar. The message of the sermon itself was different that what I would expect at my church; the message gave biblical support that every life matters, and as the message was directed to the predominantly black congregation, support that Black Lives Matter. As the demographics of the congregation was different, it makes sense that the content of the message would be different to fit those in attendance.

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

I enjoyed the worship aspect of the service, particularly the way that so many were able to participate in leading worship. In addition to a handful playing instruments, there were about half a dozen vocalists leading the congregation in worship that is much more lively than that of my church. I am used to fairly reserved worship style so the enthusiasm is a welcomed change. I really appreciated the involvement of so many to participate; the choir sang a few songs and a few other individuals lead a song as well. Even when the choir had finished their piece, the band continued to play and the congregation continued to sing. I enjoyed experiencing such authentic worship, where they continued to sing because they were not done praising God and that was a higher priority than sticking to the schedule. It was a similar experience as at CCDA, I am used to similar worship to what is often found in Wheaton's chapels and it is great to experience different forms and styles of worship.

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

A very minor aspect of the service that I found a bit distracting was the interactions of those around me during the sermon and worship. I noticed that there was a good bit of talking throughout and often at a normal level of volume instead of a whisper. As families came in (we sat closer to the ramp) we could hear the discussion of where to sit or telling the children where to go. It was obviously not considered rude in this context, but I know those at my church would be less gracious in response if there was a conversation happening during the sermon. 

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 entire sermon had so much more meaning in Lawndale's context than it would have at my usual church. With the testimonies from around the community, it was clear that the message that "your life matters" is one that would benefit the community, and may be a new message for some of the congregants. Hearing about being created in the image of God was never something that struck me in a profound way because I was raised in a context where  I did not question my value or purpose in life. But to see the pastor affirm his congregation so tangibly, especially by wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt (my church back home would be outraged)  was a beautiful testament of Christ's love. It was new for me to think of the Bible verses used as a way to support the BLM movement because so often society is guilty of not treating everyone as a child of God who is created in His image. 

Kimi Bryson - Church Visit No. 1

Trinity United Church of Christ 

400 95th St. Chicago, IL 60628 

09/25/2016 

Church Category: Lower socioeconomic 

Describe - Similar or Different 

The worship service I attended was different from any I am accustomed to. My church background is quite varied. I have been a regular attendee at an AME church, a loosely-Baptist church, an African American non-denominational church, and a Korean-American Missionary Alliance Church. Trinity reminded me in some ways of my experiences in my grandmother's AME church in Denver, Colorado. The choir was probably 60 to 80 people and stood on bleacher-like rows behind the preaching platform. We arrived a few minutes late, so we walked in during one of the choir songs at the beginning of the service. While I am often in settings where the congregation stands and sings along with whatever group or choir is leading worship, at Trinity the congregation remained seated and some people quietly sang along, but most remained politely attentive. 

We arrived on Elders' Sunday, so there was a few minutes in the beginning of the service where the male and female elders were applauded and people were asked to take "selfies" with the elders on their smart phones. The visiting pastor came from Detroit, Michigan. He is apparently a notable name in homiletics and preaching in African American churches. He spoke on the end of 1 Corinthians 13 and reassured the primarily Black congregation on the Southside that God has given them "all things." 

Most Interesting or Appealing 

The most interesting aspect of the worship service for me was the incorporation of extra-biblical allusions. Pastor Charles Adams referenced Shakespeare and Beyonce throughout his sermon. He at one point indicated that he was preaching not against religious bigotry, but against all bigotry. He seemed to want Trinity to understand that they do not "own" God's grace - they possess it. For Pastor Adams, possessing something is less narrow and less power-laden. As people who possess God's grace, they do not have a say over who it extends to; that would be ownership. However, they fully participate in and benefit from God's goodness and love. 

Most Disorienting or Challenging 

As a visitor to a church listening to a visiting pastor preach, I was challenged by my desire to understand the church. At one point, Pastor Adams mentioned the things he can gain from other faith traditions, including Islam, which I am not used to being discussed in a Christian church context. When he expounded upon it more fully, he mentioned that he wants to appropriate (my terminology, but here the context is not negative or disregarding) the daily practices of Muslim people (e.g. bowing multiple times a day, specific patterns of prayer). I initially had some tension with how far Pastor Adams' message of appreciating and desiring aspects of different communities reached, but I ultimately appreciated the sermon against bigotry towards other racial and religious groups. Especially with the election coming up, which Pastor Adams mentioned multiple times, I think the sermon he gave could be a powerful appeal to a large congregation on the Southside to appreciate differences, rather than reject or try to build walls (literally and metaphorically) to avoid them. 

Aspects of Scripture or Theology Did the Service Illuminate 

The sermon was one of the most powerful connections between the Bible and African American history and pop culture that I have heard. It was as if Pastor Adams was not afraid of society, and did not espouse a theology that rejects societal involvement, but instead encouraged the congregation of Trinity to engage in and appreciate aspects of society with the understanding that God gives all things. He acknowledged that "racism is yours," referring to the reality and presence of racism in society and in communities that members of Trinity live and work in. He then instructed the congregation to "end it." The sermon encouraged me (and the congregation) not to flee from reality but to fully engage with the negative and positive things that are part of human society. Working to change, unmask, and destroy the negative things is part of participating in society just as much as appreciating, creating, and encouraging the positive aspects of human life. Pastor Adams' sermon at Trinity encouraged me to do both. 

Leya Hartman Visit #1

Blog title: Leya Hartman Church Visit #1

Church name: Lawndale Community Church

Church address: 3827 W Ogden, Chicago, IL 60623

Date attended: September 11,  2016

Church category: lower socioeconomic

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

While I have attended many churches whose populations look racially different from me, I have never consistently attended a church that is in a lower socioeconomic level than me. The service followed contemporary church rituals such as beginning the service with worship, followed by announcements, and the sermon. The ways it did break from the norm (to me) was when, before the sermon, they took 10 minutes to invite congregants up to the microphone to talk about prayer requests and praises. It felt like a more personal and intentional community. People could hear follow-ups of situations going on in their church members’ lives which is, at a minimum, what a true community should be aware of and asking each other about. The sermon was not their typical sermon while Coach updated everyone on the books he had read over the summer. This was actually interesting to me because these were high-level books written, at times, by PhDs. It seemed like this church, though poor, works together to strive for education advancement amidst their systemic barriers. They celebrated and prayed over a young man in the service who had been accepted to an Ivy League school.  The service was rather academic, a description that most would not expect to hear about a socioeconomically disadvantaged church.

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

Lawndale is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago, yet I didn’t feel like, when I walked in, that the congregants suffered from intense poverty. What I most felt when I walked into the church was welcome, a bit out of place, but welcome. I have a sneaking suspicion that I felt welcome perhaps because the head pastor, Wayne Gordon, is white like me along with a few congregants. I felt like, though most people looked different from me, that this was a church that welcomed racially diverse crowds. Of course the racial makeup of Lawndale made sense as we know that economic divides often run along racial divides. Yet no matter your racial or economic background, you are welcome to worship with Lawndale. I would like to go back on a second visit to see if the racial makeup looks different now that they have combined their two worship services.

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

It still interests me that a primarily black church is led by a white man. While I know that Coach is aware of these racial dynamics, it makes me question whether Coach is looking to replace himself with a leader from the community who comes from a racially and economically disadvantaged group. However, Coach has lived in the Lawndale community for a long time and seems to understand the problems the community faces. He even developed, alongside John Perkins, the CCDA principles, one being using people from the community to lead. I only question the length of time that it is appropriate for Coach to continue leading the Lawndale church. I was encouraged as I saw all other leaders of the church were at least black, perhaps meaning that they are from the community. This is so important to the health of the church as only community members understand what the church needs and how to help it engage Lawndale in the most productive way.

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

I can not speak to a sermon on Scripture however it seemed that many Biblical principles were applied in nuanced ways at Lawndale. The significance of the church, on this particular Sunday, meeting in the gym that Coach empowered local teens to construct which led to the construction of the health center was truly inspirational. Coach leveraged his privilege to bring resources into the community which made it possible for the locals to create spaces that are healthy, both spiritually, physically, and mentally. Churches are not usually related to this kind of powerful change in a community when in the suburbs. I would argue that radical change is needed in the suburbs, yet churches often focus on bringing Bible studies to the neighborhood as a primary focus. Yet, in true CCDA fashion, the Lawndale Community Church is a part of a system that has brought holistic change that brings health to the community, something more important to the Kingdom than a fun Bible study.

Jenna Herskind--Church Visit #1

Church Name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church Address: 3827 W Ogden, Chicago, IL 60623

Date Attended: 9/18/16

Church Type: Lower Socioeconomic

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

When I walk into my church in Wheaton, I often can’t sense that church is happening until I get to the doors of the sanctuary.  As this point I recognize my friends chit chatting about the week, followed by the worship leader’s acoustic guitar.  I take my place sitting, facing forward toward the worship band and the backs of most people’s heads.  But I knew I was attending church in Lawndale when I got within 20 feet of the building’s entrance. Laughter and greetings spilled from the double doors; walking into the gym allowed a vision of ¾ of the congregation faces, with worship leaders facing all angles.  I was aware, even as I sat in the back, that I was a visible, participating member of worship, and was reminded of that every time I made eye contact with someone across the room. I watched a large ball be tossed around in the air (it was friendship week, so I imagine this was in celebration of that and not a normal part of the service), and released a balloon into the air outside with the rest of the congregation.

 

The sensory experience was absolutely the most noticeable difference from my regular church context: I saw more faces during worship (though, interestingly, the way worship was embodied--raising hands, swaying, etc.--was very similar to my church), the things I heard were louder and there was more voices communicating them, and I touched different materials (balloons, large blow up balls) than I ever do in my regular church context.

 

Coach Gordon preached an introduction to his new series, “Your Life Matters.”  I noticed a similarity in the structure of the sermon, though the difference in content was stark: there were multiple points made, Scriptural evidence for each one, and a conclusion that included the review of each point.  While the kinds of examples Coach used to exemplify his points differed (perhaps at my church, a hardship would be not finding an apartment or not having enough money for a car, Coach’s examples of hardship included not having a job or hearing someone tell you you’re worthless), the structure of his delivery was similar.

I saw six “Black Lives Matter” shirts, which definitely would not be a thing at my very white church in Wheaton.

There are more, but the one dear to my heart and most encouraging was the number of women I saw and heard onstage.  They re-invigorated my own responsibility to the church, simply by being onstage; these feelings are often smothered, or simply allowed to die, in the context of my own church.

What did you find most interesting of appealing?

I’ll expound upon my last point for this question. Since the nature of this church visit was to engage a church at a lower socioeconomic level than my regular context, I’m not necessarily sure how to situate this inside that framework. Allowing women to speak in church, perhaps some would argue, is a matter of “theology”, and thus Lawndale must simply have a different theology than my church setting.  Yet, can theology be divorced from the socioeconomic level at which it operates?  How does SES affect theology, particularly when it comes to promoting women’s voices on the public stage of a church service?  I’m sure lots of people far more knowledgeable than I have said smart things about this: all I know is that I loved seeing women on a church platform.

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

Embarrassingly enough, the hardest part of the Lawndale experience for me was the moments spent waiting to release those balloons.  As I mentioned above, the week that we went to Lawndale was “friendship week”, meaning there were lots of first time guests there.  We did an activity at the end where we released hundreds of balloons into the air with cards attached to them, inviting other people in the community to come to church next Sunday.  On paper, I could really get behind it. But as my efficiency-obsessed self waited outside hearing “Everybody outside! Everybody outside!” for over 15 minutes...the panic that comes with “wasting time” (as I often incorrectly interpret moments like these) accelerates in intensity. So the most challenging part of this experience was, for me, the most challenging part of many experiences.  Cultivating patience is on my to-do list.

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

Coach gave various reasons throughout his sermon concerning why each individual life matters.  His second point was “I look like God,” using the story of creation and the imago dei to make his point.  This struck me as extremely profound.  I am unaccustomed to that degree of simplicity when talking about how humans are made in the image of God, and I found it extremely moving.  I don’t have a ton of poetry to wax about this, but I have found myself coming back to the wonderful idea that God decided to make me like God’s self.  Coach’s simplicity in his word choice and speech allowed the profundity of this truth sink deep.