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.