Nadia Dervish – Church Visit #1

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church address: 3827 W. Ogden Avenue

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?

I attended Lawndale Community Church with a few other WIC students. My church back at school is Church of the Resurrection, which has maybe 2 black families in the congregation. Lawndale’s demographic is almost entirely black, there were maybe 10 white people there. This differed from my regular church context. Back home in Green Bay Wisconsin, I attend a fundamental Baptist church. At this church, you do not clap after someone has sung and there is not real ‘audience participation.” At Lawndale, this is completely opposite. When Ms. Little got up and sang her song, people in the audience responded, some were moved to stand or cry out in support or agreement. “Yes, Lord,” was said many times, and at the end of her song, Ms. Little received due applause. Growing up I was told not to clap because God should be receiving the glory, not the person. At Lawndale it seem more joyful in that it is realized in clapping after Ms. Little sang, you are not taking any glory away from God, but you are recognizing the gifts God has bestowed upon her, and the time she has taken to cultivate that gift.

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

My favorite portion of the service was a segment called “Prayer and Praise.” Essentially it was a chance for the congregation to share aspects of their life, those pertaining to prayer requests and moments of praise. Every person who stood up was able to share, there was no “we are short on time so we can only hear one or two more,” everyone who wanted to share was given the chance. I was also surprised at peoples willingness to share their struggles openly. I feel sometimes in churches there is a feeling of needing to look like you have it all together, that not struggling means you are more secure in your faith/are a ‘stronger’ Christian. Furthermore, sharing those struggles is not often done because you do not want others to know that you are struggling. This model is much more community based/focus. You are not afraid to share with your community, in fact, you are encouraged to share because you know your community is a place of people who will come alongside you and help you. There was no ego present here.

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

I think this service was unique in that it was a time when much change was going on within the church. Coach had just come back from his summer sabbatical and much time was spent talking about what he had done with his time. Which I think was great for members of the congregation, in that he was sharing the experience with them. But as a visitor, I was waiting for the service to start. It seemed the entire service was simply a series of announcement. I was genuinely surprised with the service ended. This is superficial but I found the set up to be a little disorienting, the raised platform being directly in the center of the congregation is something I have not experienced before, and though Coach was incredibly engaged with the audience, the layout caused him to turn his back at times and I found that to be a point of disconnect.

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 scriptures used in the service were Psalm 133 and 1 Peter 3:8-9. I suppose in this context, the passage from Peter particularly verse 9, saying “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing,” I was stuck with me. Given the racial makeup of the congregation, it is a people group that has historically been sinned against and had evil done to, making the idea of repaying evil with blessing one with much more gravity. There is much more on the line and much more to be sacrificed. The stakes are simply higher. And though I do not think this was the case, I do think the verse could be interpreted in such a way as to encourage passivity, or a “you can struggle on this earth and don’t need to do anything about it because you are building up treasures in heaven,” type of mentality.