Mark Meyers

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church address: 3827 W Ogden Ave, Chicago, IL 60623

Date attended: October 23, 2016

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

I attended Lawndale Christian Community Church in the South Side of Chicago. As we exited our train, the landscape and surrounding environment was starkly different from the suburban sprawl of Wheaton. Lines of row-homes and storefront churches greeted our eyes as we walked through the neighborhood to the church building. As we entered the church, we were immediately welcomed. From the moment we stepped in, we were greeted, handed bulletins, given directions, and guided into the worship space. The music was loud and lively, and the congregation seemed to be highly engaged. It was a predominately African-American congregation, made up of members of the community. The space was arranged differently than what I am used to as well. The chairs were turned inward, facing a stage in the center of the room. This was a refreshing experience, as it allowed us to see each others faces as we worshipped together. After the singing, their was an extended time of prayer for those affected by recent deaths in the community. Particularly striking was the prayer of one mother regarding the violence in the community. Her heavy grief and sense of loss was profound, as were her passionate pleas for help, and yet her genuine, earnest faith was palpable. After the prayers their was a sermon that centered on forgiveness and peacemaking. The sermon was highly interactive, with the pastor engaging heavily with the congregation. As we left the service, we were bombarded once again with warm welcomes and friendly faces. 

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

I found the sense of community at Lawndale incredibly compelling. Everyone seemed to know each other, and they all greeted one another with hugs and laughter. Through every aspect of the service – the singing, the prayers, the message – an overwhelming sense of connectedness, unity, friendship pervaded. In my experience with predominately white churches, church often seems like something that we all show up to so that we can receive something or get something out of it for ourselves. At Lawndale, however, church seemed more like something that we collectively gathered to do, to enact together. I found this remarkably refreshing. I also found the immediacy and urgency of their worship to be extremely appealing. The prayers were urgent and expectant, delivered from the present experiences of the people with a keen dependence on God's response. The singing was expressive and heartfelt, seeming to spring up from deep wells of devotion and love for God in their souls. The preaching, though certainly unlike the measured, expositional preaching I am used to, seemed prophetic in some ways, addressing the current situation of the community with a word from the mouth of the Lord for today.

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

For me, the most shocking aspect of the service was in seeing some of the effects of the violence in Chicago first hand, visibly and tangibly displayed. Hearing the cries, laments, and prayers of these people in the midst of their grief left me somewhat shaken. Though we often hear about the violence that is ravaging these Chicago neighborhoods, we often fail to see what that kind of pain, that kind horror actually looks like. Furthermore, the faith and hope with which the church responded in the midst of such hardship challenged my estimations of my own perseverance. It was convicting to see how these remarkably faithful people respond in the midst of so much suffering. 

How did the service help you to reflect on questions of wealth and poverty?

I think for me, the service illustrated how issues of violence and poverty are best understood on the ground, from within the community itself. It demonstrated how isolation from poverty can lead to insulation against any proper response to it. In this way, proximity and exposure to the realities of violence and poverty, face-to-face contact with those directly affected by them, can act as the best way to gain a legitimate understanding of how to respond appropriately to them. This proximity can also act as the catalyst for compassion, shattering our apathy to the plight of the poor and awakening us to our own privilege. Additionally, proximity can give us eyes to see the dignity of the poor, to see the image of our God in the human faces that fill those communities, and to engage with them as people who we can know and learn from and befriend. 

Samuel Jang

Church Name: Lawndale Christian Community Church
Church Address: 3827 W. Ogden Avenue, Chicago, IL 60623
Date Attended: 11/6/16

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
   The first thing I noticed when walking into the church in Lawndale was how friendly everyone was! My friends and I had trouble finding the church because our navigation said it was one place or the other, but we were stopped by a couple welcomers who asked us if we knew "Greg"/were Wheaton students. We walked inside only to be greeted by more hugs and warm welcomes. People came up to us (we stood out as 3 Asian men) and kept greeting us! I felt extremely welcome and glad to be there. As I kept looking around, I noticed that people were hugging, talking, and genuinely welcoming each other and asking how each other were doing. I guess that's something I'm not used to, but would like at church. Most of my experience at church has been very individualistic. People come in with their friends/family, and don't really talk much with others and leave promptly. The community here felt connected.
   Going down into the auditorium, I noticed how the chairs were divided into sections which all faced a center stage, where the preacher/worshippers stood. I liked the use of space and how I could see other people worship/listen to the service and not just see the back of people's heads like I'm typically used to.


What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
   I agree with when one of my friends said, "This is some of the best worship music with some of the worst sound equipment". The service was encapsulating, intoxicating, and riveting, in that the congregation and worship leaders coerced you in worshipping alongside them. This church felt like a connected community. During the sermon message, Coach related everything back to this central idea of community, which involved loving one another, being a good example/parent, and raising children together. I found it compelling and interesting how Coach was advocating church for the main means of socialization. He wanted people to keep coming to church, especially children, because he believed that it could help in decreasing violence in the neighborhood. I found it deeply compelling how everything he was saying related back to the community and was still Gospel centered. He spoke to the congregation like everyone was part of a big family.


What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
I found myself thinking a lot about what it meant to love my neighbor as Coach was describing. When he was speaking through "Soul Shalom" or even loving neighbor, he brought up the ideas of stress. It was interesting because "Soul Shalom" serves as a spiritual and physical exercise to stop what seems like triggers. This could be anything about drugs or mistreating a neighbor. I found it challenging simply because we do not talk about the realities of substance abuse or controlling triggers in the church I grew up in. Problems tend to fall into the category of internal/personal sin. I liked how he was framing how these sins are never personal. He was key in explaining how in everything we do, every choice we make, is affecting the other. It allowed me to think of how in choosing where I focus my attention on, what I spend my money on and with, is actually an implicit no to my neighbor.


How did the service help you to reflect on questions of wealth and poverty?
A compelling truth is that it is hard to love your neighbor, because it is always a process of total self-giving. Visiting a low-income church one time can be a formative experience, but it is nothing like going every Sunday, and really being part of the community that exists there. Being part of the hardships, losses, struggles, and celebrations. I think whenever I'm faced with the realities of the systemic oppression of the black community especially, I ask myself how I can live in light of this information. I ask myself how I can act and how hand-in-hand race is to wealth/poverty. I find hope that there are churches like Lawndale Community. But me just acknowledging that isn't enough. I want to be in conversation with the poor. I want to understand.

Jake Wentworth

Jake Wentworth
Lawndale Christian Community Church
3827 W. Ogden Chicago, IL 60623
10/16/16

The first thing I noticed about Lawndale Christian Community Church was that the stage was in the middle of the gym and all the seats were surrounding the stage. In the church I attend, all of the seats are facing in the same direction towards the stage. I thought it was kind of funny that the pastor had to continually turn in circles in order to address his audience. Having the service in a gymnasium was different but it did not seem odd to me because the church I go to has its main service in a high school auditorium and the children’s ministry is in the cafeteria, certainly far from the tradition context of a worship service. In the service itself, there was a wide variety of worship music that was played. They started the service with about five lead singers who sang contemporary worship songs, like Hillsong Music. Later they sang a couple of gospel choir songs were everyone was sitting except for a couple people who stood up and danced. The main message came after the music which was similar to the church I attend but the difference was in how interactive the crowd was during the message.

What fascinated me most about the worship service was the diversity of the worship music. Usually a church has one type of music; whether hymns, gospel, or contemporary. However, at Lawndale, they combined both contemporary and gospel into the same worship service. I thought it was a beautiful collaboration between two genres of music that would typically be played at two different churches. In a way, I thought that by simply having each of these kinds of music, Lawndale was breaking down a barrier that so many churches have created in the way they worship God. After the service I searched for the Gospel song “He Reigns Forever” and added it to my playlist of primarily contemporary worship music.

I honestly did not find a whole lot that was very challenging about the service. If I had to choose one thing, it would be not knowing whether I should stay seated or get up and dance during the Gospel choir. I would have loved to get up and dance but I figured since I was a first time guest I did not want to start dancing with my eyes closed only to open them to see a whole sitting congregation looking at me like I am an idiot. Out of respect for the service I decided to stay seated, but if I were to go back another time I think I would have some serious difficulty not moving my feet at least a little bit.

It was difficult to address too many questions about wealth and poverty during the service because there is no way that I could completely tell a person’s economic background from the one outfit they decided to wear to church that morning. Though what I can say is that there were people wearing old T-shirts and athletic shorts, others with khakis and a polo, and even some dressed in a full suit. But to be honest, the clothes each person was wearing never really seemed to make a difference in the way the congregation worshiped and interacted with one another. It reminded me how no matter what economic situation someone is in, they are still able to worship God from within that context. It was just particularly encouraging to see people from a wide variety of economic backgrounds come together in the same congregation to worship their God.

J.T. Doty

Lawndale Community Church

3827 W Ogden, Chicago, IL 60623

October 23rd, 2016

The style of worship at Lawndale Community Church was a reflection of the culture in the Christian African-American community in Chicago, so many songs had “Gospel” roots, complete with a church choir and band. Although there were occasionally other songs more associated with the CCM movement, there was still a main worship leader who focused on singing rather than incorporating her instrumental skills with the band. So nevertheless, this style of veneration was vastly different from my home congregation, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, which uses the liturgy to express God’s glory. Additionally, this style of worship might be more acceptable to my small parish, as most of my community is very frail. In contrast, LCC has a prominent position among Protestant churches in the West Side, and had a fairly diverse age and racial demographic, though predominantly African-American in racial make-up.

The most interesting aspect about the service was how the worship setting was in a basketball gymnasium. While this physical location would be abhorred by Orthodox, Catholic, and indeed some Protestant circles, for being too secular-minded, such criticisms forget to note how sacredness may easily be incorporated into the game of basketball for the Black community. Much admired sports superstars such as Dwayne Wade and Derrick Rose were able to make a fortune and escape the violence. As a result, Wayne was called “coach” and not “pastor”, and there were championship banners celebrating the accomplishments of the church. In addition, the matching blue shirts of Hope House graduates are similar to crowds representing their home team at games. Brilliantly, LCC has been able to use the cherished institution of basketball to advance the Gospel in a community where such connections would be well understood.

It was very hard hearing about the four deaths in the congregation, two of which were due to gun violence. The event does not deserve to be summarized into a blog post, but demands a pause in work to lament. Nevertheless, I remember seeing an older woman, likely working with the garden ministry, crying and weeping while a sister came and comforted her. I also saw an older man, simply freeze, as if recalling his own memories of pain. Clearly, the wounds expressed by the congregation were personal and devastating, and a reflection of systematic injustice against African-American in our country. And being a man of color, I too was hurt, realizing that easily could have been me. While the service continued, this incident replayed in my mind over and over, and I thought about how my mother and civic community might respond if I too, were to suffer a similar tragedy in a suburban context.  

For me, the service served as a confirmation of my suspicions that I am a modern day free black,  separated by the confines of a wealthy suburb where the traumatic experiences of gun violence are only distant childhood memory from my upbringing in St. Louis. This geographical barrier fosters environments where the affluent white Christians send their kids to private school (such as Wheaton College) while the poor are hungry and must seek shelter through charitable homeless ministries. In many ways, the cities of Wheaton and Chicago serve as a chilling reminder of what happens when Christianity whores itself to conservative political ideals which ignore the plight of the underprivileged, and what happens when the federal government declares a war upon the poor rather than seeking their well-being. We do not need prayers and supplications for racial reconciliation, but relational and financial reparations for communal empowerment!    

Holden Thompson

Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church
4543 S. Princeton Ave., Chicago IL. 60609
10/30/16

When my friend Tim and I went to Missionary Baptist Church we were the only white people among an entirely black congregation. I do not think I have ever been in a church that was anything but primarily white. Everyone we encountered welcomed us with a warm smile and a hand shake. We sat down in an empty row where we waited for the service to start. Like many churches I have been to, there was a countdown timer going on both projectors. Even though the pews looked very traditional, the stage looked like it was right out of a rock concert. The Worship service at Missionary Baptist Church was electrifying, far different from the worship services I have experienced at Wheaton Bible Church. What I mean is that everyone there had so much energy, and it seemed like most people were having at least a little bit of fun during the service which unlike the stoic swaying back and forth that I am used to. Fashionably dressed musicians lined the back row of the stage, the guitars were colorful, and there were pairs of back-up singers as well along the back row. The worship was incredible, everyone who participated sang and played with a lot of skill and passion. The energy of the worship was higher than any I had ever experienced, everyone who was on the stage singing was also dancing like a crazy person. During the last worship song, the pastor came up on stage and started singing as well. After that he delivered a sermon about God's provision, and then made a few announcements. The service lasted an hour and forty minutes, which is longer than I am used to (I'm used to about an hour and ten minutes).

For me there were many interesting things about the service. One of the first things that I noticed was that the vast majority of people were wearing black. The next thing I noticed was the worship music, which is actually hard for me to describe. I felt as if I could have paid to be there, the music was that good. The musicians were all so talented, every single one of them. They played like their lives depended on it! Sometimes I feel like a flashy worship service can take away from our focus on God, but I didn't feel that way with this worship service. For me, the biggest draw of this church was the way in which they worshiped.

For me the most challenging thing about the service was the sermon. The pastor preached on 2 Corinthians 9:6-12. The pastor's main point was that God will supply you with everything you need, especially finances. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." The pastor explained that if you sow generously, you will also reap a generous harvest. He brought up two women and gave one of them 10 dollars. He had the one with 10 dollars give it away to the other woman. The other woman got to keep that money. Then, the pastor brought up a gentlemen to whom he gave 70 dollars, and the pastor had him give the woman who now had no money all 70 dollars. I believe that the passage is certainly true, but I don't know if I'd go as far to say that you are always going to get money back when give. I think that the point of the passage is that God is going to give you everything you need, and that doesn't necessarily mean money in my opinion.

Clearly, poverty is prevalent in the community of this church. The pastor felt the need to reassure his congregation that God will take care of their finances as long as they are generous in giving and faithful to obey God's word. There were many amen's throughout the service, and a lot of approval over his illustration of giving money to the random members of the church. All in all, I believe that the sermon I heard reflects a dire concern that the community has for their own well-being. They are concerned that they will not have enough money to survive. To me it seemed as if the pastor was saying that God will make sure you have enough money to survive. I think that God is going to give you whatever he knows you need for fulfilling His purposes, which could easily mean money but it could also not mean money in my opinion. My whole experience highlights the reality that poverty is a huge issue in the city, and as Christians we are called to care for the poor. So what do we do in light of the reality of the poverty that plagues city neighborhoods?

Sarah Kelly

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church address: 3827 W Ogden Ave, Chicago, IL 60623

Date attended: October 23, 2016

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

I visited Lawndale Christian Community Church with six other class members. We took the train into Lawndale, and I noticed gradual changes in the landscape, people’s dress, etc., as we entered the south side of Chicago. When we arrived at the church, I immediately felt welcomed as someone ushered us inside. The community was primarily African American, in contrast to my home church Beloved Downtown, which is predominantly Asian American and Caucasian American. During the service, several church members came up to pray about the violence in their community. The pastor announced several recent deaths in the church community, including two women and two young men who were shot. The service was structured similarly to my home church, with announcements, prayer, worship, and a sermon. The sermon was on forgiveness, and the audience was fairly vocal in responding to it throughout with “Amens”, laughter, and affirming sounds.

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

I appreciated the unity of the congregation and its engagement in the worship service. The church space was set up so that the chairs surrounded the speaker in a circle. This created an image of unity. In addition to being vocal, church members appeared to be comfortable touching one another for comfort, etc. The unity of the church was embodied in the actions of congregation members. Further, Lawndale Christian’s service seemed to be less strictly organized than my home church. The leadership at Beloved (and many other white American evangelical churches) works for more of a smooth “performance”. I appreciated that the service engaged the congregation instead of the leaders only trying to “perform”. This gave a space for the church to address the present needs of the community.

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

I found some of the basic cultural differences most disorienting about the worship service. For example, although I am aware of violence in Chicago because of the media, etc., it was shocking to hear about it first hand during the service and to see the congregation lament over the dead. It made me realize how frequent and widespread the violence is. Also, I was surprised to see that the head pastor was white where the majority of the congregation was African American. I would be curious to hear how he arrived at that position, and if the church members have any negative (or positive) reflections on a white leadership.

How did the service help you to reflect on questions of wealth and poverty?

The service challenged the way the privileged talk about “fixing” issues of wealth disparity and violence in communities. I feel like at Wheaton we often talk about violence and poverty as if the people who live in the communities aren’t doing anything about the issues. It brought perspective for me to see the church members praying for their own community in a way more intimately knowledgeable than we are capable of. Further, the sermon on forgiveness reminded me of when Dr. Lee said about our double-standards regarding forgiveness—we applaud African Americans for forgiving their white oppressors but we don’t expect America to forgive its foreign enemies. I thought it was interesting to hear this sermon on forgiveness in the context of a low-income neighborhood following our class discussions. It reinforced some of the notions I have regarding the influence of power, race, etc. on issues of wealth and poverty. 

Collin Flake

Lawndale Community Church

3827 W. Ogden, Chicago, IL, 60623

October 2, 2016

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

The worship service I attended was in Lawndale, so the surrounding context was very different from Wheaton. The service was held in a gym-like building with chairs arranged around a central stage where the preacher stood. A lot of things about the service reminded me of some nondenominational churches I frequented growing up, such as the use of slides and videos and the focus on pastoral preaching which was heavily practical. These things are very different from the Anglican church I attend in Wheaton, where there is only artwork rather than screens and the preaching can at times be intellectually focused to the point of becoming elitist. The serving of communion through pre-prepared packets was also a big change from the traditional bread and wine surrounded by specific liturgy that is usual at Anglican churches. I was also surprised by just how many church buildings there were, which made it clear that Lawndale does not just exist for Sunday worship but also as a holistic community center, which is different from any church I have attended.

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

I enjoyed a lot of things about the service. Though I didn’t know all of the songs we sang, I appreciated the worship itself a lot. The church members were willing to sing wholeheartedly, which is something that isn’t very common for adults to do in most of the churches I have attended—they just tend to kind of mumble while the younger members or the choir actually sing. I also appreciated just how welcoming and loving the people at the church were. In just one visit, I met at least five people and got to know their names, and one of them was one of the pastors. Even though I stood out, the people at Lawndale welcomed me in as if I’d been going there for years. This is a sharp contrast to most of the churches I have been to, in which I could attend every week and never meet new people unless I joined some sort of small group.

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

My initial answer to this is crossing the street. There were no crosswalks near where we parked, and the other attendees just kind of meandered across the street with traffic speeding by. Having grown up in rural Georgia and now living in a suburban context, I was a bit afraid my church visit would end with me becoming roadkill. I also noticed that the Hope House men all sat together in a certain section during the service, which seemed to keep them separate from the wider community, almost as if they weren’t yet a part of it. This seemed to make it easier for people I interacted with to gesture in their general direction and talk about all of them together, which seemed like it could potentially hinder their integration into the community and prevent the from being known on an individual basis.

How did the service help you to reflect on questions of wealth and poverty?

Seeing just how much Lawndale Community Church seems to do for its surrounding community was convicting in two ways. First, it made me notice just how little my own church is connected to the surrounding community. Second, it made me realize that I have placed myself in an area where my church doesn’t need to provide many of the services Lawndale Community does because people can already afford them. I was also reminded of just how much I have in common with the poor by worshiping beside them, taking communion together, and even expressing our mutual frustration with the current election cycle. However, I was also forced to realize just how much I have psychologically separated myself from the poor in just how few of these interactions I have on a regular basis. This can be illustrated in a story from when we were driving through Lawndale on our way back to Wheaton with the windows down and I saw one man turn away from the car and discretely hand a paper bag to another man. As I was wondering what was happening, the second man exclaimed, with a full mouth, “These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had!” In that moment, I realized just how much my perception of the poor is inevitably shaped by either negative or positive dramatizations because I am so seldom among them.