Erik Veker

Church name: Lawndale Community Church

Church address: 3827 W Ogden, Chicago, IL 60623

Date attended: October 16, 2016

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

At Lawndale Community Church, we were greeted warmly and welcomed easily. The worship service paralleled a lot of other protestant services that I have been to in a lot of ways, but was different in many other ways. For starters, the focal point of the service was the preaching. Secondly, there was an emphasis on singing praise songs. Thirdly, there was a segmented time where pastor Gordon had a “family gathering” so to speak where he shared his thoughts on the series that they had been in. It was more of a practical teaching than an expositor message on a passage. What made Lawndale different from my usual experience was the different styles of worship. At one point there was a female soloist who sang a worship song while the congregation engaged listening. Another song was sung by the choir, a more informal looking choir in the sense that they were wearing their normal clothes instead of robes or the like. The sound they produced was by no means informal. They performed a gospel song that blew the roof off of the place. It was one of the most powerful songs I have ever heard. Lastly, they sang a worship song as a community. The words were on the screens and everyone was participating. This was more like the experience I have had.

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

There were several things that I really took interest in. as you walked into the sanctuary, you notice that the stage is at the center of the room so that whoever is speaking or singing would be required to turn quite frequently if they wanted to engage the whole congregation. So, although you might only see the pastor face to face for about a quarter of the service, it requires them to engage with the whole church. I think this made it a more relaxed and yet personal experience. I took interest in the laissez-faire atmosphere that was shared. There is only one service per weekend and so the whole body is gathered at once. You wont miss anyone so long as you are there every Sunday. Also, the service didn’t seem to have time constraints. The service ended when it ended, not when the next service was pressing to start as in some other churches.

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

The toughest thing for me during the worship service was to be confronted with the segregation that still exists within churches. The churches that I have been apart of in the past have been almost entirely white. The congregation at Lawndale was much more diverse and primarily black. It was easy to see myself going back to Lawndale to experience something that was so different from a Wheaton context, but I had to check myself because I don’t want to view participating in a church like Lawndale as a check off the list of diversity participation. What we really need is to challenge the way things are in our churches and ask ourselves how we can build more diverse communities of believers in every city.

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

Even driving to Lawndale, you’re confronted with the reality that there are huge divides in wealth across communities, but even streets. As we drove, I would be in a wealthy-looking neighborhood with well kept lawns and modern houses and within the span of the next block the reality was broken down homes and what appeared to be a much poorer standard. As I thought about it in Lawndale’s church context, it was interesting to have the new president for Northern Seminary preaching that day. Because he held a prestigious role at a nearby higher education center, I’m sure he makes a lot more money than some of the people at Lawndale, not necessarily all of them. This made for an interesting reflection for me and the guys I went with. I wonder how much a lower income family can take or relate to when someone who clearly lives in more wealth is bringing the word of God. Overall, my experience was one that I will cherish, reflect upon and grow to incorporate for a long time to come.