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.