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.