McMillan, Matthew – Church visit #3

Church name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church address: 3827 W. Ogden Avenue; Chicago, Illinois 60623

Date attended: 6 April 2014

Church category: Lower socioeconomic demographic (also different racial demographic and more than 10 miles from campus).

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

The Lawndale Christian Community Church is a nondenominational church founded in 1978 in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. The worship service was similar to my home church in that it began with a welcome, and then included (roughly in order) congregational singing, choir singing, announcements, a period for sharing prayer requests and praises, a message, and ended with communion. Interestingly these things were in roughly the same order in which they come at my home church. Some differences include the fact that no offering was taken during the service (there was a place for offerings in the corner but it was not mentioned), there was no period during the service for meeting and greeting other attenders (in contrast to my Spanish church experience in which each member hugged every other person), but at the same time there was a long period for the church members to come forward and share prayer requests and praises, after which a pastor prayed specifically for all of them.

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

Several differences were very appealing to me. First, the shape of the worship space emphasized the communal nature of the church community: instead of all pews facing forward towards a stage, there were chairs arranged in hexagonal rows surrounding a central platform on which the pastor or music leaders stood. The period for sharing of prayer requests and praises also served to enhance this feel of community, and they often referred to the “church family.” Finally, the lead pastor knew many of the congregants by name, as well as their individual struggles, and would even call out and refer to them in the middle of his sermon. The congregational community really knew one another, and the pastors especially knew their congregation. Another thing that struck me is the service length: my home church services aim to last no more than one hour, but this service was nearly two hours. I think that having the community together for longer periods helps to bring the members together, and it seems a bit ironic to me that many “suburban” churches in higher socioeconomic neighborhoods would have trouble getting members to participate in a service lasting over an hour. I think this speaks to a common suburban attitude of “getting churched” where we go to check it off a list; in Lawndale, folks didn’t go to church if they didn’t want to be there, and those who did really lived when in community.

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

There really wasn’t much that bothered or disoriented me in the service, although the different physical arrangement took some adjustment. I might as well comment on that a bit: in a Theology of Worship course last quad, we discussed how worship spaces relate to a theology of worship. My experience at LCCC confirmed the fact that a circular space in which members can see the faces of almost all other members serves to bring them together; and I think the context of this church was such that this style was probably the right choice. But it is worth mentioning two advantages of the forward-looking design. First, and especially if there is a large pulpit (hopefully obscuring the person), it is easier to understand the message or Scripture reading as truly the Word of the L­­ord, whereas a central platform emphasizes the activity of the human preacher. Also, many forward-facing churches have a cross at the front that the congregation looks towards, and this can be a helpful reminder that the focus should be on Christ and his work first, and then the community second; the circular environment could possibly emphasize the group more than God (though by no means would this necessarily happen).

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

As mentioned already above, the service emphasized community, which, although pervasive in Scripture, unfortunately is lacking in many suburban churches in affluent areas such as Wheaton. The pastor’s message was also clearly tailored to his congregation, and I think this can only be done by someone who really knows the congregants. The message was about Christ’s last words as He was suffering on the cross, and the preacher related this to the suffering endured by many of the congregants. But he was also very clear about sin and the purpose of Christ’s suffering; how He took upon Himself all of our sin. I connected for the first time the darkness in the land while Jesus was dying to His words “why have you forsaken me?” Previously I thought of the darkness as a sign of God’s wrath on humanity for killing His Son; in this service, as the pastor connected Christ’s suffering to the darkness, I realized that one could also understand the darkness as a sign of Christ being abandoned by the Father as He “became sin for us” on the cross.