Jon Tsen - Church Visit #1

Church Name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church Address: 3827 W. Ogden Avenue, Chicago, IL 60623

Date Attended: September 14, 2014

Church Category: "Significantly Lower Socioeconomic Demographic"

Image above: Lawndale Christian Health Center, where the church hosts its services

In the brisk morning at the godly (or godforsaken, take your pick) hour of 7:30AM we began our trek to Lawndale from Wheaton, IL. My lips were chapping, throat drying. The driver, who's also my incredible friend and roommate, was kind enough to consider to keep the car warm for the passengers, but had neglected to turn the air off after the vehicle had heated up. While I was shriveling up like a raisin, we took a generous amount of time trying to find Lawndale (hint: we sort of got lost. Others may beg to differ). Around 8:25AM we finally arrived at our destination: Lawndale Christian Community Church. And I knew that we were at the right place because the first thing I thought was, 

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

"Oh my gosh. There are so many black people." 

And I'm sorry that that was the first thing I thought. I remember that the first time I realized that I was a person of color was when a black man visited my home church, Salem Evangelical Free Church, in the whitest white Scandinavian-Ville of Fargo, North Dakota*. I remember thinking in my puny five year old head, "Hey, he looks different...but, wait. Wait! I do too! What!?"  Such a memory of noticing difference and otherness was reverberated at Lawndale Christian Community Church. Lawndale was different enough from my home contexts simply through color. Racial divisions was always something I knew about, but until I stepped into that blue gymnasium I never knew how much it ruptured my ideas of what I thought church should be. Church doesn't always look like a room full of blonde or brunette norse men, women, and children--nor should it always. 

(Yes the two pictures on the right are of my hometown.) 

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

After recovering from the momentary culture shock (yes, I know, that is an incredibly loose use of that word) we found our seats, but not without first being interrupted by people reaching to shake our hands accompanied by warm smiles. This is what I found to be so familiar and appealing to Lawndale: their community. While I did grow up in a predominantly white cultured church I also did grow up in a Chinese church where a large amount of focused energy was poured into everyone feeling like family. Lawndale's familiarity of a community that goes out of its way to make new-comers feel at home reminded me of that part of home. 

Once we were settled in our seats we were invited to stand and join in praise music. This was perhaps one of my favorite parts about Lawndale. Gospel music. And I don't know enough about gospel music to tell you what kind of genre we sang, but I can tell you it awoke something in me that I don't get in other church music settings. 

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

When the worship music ended Pastor Coach began speaking. Perhaps it was his curtness, or his strong gaze, or his sharp Chicago accent ("well if ya' didn't invite anyone to Lawndale, den what do ya' think you're doin'?!"), but I was put off initially by his style of speaking. Driving, passionate, and aiming to convict while uplift, Pastor Coach embodied every rhetorical style that is antithetical to Scandinavian (and dare I say some aspects of Chinese) speaking styles: look above the heads when speaking with little eye contact, script speak, don't budge an inch from the pulpit.  Because I was so thrown off by his thundering voice, I couldn't get an immediate accurate understanding of where he was going to go with his scripture reading. I was challenged to trust that Pastor Coach was going to reveal what he was doing with the scripture, rather than assume that he was misinterpreting the Word.  I'm glad I trusted, because Pastor Coach got what his rhetoric was moving us towards: I was massively convicted.

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

Pastor Coach, with a sweeping look across the room, ended his service with a challenge to us to fast for Lawndale. According to him, in the year of 2014 Lawndale had six victims of murder. Since 2012, Lawndale had seventeen. Since 2007, one-hundred and twenty-one**. Pastor Coach and Lawndale reminded me of how Jesus ministered to people--he ministered to the whole person. Jesus fed and healed the hungry and sick while ministering the word. Often I forget that true evangelism includes meeting people's spiritual needs and physical needs. Which let's be frank, those are just both simply needs. Lawndale needs the gospel message, yes. They do need to hear the Word. Absolutely. But they also need safety and health. This too is the gospel. 

After the service we chatted with a few members and traveled home. I’m glad I went to Lawndale. It was a needed reminder.

*Fargo, ND, according to City-data.com, has a population as of 2012 that is 89.0% white. The second largest racial group are Asians at a whopping 3.0%. Source: here.

**To contrast the violence in Lawndale, Wheaton has reported 0 homicides since 2011 and on average reports 0.2 homicides every 5 years and 0.1 every 10 years. Source: here.