Marja Moore- Church Visit 1

Marja Moore- Church Visit 1

Christian Heritage Training Center
160 E. Marquette Rd. Chicago, IL 60637
August 31, 2014
Significantly lower socioeconomic demographic

The Worship service was in a small building on the corner of 67th and Indiana on the south side of Chicago. There were about 50 people in attendance and the service was non-denominational.  There was an hour of prayer before the morning service started. Then the service started with praise and worship and moved into the choir selections. After this, there was prayer and the word for the day was read aloud to the congregation. The sermon followed and was given by a guest speaker. Finally, there was offering, announcements, and the benediction.
This church is actually my home church and I grew up in this context. My church is 3 blocks from Englewood, a neighborhood where many shootings and violent crimes take place. I remember times where my church decided to conduct church outside and where we would march around the neighborhood praying and singing to God for our neighborhood. We not only pray for the gangs, but confront them face to face and ask them how we can love them. This church is different because we have a store in the back or church to service the community with fresh produce and better products while using it as a venue to spread the gospel. Our church responds to and receives messages in response to what is going on in our community. But most importantly to me, we are a family united through Christ to serve our community.
I find the gospel music most appealing about the worship service. The words are often expressions of the hard things in life but how God made everything work out for the good. It is encouraging because in our community there is much bad, but to sing words of hope and testimonies of praise give you strength to keep believing.
What I find most challenging is how confrontational our pastor is with the people committing violent crimes in the area. I was nervous to march around a neighborhood where you know they shoot even children and women for no reason. It was not necessarily easy to go door to door asking how we can pray for people when you do not know how they will respond to you. But through these challenges, we grow.
The aspects of scripture that were illuminated were the passages about the end times and the examples of how we need to watch.