Michael Vanaman Church Visit #3 (Community w/ reference to Stein)

Church Name: Lawndale Christian Community Church

Church Address: 3827 W. Ogden, Chicago Illinois 60623

Date Attended: November 2^nd, 2014

Church Category: Significantly lower socioeconomic demographic

Describe the worship service you attended.

Lawndale Christian Community Church was different in almost every way from my usual church experience and I love it. The service was directly tied to the community there. The preaching was rooted in the struggles that Lawndale faced. Further, a significant period of time was taken for the community to give prayer requests and to praise God for His work in their lives. Rather than focusing on some deep theological concept that only briefly touched the lives of the congregation, the message was focused on conveying the Gospel and how it tells us to live right now. The service was also deeply personal. The leaders of the church seemed to know everyone’s name and addressed them on a first name basis. Finally, the whole service took place in a gym rather than a church which illuminated something which I was bring up later.

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

The most appealing aspect, for me, was found in the authenticity of service. The worship was conducted in such a way that you never really could tell when it would die down. At one point the singing died down and the keyboardist allowed the congregation to quiet down and then went straight back into the chorus and all of us joined with him even louder than before. This wasn’t some set song that was to be gone through to get to the message, the music was an integral part of the entire service. Further, the main message was directed towards real issues in Lawndale. The murder rate was discussed, the troubles of those who offered their prayer requests were discussed openly, and much more pointed to the fact that this church was not merely going through the motions of a Sunday service, this was a real attempt to center the community in the Gospel.

What did you most disorienting or challenging?

I think the most challenging part of attending this church was the realization that I was outsider to this community. The service, as I touched on, was extremely personal. The service was not aiming at some sort of universal, Christian message that could be taught anywhere, it was a like a letter written to those who lived in Lawndale. This is not to say that you could not understand the sermon without being a resident of Lawndale, but you probably couldn’t get the full picture of the service without being a member of that community. However, this challenging aspect is what really added to my favorite part of the service. It truly felt authentic because the service was so personal. I have heard that the church does not encourage outsiders to become members of the church I believe this might explain some of that. This wasn’t a church for everyone, it was meant for this community that made the church.

What aspects of Scripture of theology did the service illuminate for you?

The key aspect of Scripture that was illuminated for me was the church is a community, not a building. Lawndale takes place in a gym, in the middle of health center, and it is more of a church than any of the churches I have attended in my lifetime. Edith Stein, a German, Jewish Philosopher, wrote that a community is a group of people who have shared life experiences. She differentiated this from an association where people are together for one common goal. I believe many churches, such as those I come from, seem to feel more like an association. They get together seemingly for the mission of having a church where they can worship God individually or in smaller groups. For this church in Lawndale, they seem to really embrace this sense of community. They share their experiences as residents of Lawndale and they share a want to live up to the values that the Gospel calls us to embrace. There is a true sense of community in this church that I have never seen in another church before. Thus I think this experience illuminated the idea that a church is not some building but it a community of believers who share their values and truly want to live out the Gospel.