The City Harmonic Essay

Sitting in the Brand New Life Christian Center in April 2006, I gazed upon the chairs, pulpit, and an array of pianos, drums, and trumpets. The praise and worship team was leading us in songs of worship. An excitement was building because I knew it was not just any ordinary concert; it was the day one of my favorite artists, Cleveland Laing, also known as Lieutenant. Stitchie was going to perform. I counted each song we sang and how many people performed before it was Lt. Stitchie’s turn to thrill us with heart-stopping, soul-filling reggae gospel music. Everyone stood tense as they awaited his performance. The seats were filled, with even more people crowding the back and the sides of the church.

Located in the heart of downtown Cedar Rapids this Historical brick building with its’ decorative molding and beautiful stain glass windows is the home of a subculture of biblically based Christians. This church family meets every Sunday like many churches who revere Sunday as being the Lord’s day, set aside for rest and worship of God. Biblically based Christianity is a vast culture of faith in God carried out by many subcultures called churches, made up of people who seek to worship God and to foster a personal relationship with him. One of the most important things that make a subculture is a question of what is it that brings these people together? This foundational question is not only the question of the subculture, but is also the defining

At the beginning, he calls the congregation together in a unification of the unknown and the impoverished. By including himself within the congregation using “we”, as can often be heard, he brings the group closer together as a whole, such as when he confronts the outside world who, “come in and think that they have a great deal of wisdom that they can somehow [assist] we poor struggling people here… think that they can reach down to our drab existence and lift us up. Maybe we could take you out of your drab existence and free you. ”(Jones) Empowering the group, he believes that together great feats could be accomplished, building a faith not just in himself, but with the community as well.

Galindo analyzes that the fundamental “mission” of a congregation is the same as any other congregation that exists in any part of the world. He argues that though every congregation has a mission and a vision, at the same time, it shares a basic common mission. (43) This reminds me of my home church The First Church of Evanston and my Field Site, The Evanston Vineyard Church. Both churches have a common mission of welcoming people to the church, irrespective of their ethnic, cultural, racial, and economic and, gender backgrounds. The mission is to help people be received in the house of God with due and deserved Christian love so that they feel loved and welcomed. Both these churches encourage church attendees to attend the service and receive the Eucharist.

The church must be a central part of rebuilding the community, they are strangers to. There are a variety of ways of reaching the community, however, whether the church elects the execution of at least one or more of these methods are something of a different matter. Pleasant Hill Baptist Church (PHBC) today, does not have an ongoing focused vision, structured outwardly, in place. By the same token, in regards to connecting or bridging the outside community to the relevance of the church, there have been several attempts made. Examples: Service on the lawn, “Cross” walk Easter Sunday, and Church cookout and picnic day. These creative ideas used to get the attention of the community were only temporary.

Local churches around Blythe came together under Palo Verde College Performing Arts Center’s roof, to lift up holy hands, sing to the Lord a new song and worship as a interdenominational congregation.

Swanson and Williams have a desire to transform the city. They would like to see a unified effort among the churches in the city. They write that they would like to see interdenominational cooperation on loving the city, and that they are not that interested in inter-denominational dialogue. If the goal of this cooperation is to benefit the commonwealth of the city, then why are we limiting our partnerships to just other churches in the city? Why not utilize all of the resources in the city to achieve our initiative? When is the work gospel-centered city transformation, and when does it become a humanitarian effort where the recipients enjoy a beautiful city but still face eternal separation from God?

“Restoring At-Risk Communities,” written by John M. Perkins is a collaborative work of urban professionals in ministry, providing a blueprint for working in urban communities. It provides the personal expertise of so many to help fellow missionaries and those in ministry to develop a Christian community. In today’s culture, many of our cities are falling apart due to poverty, lack of education, lack of religion, and large amounts of people leaving for the suburbs. People who are being called to minister in the downtowns, or those who are already suffering in the trenches are struggling with how to reach the community for Christ. Perkins shares his personal experience of being on the frontlines of ministry, and the appropriate strategy to reaching those communities. He writes, “The desperate problems in America’s inner cities will not be resolved without strong commitment and risky action on the part of ordinary Christians with heroic faith” (Perkins, 1995).

Grace City Church based in Dee why has recently opened a community food care. The shop has attracted the local community’s low income earners with “in excess of 120 registrations in the beginning months, displaying the voluminous need of the people in the area” said Amiee Wang.

The Hillsong Church is aptly named, because music is essential to the model of worship. Unlike other Protestant church organizations, Hillsong is known for its huge congregations. According to the Hillsong Website, more than 20,000 people attend Sunday services in Sydney alone ("About Hillsong Church"). The church that I attend, sometimes, is small with no more than a few hundred members attending a service at any one time.

As Gospel music has a complex and diversified history, there are several forms of the genre, many of which intertwine with Soul (Gospel’s secular counterpart), Blues and Jazz. Consequently, although adaptable and broadly-defined, Gospel’s all-embracing musical lesson of spiritual contemplation and persistence, has always been a constant reminder for its enthusiasts.

The song I have chosen really explains my belief as a Christian and tells about how we Pentecostals sometimes act in church. The video (I’m) is a live performance based in a church, Christian Life Center (CLC), which is located in Stockton, CA. The original church was founded on 15 Apr. 1935; from the beginning the church began to grow so fast that their buildings couldn’t keep up with them. The church started in a storefront building and has recently moved on to their sixth building, which seats 5,800 people (Our). With a great ministry team and worship leaders, CLC choir has not only preformed the song “I’m a Pentecostal”, but also one of the pastors, Nethaniel Haney, wrote the lyrics to the song. I love the song because the lyrics really speak about what we believe, explains how we worship in church, and how we continue to grow in size.

Reflecting upon the readings of Torrance’s Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace and White’s Introduction to Christian Worship will deeply shape how I look at worship in the churches I now order worship for the congregations. I used one of the churches in which I serve to do the Order of Worship assignment. It is a blue collar, small membership church located in a rural, retirement/ vacation area of North Carolina, Lake Gaston. It is also predominately Caucasian. Torrance’s focus is on trinitarian worship, participating in Christ’s communion with God, the Father and Christ’s life, death, and resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit. And White’s focus is to look at how the forms used in worship give worship its meaning. These forms include but are not exclusive of, time, space, music and art. There are implications for both focuses in the order of worship for the congregation used for my order of worship.

We are able to worship as a community, individually, and through our lifestyles, each of which are honoring to God. Worshiping as a community means coming together to “respond to all God has revealed of himself” (Brooks, Worship Quest, pg. 89). We need to worship as a community in order to be filled. The Bible also states that we should worship together as a congregation and community.

          The city I propose as a perfect city, would be as close to an ecocity as possible, although have some differences. For example, for electrical needs, I would suggest the city have a solar power plant, but on those desperate times, energy would be bought from other electrical plants from nearby towns or states.