On Sunday, November 13, 2016, I visited The Pentecostal Church of Memphis, TN Sunday worship service at two o’clock p.m. The members of the church were very friendly and welcoming. Many of the members of the church came and personally introduce themselves, including the senior Pastor, his wife, many of the lower Pastors, and other church officials or position holders. I was assigned a designated member of the church to sit with during the service to assist me with anything I may have needed. The church service began with Pastor’s wife announcing and recognizing each of the visitors of the church. After acknowledging the visitors, she then led the praise and worship part of the service. During this time, certain members of the church began …show more content…
The congregation sang along with the members. In the praise and worship segment of the service, the Pastor’s wife announced that it was time to do a “war cry”. The “war cry” was when everyone in the church made sounds of praise towards the Lord in order to remove the devil and evil spirits out of the building and from the lives of the people within the church. Praise in worship at the Pentecostal Church was more of a group of individual moments of worship at one time. Majority of the congregation participated in praise and worship in different ways. Some members ran around shouting or singing praises to the Lord, while others danced in placed while shouting or singing praises to the Lord. I noticed that a common form of praise that the members acted in was “speaking in tongues”. The congregation of the church was composed of people of different backgrounds, ethnicities and nationalities. Since …show more content…
The welcome reception is for the visitors to come and talk with the members and pastors of the church. It was during this time I learned more about the people of the church. The praise and worship portion of the service is the favorite part of service amongst the members because it often set the mood for the message given by the pastor or gives the pastor conformation that he is indeed delivering the message that God wants him to deliver. The members of the church truly enjoy the church and the services because they all become very close and truly see each other as family. They believe that they all have three main things in common: they love God, they love their Church, and they love their community. One of the members came to the Pentecostal faith sixty-five years ago and has been a member of the church from serval years. He was a nineteen-year-old in college that wanted to branch his wings. He grew up in the Methodist church where they focused on the methodology of the religion. He has developed a deep and passionate love for the religion and the youth who seek to learn more about the religion, particularly college students. He was very happy that I decided to visit the church and gave me his testimonial life
The service concluded with the bishop standing and speaking to the people for a few minutes he spoke on the importance of the service and He shared some scripture and personal stories. After the service Father Constantine invited everyone next door for refreshments, and stayed in the nave to answer any of our questions, this time was very helpful to me since this was my first time at a Orthodox church. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience I learned a lot about the Orthodox tradition. I don't think I would have been able to grasp the differences between the different branches in Christianity without witnessing them first hand.
Heaton, Allan. An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.
were also musical as well as spiritual. The yelling and shouting in the church were
...in Islam singing never been a part of a ritual practice. That church was different than any other worshiping places I have visited before. I was very happy after this experience, because they still send me emails, mails, and thank you cards every Sunday. Before I leave they gave me a copy of New Testament Book and The Story of Jesus to help me in my research. I did not feel that I’m a stranger or a guest; I felt that I am one of the group members and my present is important for them. Obviously , through that experience their goals was knowing God through believing in Christ, grow in faith and spiritual maturity by providing opportunities for spiritual growth through Life Groups, and love and serve others unselfishly as Christ did, by equipping and preparing for service and offering various opportunities to serve within the church and in our community and the world.
The first time I attended the Episcopal Church in my hometown with a girlfriend, I was shocked by the complexity of the melodies the organist played, by the sheer, tuneful competence of the singing. Until then I don’t think I knew it was possible to worship God in cadences and keys actually indicated in a hymnal.
Combined Choirs. 1964. A History of First Baptist Church Lindale, Georgia. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 1-68. Print.
In an age when culture continues to lower standards of intellect, Marva Dawn makes compelling observations and suggestions for the Church to rethink its’ strategy on impacting society. How do we evangelize without weakening the message of what we are communicating? The majority of her text focuses on the worship environment generally, but later she focuses on music, preaching, and liturgy specifically. According to Dawn, a gathering of believers should emphasize God as the subject and object of worship, challenge each individual to grow in godly character, and accentuate the community of believers (not only in the room, but throughout history as well). Through this grid, she encourages leaders and participants to evaluate each worship element. If these primary goals are accomplished, then worship will not be empty and simpleminded. Instead the worship atmosphere would be held to a higher standard and, she believes, both pleasing to God and attractive to those who do not know God.
Once the service started, my friend showed me where the schedule for the service was and what each number meant. There were different colors of numbers in the book and those indicated what section the reading or song was coming from. This was different from the church that I attend because we have a choir and a band that plays the songs and if you wish to join in you can but for the Catholic Church there is, no choir and the members of the church are the ones who sing. After some singing, the priest came up to talk and this is very different from what I expected. I was used to flipping through the channels and seeing the catholic churches with the priest who were a ...
Throughout the Western culture, Christianity has played a crucial role in the spiritual life of many people. In fact, it is a one of the largest religion in the world with an estimating range from 2 to 3 billion Christians (Religions of the World: Numbers of Adherents; Growth Rates). Spreading with this worldwide religion, the idea that God is at the centre of daily life has a high importance to many people. In the early 20th Century, one of the significant developments of Christianity was the Pentecostal Movement (A Brief History of Christianity). More specifically, Pentecostalism is “the principles and practices of Pentecostal religious groups, characterized by religious excitement and talking in tongues”; its most remarkable detail is its emphasis of the Holy Spirit and the value of prayer (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). It has outspread around the world by the people who believed that they had experienced the marvelous moves of God.
This particular church is a Pentecostal church; therefore, they believe that the Holy Spirit works as a personal spiritual guide and that any believer can have a personal relationship with God. They practice “speaking in tongues”, which is a foreign language between the believer and the
When mentioned to the general public, the word “Pentecostalism” generates three diverse responses: confusion, mockery, and tolerance; some people never heard of the word, some people view it as being infamous, and the rest accept it. According to the Oxford dictionary, Pentecostalism “relates to any number of Christian sects emphasizing baptism in the Holy Spirit.” Misconceptions originated from the misunderstanding of the history of Pentecostalism, along with the notion that Pentecostalism is one sect when, in fact, there are many divisions. The largest of these is the teachings of Charismatic’s, which make up the most prevalent part of the denomination and have been the driving force for the assumptions and reputation that Pentecostalism has garnered. To truly understand Pentecostalism, one needs to learn the religions history, the standard beliefs of the various sects, and the contemporary changes that some followers have made in the recent years that have fueled the current fallacy about the belief system.
The format of a Baptist Sunday service consists of the choir, devotion (psalms, scripture, message, prayer, song), responsive readings, congregational prayer, choir, sermon, and invitation to join the church, offering, and then special announcements. Each month a different part of the church is in charge of the prayer service.
As an anthropology major this was of particular interest to me even though I am not Christian. I arrived when members were driving up and talking to each other. I was greeted by all the ladies and nodded at by all the men. I felt this symbolism was to make me feel less of an outsider and the men are restricted as to who they can address if the person is the opposite sex, so the nodding was to make me feel welcome without directly addressing me. Somehow, they knew who was going to be attending and when the last car arrived everyone filed into the church, without windows, led by the elders.
Through the various calls for response made by the priests, “let us be attentive”, “let us pray to the Lord”, “peace be with you” and “servant of God” tradition is linguistically demonstrated. Each of these and other prayers was concluded with a response or “Amen” typically by the priest or the choir. Also, we saw reminders of God’s beauty in the images of those who loved and served the Lord throughout the ages as painting on the ceilings and walls.
The second parishoner to show her gratitude was another older women. She was wearing a flowered dress with a big floppy hat. She asked that we sign the official guest book and requested that we fill out an information card. She had a smile and a heart each made of pure gold. She took great pride in her job. The church had named her "the greeter" over 21 years ago, and according to her version of the story she had not missed a Sunday yet. We took our cards and moved into the sanctuary.