Apex United Methodist church has changed the way I look at life, and the way I want to live my life. Growing up, my parents made me go to church. It was like a chore - I had to do it. Like most other seven year olds in America, I woke up at 7:00 a.m. every Sunday morning looking forward to playing video games and spending time with my friends. Instead, I had to go get dressed in those fancy clothes, my mom had to brush and gel my hair, and then I had to spend two hours listening to boring sermons and awful singing. Oh, how I despised the choir singing! All I wanted was to play my Gameboy, ride my bike, or play anything outside with my friends! I thought I would always loathe Sunday mornings; however, over the past nine years, my perspective of Church and what is means to me has evolved. Between the age of seven and eleven, I was present at church every Sunday. But, as soon as one 1:00 p.m. came around, I put God in my back pocket until next week. My 6th grade year, however, was an early turning point in my faith. I completed my church’s confirmation program, where I learned more about Christianity, but I still felt like there had to be more. During my 7th grade year, I started youth group. At the time, youth group was still something I felt like I was forced to do. I just wanted to stay home and watch the Sunday night football …show more content…
Whether I am enjoying a Sunday service, leading new AOSP members, or voicing my opinion during a youth discussion, I aim to grow as a faithful Christian. In the next few years, I hope to expand my mission work outside of North Carolina, maybe even to third world countries, and broaden my scope of what it means to be a Christian. I still look back on those early years of church, and my first AOSP experience, and see how my view of Church changed for the better. I have grown from being forced to go to church, to looking forward to Sunday
I must say that I learned a lot from this class both through the readings and through class discussion. I really, honestly do not have anything that I starkly disagreed with in either. I found it all to be very valuable information for me and this class was extremely helpful in assisting me to better understand the current paradigm shift the church is going through. There are three take-a-ways in particular that helped me to better understand the post modern shift in the church and my role as a minister in this changing paradigm. The first take-a-way is the understanding that there is a shift occurring towards focusing more on the congregational life of the church with more attention on the laity and its formation. Second, is how to plan, as a church and as pastors, to adjust to this shift towards congregational life and how to be better prepared as a postmodern church to be relevant in this changing time. Lastly, I received a better way of explaining the meaning of what truth is in this post modern time.
Christianity is one of the largest religions in world with believers spreading across barriers of language and culture. Christianity can come in many forms with beliefs on different subjects varying wildly, but there is one practice that remains relatively the same: church attendance. The ritual of getting up every Sunday morning and attending a church service including a sermon by a pastor and sometimes a smaller, more focused lesson given during what is called “Sunday School”, is something that is practiced by many faithful Christians across the world and the United States, in particular. Attending church is a practice that is integral to the Christian faith as it is shown in the Bible. It informs and impacts the lives of many believers of
Church is a major part of my life. I have always gone to church. It is a part of who I am. Church is not only about sitting through church services. I am currently involved in Russian school, Sunday school, camps, wind ensemble, teens’ group, teens' choir, and youth group. There are so many engaging activities and groups that bring together our community, defining who we are as individuals and as a society.
As far back as my mind would let me travel, I remember my grandmother telling me, “Jaylon, there are three things in life you can’t escape. Death, taxes, and Sunday school.” Well, it turns out she was right. Come rain or shine I was there every single Sunday morning service and since all my other grandmother’s grandsons took to playing sports and chasing women they left all the singing in church choir to me. Now I was always different and in my little town of Mount Pleasant they let you know just how different they thought you were.
I was dragged to Catholic church every Sunday as a child. Despite the numerous temper-tantrums, I could not be more thankful for the efforts of my parents. After many Wednesday nights and a hefty amount of volunteer hours, I was confirmed in the Catholic Church. The
The Congregational Church is not a new religion in the United States today. This early denomination dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, a time in which England was involved in a revolt against the Established Church. This congregational way held new principles and views than the beliefs of the English church, many so radical that the followers were called Independents or Separatists. I have been raised in the Congregational Church, and it is truly a wonderful opportunity for me to describe here the practices and beliefs of the place where my faith was nurtured, and also incorporate the significance that hymns have played in my worship experiences.The central understanding in Congregationalism is that each local congregation is self-governing, which necessitates the full autonomy of the local congregation in matters of faith and doctrine as well as in other matters of governance. It acknowledges no authority outside of the local congregation, neither bishop nor presbytery. The Congregational Church is reluctant to give binding authority to creeds, for this is the ground on which they broke free from in early England. Preaching is extremely important, for the Word in Scripture is thought of as the constitutive of the Church. Ministry also derives its authority from the Word, and in my own church is a very vital part of our mission. Baptism and The Lord's Supper are practiced, although there is still an argument present on the b...
As a young boy, I attended Sunday School for many years. I learned about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit once a week and was immersed in a family that was religious. We never missed a Sunday, prayed before every meal, and talked about God in our lives. I was baptized and began attending a Lutheran church up until the end of middle school. Our lives became busier, and our attendances to church became fewer and far between. In school I began learning about evolution and how humans came about. I remember that I did not understand how school could teach something different than what I learned my entire life. At first I did not know what to believe. I became skeptical about many ideas in the Christian faith. Is there one almighty God? Did he create man as told in the story of Adam and Eve? I thought these bold ideas were far-fetched. For a short while, I did not believe the teachings of the Bible or of God. I had many of the same thoughts as doubters of the Christian religion. How can the idea of one God or Heaven be real if no living person had ever witnessed it for themselves? Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? The absence of God and the theory of evolution seemed like the reasonable explanation to me. As time went on, I continued to attend church sporadically and did a lot of thinking about my faith. Every so often, I would find
For as long as I can remember, I have gone to church. My entire life I have known this concept of Jesus and who he was. And for some reason, that was supposed to be important to me. As a kid, I could tell you the majority of the Bible stories, after all, I heard them all the time. Even at a young age, though, I could tell there was more to the whole Jesus thing. It seemed that some people understood on a deeper level what all this church stuff was actually about. As I began to learn more about this Jesus, I began to question why he was important to me and what he had to do with the life change in the people around me.
On Sunday March 12th and 19th, my husband and I attended Holy Trinity St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (HTSN) in Finneytown, Ohio. The church conducts Orthros (Matins) at 8:15 am and Divine Liturgy from 9:30-11:30 am. I chose to attend HTSN for two reasons; first, they host the annual Panegyri Festival and two, learning about the 1054 split intrigued me given the current state of the Methodist Church.
Ever since I was little, I have always been raised in the church. My mom would take my brother and I every Sunday, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. Going to church, three days a week for seventeen years, has really impacted my life, it makes me feel better about myself. For example, if I am ever going though a rough time, church reminds me to stay strong and that God is always there for me, no matter what. It also makes me feel happy to be alive and be glad to have the life that I live because a lot of people are not as fortunate as I. Since I have been in church, I have contributed a lot of my time helping out. I have made plenty of boxes for members, at my church, to put donations in for the charity work we do. I have helped maintain
I went to church every Wednesday and read my Bible as a “good Christian should.” I never thought that when I left high school that I would consider myself more spiritual rather than religious. This was mainly because of the monthly masses my school would have in the auditorium. During my freshman and sophomore years, the auditorium chairs were wooden and blemished from the building formerly an elementary school. The windows frames were horizontal and rectangular.
Which brings me to Fowler’s Theory of Faith Development, specifically Individual-Reflective Faith which occurs in early adulthood. Growing up as a family we went to church every Sunday and sometimes even twice a week, everyone in my family was a catholic and that was expected from all of us, no questions asked. I even got baptized as a baby and did my first communion when I was about nine years old. I did not mind the expectation from my family when I was little because I loved church, especially the singing. Then came a time where both of my parents started to work on Sundays, so did my sister, and so my brother and I helped out at my parents restaurant. Ever since then we really have not made church a priority, I believe this is what effected my encounter with my mother when I was eighteen years old. I was currently taking a class called “religion in the modern world” and learned about all rituals and how different religions support different things than others, and it got to me to reflect on what religion I grew up learning about. Some things I liked and some things I was horrified by. So talking to my mother, I was telling her my opinions and what I believed in and that there is not just one way to believe or think. She was furious, I was stepping out of the norm, but it had been because of my Individual-Reflective Faith than lead me to this stage. I am very thankful I was able to reflect on my faith, I now have a stronger bond on my beliefs and now my mother totally supports me on it, so it was all for the best that I went through this
From the earliest I could ever remember, my parents have put me in church and kept me involved. In particular, my family chose to attend Baptist churches. I never fully understood why I was there, although I had thought I knew exactly what I was supposed to do. I assumed that I was a good person and that God was the center of my life. I believe, however, that I was not fully aware of what the concept of God really was. By the time I was teenager, while I was not completely rebellious, I was not living a life representing Jesus win a good manner. As I grew older and matured I began to realize what Christianity was all about.
The first nineteen years of my life were developed through the lens of a single church/school. Through three weekly worship services, two prayer services, youth group, home-fellowship group, men’s breakfast, and school five days a week, my worldview matured. I have to stress that Calvary Temple was my world, it was my society, and much of who I am is because of that church.
As grew older and more observant in the church, I realized that there was hierarchy and many of the times, it seemed as if it were tainted. I quickly grasped the concept that if you were connected to the “right” group of people, you would be given special treatment. It reminded me of the typical American high school cliques. For instance, there was always a group of people that were more known than others; they were liked by almost everyone, they were given special treatment, and put on a pedestal. When I finally decided to leave that type of environment, I recognized that it was a toxic atmosphere, especially if one didn’t agree with the majority or put the few on a pedestal. This season of my life helped me realize that I didn’t need to be validated by others. I actually preferred that I wasn’t alike and chose the rebellious, non-confirmative route instead. It was freeing and I’m grateful that I never looked