A Modest Proposal: My Church Experiences

In the Introduction section of the book, The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Israel Galindo states that a congregation is a “corporate relationship organization” (3) and is not an organization. He points out that the hidden life of a congregation would depict the “nature” of a congregation. This further identifies the relationships and faith of the congregation. According to him, the universal principles are followed by the congregations so that “systemic relationships” can work. The leaders learn the roles that they have within the people who are the congregation. The journal will focus on Dr. Fowler’s question “what is the purpose of this gathering we call the church?”

For an observation of an AA meeting my classmate and I made arrangements to go to an open meeting at Our Lady Star Of The Sea Church, which was held in a basement during a Tuesday afternoon session at 4:00 p.m. I first looked up the sessions online on a website where it held all the meetings on Staten Island and this one fit my schedule well. Its not unusual for me to be attending or visiting churches but for this assignment it did feel a little out of my comfort zone, because I didn’t know what to expect or what others would think of me. I chose a seat in the back corner that wouldn’t be too obvious yet it seemed like a typical seat for a newbie to sit at. The room was fairly large and I was surprised at how big the crowd got at least 30 plus people attended.

Since being new to the service Mr. Snaider sat by my partner and I to help guide us and answer any questions we may have. The room was quickly getting filled up as the service was about to begin. As the service began Paula Morris led the service along with Eva Freund who gave the main message of the night. Many events happened throughout the night. Since it was Shabbat, in order to welcome it Paula asked the group to get up and sing L’cha Dodi which welcomes everyone and the angels into the Shabbat service. As we started to sing, I noticed other members of the congregation holding hands with other members of the group and waving their heads along singing joyfully. Something completely unexpected, but my partner and I participated in the events as a sign of

There were two striking aspects of the service that stood out in my mind. The first was the amount of standing. I had heard that traditionally Orthodox services do not permit sitting at all. Only some of the

I first thought the concert would include full band, background singers, different lightings and costume changes. My thought was quickly changed when I saw that there was one drummer and the artist with his two guitars. It was very different from the other concerts that I’ve been to. He was really laid back and speaking about his life openly to us. He shared with us about his life as an artist, a husband, father and a follower of Jesus. The concert was very energetic, with a lot of dancing, shouting and sing along. The songs he sung were from his old and upcoming

The service itself was very interesting, the priest would speak words that some I wouldn't understand, but some I could. He would say things like thank the lord for this beautiful day and this great opportunity for us all to be together here. He would ask the people to stand then sit and stand again and sit, then stand for a really long time that I actually got tired from standing it was funny, but I didn't sit down just to show signs of respect. As he would speak he would stop and everyone would respond to the priest at the exact same time saying the same words, it was really cool how everyone's words together sounded it created a very powerful voice amongst everyone. Then people would all do that one thing where they make a cross by putting their thumb, to their

Over the past years of my life I have seen many changes, some for the good and others not as good. Change can be demanding and also crucial. The early believers would encounter this. One can see that significant change happened, when reading through the gospels and the book of acts it is obvious to the reader that the believers who followed Jesus would never be the same again.

I learned that in the Catholic community the ceremony is referred to as “Mass”, and before Mass, the Apostle Creed is recited by a volunteer. In addition, the altar had lit candles and sacred images were displayed such as the Virgin Mary and Jesus in the Crucifix. Besides that, I felt out of place amongst the congregation because I didn’t know the process in greeting other members. In a Catholic service the congregation is very active, the members that volunteer have many roles to accomplish before the Priest commences Mass. As the Priest reached the Altar, he kissed it. The Priest had an incense burner and was spreading it all around the Altar; it was my first time that I witnessed this type of sacred

The experience overall was incredibly organized. I point this out because the Catholic mass was more organized than any service I have ever been a part of in the Pentecostal church. In the Pentecostal church the structure of every service could be subject

The lead monk stood up and gave a speech in which I learned that it is important to have compassion and prayer in order to come together to live in harmony. After his speech, I was handed a packet that held the words to the prayer and songs that described the ritual. In order of events the monk began prayer, Refuge and Bodhicitta, then he started singing the prayer in a different language. To finalize the prayer, the other monk rang a bell and beat a drum. Then followed by the Mantra Recitation where the group of people walked around the two tables singing a song. After the monk went up to the tables, he dug his two fingers in the sand moving it to the middle, essentially ruining the beautiful creation. Then everyone around the table copied him, pushing the sand towards the middle of the table. He brushed the remaining sand towards the middle while people brought up sandwich bags to place the sand in to bring home, perhaps as a souvenir thus ending the ceremony. I remember at the beginning of the ritual I had no idea what was happening but towards the end I finally got a sense of

When the service started it began with prayer, during the service there were moments of prayer, and the service ended with prayer. Something that I found very entertaining was the form of worship that they used which was singing. They sang a lot of different songs that worshiped God. You could tell who went to church a lot because they knew all the songs by heart. For those like me that didn’t know the songs, the words were projected on to the wall so you could sing along with everyone else. There was also a live band that played the music to sing to. This part of the service was really entertaining to me and I really enjoyed it.

I was tremendously moved by the service at NLC. Long story short: The leading pastor called a couple of black gentlemen on stage and apologized, on behalf of his race, for all of the ways that blacks have suffered injustice. Then proceeded to have everyone in the church go around hugging someone from another race. This truly touched my

There is no right and wrong; everything is relative: there are no absolutes, everything is relative to the emerging church.[10] The emerging church leaders consider fundamentalist, orthodox church and worship service with hymns as stagnant and failing to interact with and impact the culture. They see to resovle that by shedding themselves of traditionalism (which they see as modernism( and adapt to the culture.[11]

During the couple of hours that we were at the professor’s house it was a very laid back setting and we all just sat around and talked and prayed. To start everything off the professor asked if anyone needed prayer and then things just went from there. During the experience there was no super spiritual ritual or thing we had to do we just had to show up be ourselves and listen to what

The following are the stories from the people who left their churches due to what they say they come across and felt that they can no longer worship in those churches but I thank God because some returned back.