Christian Worship : Principles And Practice

The shared goals of the Church are to celebrate, learn and achieve happiness through their faith by attending mass. By achieving their goals, the members also are able gain knowledge about their religion contributing to the last characteristic. There are smaller goals such as expanding and growing the Church by recruiting new members and even constructing a new building to house the community but those aren’t as important or valued as the ones mentioned beforehand. The second characteristic is that the community must have mechanisms of intercommunication among the members of the community. Bible study is an example of this where members come together to learn about the bible face to face and events that are created for members to attend and participate in are also mechanisms of intercommunication.

Baptism is such an important part of a person’s life. The sacrament of baptism goes back to 200 year old tradition. I will be focusing on community for the sacrament of baptism; there are different views, practices and significance of baptism for the individuals across many Christian churches such as Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholic Church, and Anglican Church.

Worship is the primary action of the church. Those who are part of it assemble together to sing, pray, remember Christ, listen to the Scriptures, and contribute to the Lord’s causes (Acts 2:42, 47; 1 Cor. 16:1-2). It is one of the church’s primary purposes, and it is crucial for its worship to be in harmony with the Scriptures. In Lutheranism, worship is a spiritual exercise that outwardly expresses itself as an acceptance of God’s gift to humans (Jacobs 551). Lutherans

Ultimately, when an individual responds to their baptismal call, a community of Christian believers are united under the goal of guiding the initiated. Thus, this attained unity allows the faith to prosper like a living religion. Furthermore, re-birth from sin is intrinsically connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is a fundamental belief throughout Christianity, though it is practiced differently. “Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.” (CCC, 1213). Regardless of the denomination, all baptism rituals symbolise beliefs in the Christian faith, all involves water. Some denominations, like Lutheran practice the sprinkling of water over the head of an initiate, while Pentecostals, practice immersing the head of the initiate in the water. Thus a reminder that, “Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”, for individuals who have been initiated that they made a commitment to the teachings, practices and life of of the community. The baptised should live a life of faith as modelled on the example of Jesus, who forgave their sin. The last belief derived from Baptism, is the believed in the Trinity. Through the guidance and support of the Holy Spirit, an individual's is able to carry out God’s word, and evangelise and spread the message of Jesus. “One will come more powerful that I, and he

Baptism serves a vital role in the development of Christianity as a living religious traditions in most denominations. It is the ritual used in the

Community is a grounding principle of Black worship, understood by African-Americans as an encounter involving God, the worshiper, and the broader community. For them worship is not primarily the expression of one's private devotion to God, but is rather a community event. It is the "eschatological invasion of God into the gathered community of

In his book The Archetypal God and The Baptism of Jesus (LifeRich Publishing, 2016), Pastor John C’ de Baca wants to clear up any misunderstanding that have arisen from the act. And the job also comes with exposing the teachings of modern Christian churches that preach Jesus sought baptism from John to show

According to the theologian Michael Horton, baptism is not only a sacrament of Christians’ union with Christ; it is also a sacrament of their communion as the body of Christ. Baptism is a public declaration of one’s faith, symbolizing purification, regeneration, and admission into the catholic church. Baptism is a wide held belief throughout Christianity, with nearly every denomination practicing the custom. However, the tradition has different meanings for different denominations within Christianity, which leads to highly controversial practices such as infant baptism and believer’s baptism. These disparate traditions have been a source of many heated debates as the denominations have grown further

In the following paper I will be in detail explaining the academic experience of visiting and observing a Roman Catholic Church and lastly I will shortly also incorporate the theory of Emile Durkheim and the Roman Catholic Church I completed a field study on. For my site visit I visited St Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte, North Carolina off of Suther road near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I started to look up different churches in the area of Catholic churches in Charlotte and this was the first church to appear to me on the internet. I decided to go to the 9:30 mass or also called a liturgy on a Sunday. I did look over the churches scheduled masses and they had them everyday of the week. I arrived there about ten minutes before 9:30 dressed appropriately in a skirt and a dressy shirt, so that I could follow and respect the instructions of the pamphlet that the church provided online. I parked my car and gathered my tablet and sat in the back pews, so that I could take notes quietly. Before the service started I looked over the papers and booklet that the church provided to see what it included. The booklet included a letter from the priest, readings for the week from the bible, hymnals from the Vatican, mass intentions, prayer requests, stewardships, ministries, confirmations, and the priests and deacons as follows Rev. Patrick Winslow, Rev. Jason Christian, Rev. Matthew Kauth, and Deacons Rev. Mr. James Witulski, Rev. Mr. Joseph Diaz.

In conjunction with water being a sign of initiation into the church so are the symbolic acts of the priest during the sacrament. “The symbolic act of laying hands by the priest, parents and godparents during the anointing of the initiate with chrism emphasizes the sacrament’s communal character.” (Mueller 139) As all of the parties involved are members of the church, baptism is the first act of initiation of us into our own Christ filled community known as the church. Involving various active member of the church brings together the church of past, present and future alike. The priest acts as Christ, who through his own

David the Escaped Boy David is a twelve-year-old boy who spent his entire life locked away in a concentration camp. Anne Holm, the author of I Am David wrote a story of a young boy trying to escape this camp that he has been in his whole life. In the story I Am David, written by Anne Holm, the main character David is brave, loyal, and respectful. He escapes a camp and is now on his way to freedom with many life changing decisions to face.

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.

The most common Christian rituals and practices are baptism, worship services, prayers, communion, evangelism, marriage, ordination and healing.The

Often held as a rite of passage and entrance into the Christian church, baptism is much more than just symbolic ritual. Baptism was commanded by Jesus Christ in the Great Commission recounted in the book of Matthew. Even though we are simplistically called to be obedient by being baptized the Christian church has long debated the aspects of this ordinance. Denominations are divided on the basic meaning, types and modes of baptism even two thousand years after the founding of the Christian church. Just as the other ordinance, the Lord’s Supper, congregations find themselves at odd with tradition, biblical interpretation and even individual understanding. However, the simple message of this awe inspiring act can be explained out of the

In its confessions, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) expresses the faith of the Reformed tradition. Central to this tradition is the affirmation of the majesty, holiness and providence of God who creates, sustains, rules and redeems the world in the freedom of sovereign righteousness and love. Related to this central affirmation of God’s sovereignty are other great themes of the Reformed tradition. Worship in a Presbyterian congregation, its shape and content, is determined by the pastor and the session, the church’s governing body. It generally includes prayer, music, Bible reading and a sermon based upon scripture. The Sacraments, a time of personal response/offering and a sharing of community concerns are also parts of worship.