Church Attendance On Sunday And Setting Up The Nativity Scene At Christmas

In the beginning I understood my Christin faith as an academic. I did as I was told, I read my bible, and I followed the Ten Commandments as any teenager does; when it suited me. I wasn’t a horrible teenager, I was raised in a small farm community that really didn’t understand someone with a vole at the end of their name, or someone who wanted to walk to the library and read rather than hang out on the steps of the malt shop/gas station. My formative years were the 1960’s. There was so much conflict and rebellion and hatred. By the time I graduated and was supposed to go out and make my way I was thoroughly confused with and rebellious. Problem was I wasn’t sure what I was rebelling against; the “rebel without a clue.” But, in the end I wound up being a successful trial attorney; I even ran for Congress! I became a Master of the Universe; I was a Goddess that walked on the earth. I believed that God already had enough on his plate, wars, famine, disease, atrocities; why should I plague Him further? After all, the Bible says: “God

While we were approaching, I could hear them singing. I was so excited, my heart rated so fast. We went there. No cross, just a plain building and above the door a sign in big white letters “City Church Chicago”. We went in. I was speechless and I couldn’t keep my mouth closed. There were kids, young people, old people, colored people, white people. Everybody was there and everybody was accepted the way he/she is. That was my first time in a different church. They sang a song. It was mind blowing. I was holding my tears. After the song, pastor started preaching. I loved that the pastor was explaining bible quotes on real life situations, it was like an motivational speech. He ask us to stand up and sing a song with him. I didn’t know the lyrics, but that’s not the problem. They have karaoke! So we sang, it was amazing. I really enjoyed

I have not attended a service, but I have been welcomed into their social events, which are fairly synonymous with their worship. Social events and worship flow seamlessly together. I have been impressed by the vibrancy of the community and their dedication to developing relationships – both with Christ and each other.

Before going to Rocky Mountain High, I was already involved in church and youth group. I have gone to church ever since I was born, so that is all I have known. When I got confirmed two years ago, I started my journey to become a better Christian. After Rocky Mountain High, I now know with all of my heart that Jesus is my Savior. I chose to be a Christian because I believe not because I that’s all I know. Rocky Mountain High finally made me realized that and influenced me to be the Christ follower I am

Yes, I said kids. This was a heart breaking, eye opening, and breath taking moment. I felt a love and sympathy I had never had before. We had been told many times not to stare, but it took lots of self control. We would all say silent prayers as they walked in that the Holy Spirit would use us in miraculous ways within the little time we had, and that if seeds were planted in their minds while we were there, that God would grow those seeds after we left. Then, we would start singing… We would sing with all our heart. We desperately wanted these kids to see we were praising the God who loves us and is a Father to all who love Him. Then, they would mock us, in a way I had never been mocked before. They would laugh and point at us, they

My experience was very rewarding because seeing people come together and be there for eachother really made me realize how valuable being part of something bigger really is. During mass on Sundays, I would stand by the door and greet people and although some of the people I saw every week were strangers, they treated me as though we were life long friends. Seeing people devote their time every week to come to the Church and to spend time at events or with each other convinced me to continue being an active person within a community in the future.

It blew my mind knowing that people from all over the eastern part of America had come just to serve these people and get closer to God. Some youth groups had drove up to twenty-one hours just for CHWC. Thousands of teens came together to help serve these elderly folks, disabled citizens and so many other people because they knew it was the right thing to do. At CHWC is where I really learned how to be selfless and help those who need it.

Today I attended Rios de Agua Viva Christian Pentecostal Church to say this church was different from mine would be an understatement. It was nothing like what I had anticipated and was everything I was hoping not to experience. Like every church it had its good and it’s bad. All in all it was perfect for those who go to church there. Being that it was not my religion, I felt extremely uncomfortable and out of place. I did however feel that what they were doing was making a difference for those few people in attendance. They were talking about God and that for me was great.

For the past three years I had been studying the word of God diligently putting time and effort into everything I did to learn more about my God. It all started in the sixth grade when I began my first class of confirmation , we were referred to as “ first years”. In our first year we had hilarious instructors who made the experience a blast. That year we mainly learned the word of God in a fun way through games, songs ,and extremely thorough discussions. However, On the downside of all the fun activities we had a midterm and a final exam . The event we were all looking forward to though was the retreat (a camp in the woods where we grow closer to God and our brothers and sisters of Christ).

For many years of my life I lived not understanding the beauty and importance of Christ. We had known each other in the church since the Sunday School Children’s Ministry. Jesus was a vague teacher for me at that time. Eventually we grew and joined our youth group, The Mix. I remember still being in Angie’s Class before that and we were preparing ourselves to be baptized together. We were so young, blinded and wrapped by our innocence. Somewhere along the way I understood that Jesus of Nazareth was to be more than a religious icon, a miracle maker, a teacher, or even in minimal standards a legalistic tyrant many acclaimed Christians claim him to be. As I was in a prayer one night from my first encounter, I

There are people who claim to be Christians, yet at the same time say that if you do not conform yourself to their interpretation of the Bible, then God will reign down a hateful and destructive power against you. This rhetoric kept me from returning to the faith my father had tried to instill in me for so many years. The Christ I have been inspired to follow truly loves everyone, including those who hate or stand against him. I began to see through the lens of a faith based on

I was chosen by Mrs. King and I am eternally grateful. The experience was life changing. I saw God in the nature, in the fellowship, and in the people. There was a wide variety of teens that came from schools such as Collegedale Academy, Forest Lake Academy, Atlanta Adventist Academy, and Oakwood Academy. I often base my actions on facts as opposed to feelings but I felt the Holy Spirit's presence at Prayer Conference. During the worship meetings, the atmosphere was truly one of praise because everyone was on one according with the mission of praising God. The bible says that when 2 or 3 gather in God's name, He is present. So, when 100 or 200 gather in His name, lives can be forever changed because they are submerged in His

I had been to many Bible schools at many different churches, so I was excited to go to a five day Bible school at a new place. To be honest, I was mostly excited because my friends Cassidy, Carson, and Taylor were going to be there. This Bible school was at the beginning of June, I actually ended up missing the first day because of basketball camp. The camp did not take place during the time of Bible school, but I was so tired that I didn't feel like going. That night I made a promise to myself that I would make sure I was there every day for the remainder of the week, and I ended up fulfilling that promise to myself.

Growing up I always lived in a religious household. We always prayed before we ate, prayed before we went to bed, and always went to church on Sunday and Wednesday night. While I never questioned these actions and never tried to rebel against them, I still didn’t understand the importance of them either. I was merely walking in my parents footsteps, doing what my parents told me, singing along to the children’s songs in Sunday school, gave a tithing of my allowance every Sunday, but my life was void of the real meanings of my actions. This went on for years. Because I had not yet read through the Bible to understand why these actions had any meaning, they were just things I did all the time and I thought that was normal and that was what it meant to be a Christian.

In 1996 a young lady and I was living together and she had often visited this Church. She would often come home crying about the way she was receiving the word from the Pastor. This particular Sunday I had to go to church to hear the man preach the word of God. I was very influence about the way he had explain the Holy Bible to me. After a few week later we had join and we were baptized there