Dreamers Of Religion

I chose to do my religious ethnographic study at my home church, Tabernacle Baptist Church in Youngstown, Ohio on Sunday, May 8, 2016. Tabernacle is an 112-year-old historic Black Baptist church located on the lower Northside of Youngstown surrounded by a mixed income housing development, homeless shelter, Youngstown State University, and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. I would say the average age of a Tabernacle member is 55 years old. About 70% of the members at this church are “middle-class” families. Until about five years ago, its membership was almost exclusively middle class. There has seen an influx of membership in working class individuals and students since the arrival of Tabernacle’s young, vibrant pastor, Rev. Christopher McKee, Jr., three years ago. The church is attentive to the needs of this demographic but remains true to its historic Black Baptist church roots. The church previously struggled with this conundrum until it came to the reality that an exclusivist mindset around worship is detrimental to the body of Christ when it did not have a pastor for over three years. The church was dying because no one was welcome to it and it did not have a leader. Though it was difficult, this reassessment was beneficial in making Tabernacle more relevant and welcoming to the community it is blessed to serve.

Chances are if you grew up in the south, then you most likely have been to a church service before. I remember as a kid getting the wakeup call every Sunday morning from my mom, “Get up and get dressed for church!” Even if I did not feel like going, she would drag me out of bed and make me go. Anne Lamott writes about the same thing in her essay “Why I Make Sam Go to Church.” Lamott wrote “Why I Make Sam Go to Church” in 1999 as part of a collection of autobiographical essays in a book called Traveling Mercies. My main reaction to this work was a positive one. I thought the essay was eye opening in a sense and it shows that everyone needs guidance and help from others sometimes.

In my mind it sounds like they wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus and were more out looking in doing work for him and being producers. The church has made it now that we are so consumed by what the church can do for us not what we can do for the church. I don’t know where this society view had started but I know many people who are not satisfied unless they get something from the church. If the pastor doesn’t speak a good message, if their kids weren’t cared for well in the kids ministry, or if they aren’t being ministered to spiritually they get frustrated and start looking for a new church that will satisfy them of the consumptions they are looking for. They don’t look out for others they look out for themselves and are consumed with what they can get out from the church and what the church can do for them. I think this is a poor way of thinking and a way that can get people in trouble when they aren’t looking out for others. They are being consumers of the church instead of letting God be an all-consuming fire through them and being focused on him and in him because we are not ourselves and we are Gods craftsmanship where we only should be consumed with him and him alone. I think being consumers of church and looking out for selves is where we really go wrong on this idea of living in a consumer culture and the only way to be satisfied and to restore the insatiability Clapp refers to often is to look through it through God’s eyes because only he can satisfy our desires for the better

The next decade witnessed Sunday’s popularity rise by leaps and bounds. Such was his escalating popularity that his followers failed to accommodate in town halls and churches.

I can’t recall not being a part of New Hope Baptist Church because when I was growing up my parents attended everything and they “had us in tow”. I remember being brought to church in the winter and my parents lining us up on the seats next to the potbellied stove. We were required to take care of our “personal business” before entering because we were not allowed to walk while the services were in progress. I really have a hard time understanding why some young people today cannot sit through an entire service right now today. As children the church conferences often baffled us. While watching and listening, sometimes things got into a disagreeable mode. As children, we thought those deacons were at odds with each other, but when they

Hatch’s book is one of an era and a topic that I had never studied before. Hatch’s book covers the period from the end of the American Revolution through the mid-1840s. However, I believe the topic should be considered through today’s rise of the televangelist and the mega-churches of America. Hatch outlines the rise of churches (as egalitarian based) based on the belief, which coincided with the rise of the American population and its expansion westward.

In 1865, a Methodist Minister, William Booth begin a movement, known today as the “Salvation Army”. Booth’s vision incorporated the church views and belief systems with philanthropic work. Growing up less fortunate, Booth was able to relate to the struggling society, which in turn sparked a passion for helping the poor. Unfortunately, in that era, the less fortunate were viewed as “unacceptable” by the church (Diniejko, 2013). In the early 1800’s the congregational church was financially supported by those in the community, obligated to pay church taxes. The only members granted access inside the church, were those who were able to pay the pew rentals. Henceforth, those who couldn’t afford the pew seat were hindered from receiving the word of God (“Offering Was Not Always Apart of Worship”,

The author mentions several major incidents that served as catalyst to the uprising of activist who speak out against the aforementioned and the he challenges the church to step up and be the salt and light to the world. He highlights four biblical traits we as a church should display in the face of such circumstances.

In the church, the pastor or preacher has an innate responsibility to address sin and nominalism without hesitation or fear of retribution. The church’s focus on mere building membership, no matter the cost, overshadows God’s abhorrence of sin. Further, both sin and nominalism seems to have intensified as many point to the religious concept of being a Christian without having a changed heart or life through Jesus Christ. Charles Spurgeon shares, “There will always be trouble in the churches as long as men are afraid to denounce sin and error. To confront sin, it is without doubt a pastor’s responsibility to challenge the sins of this present time.

The authors point out a huge problem that is alive and well in the church. Due to personal preferences, the church has separated itself from one another. Not only are different cultures separate but the age differences within the church are separated amongst themselves. The leaders of worship within the church whether they are pastors or worship band leaders must not

A typical Sunday service is held in a church (see appendix 2) and lasts approximately 70 minutes. At the beginning of the service which is known as a “Sacrament meeting” the congregation will sing hymns. Preceding that will be the prayers offered by the local church members and communion which is given out by a priesthood holder which is normally a teenage boy. Concluding the service is a speech from an elected speaker or leader. After this many children will attend Sunday school whilst the adults attend a Priesthood (men) or Relief Society meeting (women). Often the entire Sunday program goes for 3 hours. Nobody in the church is paid, they are normal people who are their because of their commitment to their faith and therefore this allows many young leaders to emerge in the

Moreover, “seeker’ churches tend to have a very inclusive atmosphere with casual dress, this further adds to the contemporary atmosphere in these churches. The term “seeker” is one given to people who are still looking for what they want in a religion. These “seekers” tend to identify with a group called “the Nones”, a group of people who do not identify with a specific religion. Many of these “Nones” were former Catholics, Protestants, etc. who wanted something different than what that religion was providing them. In many cases, those who are seeking tend to look for a more practical, every day, use for the sermons they receive at church, and in many traditional or mainstream religions this is not the case. This is another appeal of the “seeker” churches to modern day Americans and shows how popular culture has influenced Christianity in modern

Gesturing toward the pipe organ, one anxious parishioner confidently declared, "Now that's church! If these kids had any faith at all, they'd be here every Sunday!”  He clearly did not want "his" church full of children, especially if it meant giving up "his" organ music. To him, "worship with us" meant "worship like us". To him,  conformity trumped diversity. To him, his religious conditioning was mandatory for everyone.

The Church creates woe for citizens by acknowledging and advertising that earthly suffering is permissible because heaven grants rewards to faithful followers who do not complain (2). Since the Church bears so much influence and power, citizens feel they have no other choice but to follow the advice given to them. Many are probably so miserable that their only hope of

Religion has been a powerful force in human history. Mankind has longed and searched for the answers to its purpose, the reason for being and the possibility of life after physical death. They reasoned that an afterlife would be a place of accounting and reckoning for the life they lived on earth. Religious belief systems seemed to give the answers as to how to prepare for the afterlife. Religion became the means of giving answers to those basic yet deep-seated questions of both life and death. Religion provided a format of rules and laws for conduct and treatment toward others based on the desires and wishes of a god or gods that people envisioned, imagined or invented. Religious belief systems have been a powerful force for good and bad...good in the sense that it provided a measure of individual behavior and order in society for the wellbeing of the whole, but bad in the sense that men of ambition who craved power and control over others would often use religion as a tool of manipulation and fear. A casual glance of history tells us that complete civilizations have been built, grown and maintained around elaborate religious systems, ancient Egypt being a prime example.