My Catholic Church Experience

My first experience at Bridgetown church was very long overdue and very interesting. Most all of my friends and family all have been inviting me to Bridgetown specifically because they all really enjoy a specific pastor there that speaks on Sunday services. I never saw the need to go, mainly because of my night shifts are scheduled so oddly I was afraid of falling asleep at a religious sermon that I was not interested in embarrassing myself at and also not wanting to go out of my way to attend something that I was not particularly interested in. Bluntly writing I did not want to waste my time to go to something I wasn’t very excited about, especially when I do not know what to expect. This assignment did give the opportunity a bigger reason and I am glad to have been able to make such an insightful visit that I may not mind trying again in the near future.

Although the general song structure was the same, the songs themselves were played in a much more reflective way and some had a bigger rock and performance feel to them. There was a general performance feel around the music, and a lot of those in the congregation seemed to get quite into it. When interviewing members, they all talked very highly of the music at the church and seemed to agree that it had very big influence on their perception of the church service. While at the smaller churches there was an agreement that while the music can be important it was by no means the most important part of the

In recent days I had the opportunity to go back to North Carolina for a few short days. There, with a heavy heart from a loss in the family, I had nothing else to look towards. I’ve always heard of individuals finding peace, faith, blessings, and love of Christ from attending church. I’ve never been a person who put their faith into a higher power. As I was growing up my parents never wanted to force me into any religion without me knowing everything about it and choosing which route to take on my own. As the years treaded on, I never bothered myself to learn about the many different religions and what each stands for. So I used this opportunity as mine to attend church for the very first time. I attended the Roman Catholic services held

What struck me as beautiful was the way they called out names for those who needed special prayers. I have seen this done before, but not this way. It was breath taking because they paused and took turns speaking there was great order. Now I’m not sure who the worship leader was, if it was the young lady that started off the service, if so she did a great job setting the tone. What I did learn is that there is religious worship service that are not over takin by an individual that makes it a one man show. What I learn that I will take away from this is that it’s not about being in the spot light, it’s about letting Christ shine through

My mothers’ family comes from a small pueblo, village, in Mexico. In this small pueblo their main religion is Jehovah’s Witness. My grandparents, my mother, my uncles, and my aunts were raised with this religion. My grandma would tell me how religion was essential for them that their village would come together and pray and do everything as one big family. They would gather around to sing and to preach to others. Little by little my mother

They practiced practical Christianity and help all night bible studies that I was required to go to every month. These people practiced dress reform, veganism and abstain from wordly entertainment. Being in that environment, surrounded by those people, I was protected. Nothing from the out side could get to me. I wasn’t allowed to use the internet freely, we had daily family worships where everyone had to learn a new verse everyday and we changed our diet and style of dress. I thought that I believed it. I thought that I was in it for the long haul. However, when I graduated High School (homeschooled 10th-12th) and went to Southern, I was exposed to everything and basically stopped doing everything that I was doing at home. I realized that I did all those things because my parents didn’t give me a choice and it was tradition. My parents we’re having a real and thriving relationship with Jesus while I was just following them. I was full of biblical information, I knew verses and theories and spirit of prophecy passages but I still don’t know God. I know that God will take care of us and that he guides us and I know all these promises but I don’t have any real

The music took up a good amount of time of the service and it really kept me engaged, mainly because I really enjoy music. The lyrics were projected onto the screen. I really enjoyed the lyrics being projected, it was very convenient and nice that I was able to follow along even though I am not an active member of the church, being able to follow along with the lyrics made me feel more comfortable. I wasn’t expecting there to be a live band and lyrics projected as an easier way to follow along. I really enjoyed that experience though because it kept me engaged. I used to attend St Paul's Lutheran in Kankakee and I remembered a choir so ultimately that is what I was

I was born into a family with Native American heritage that practiced a strict protestant religion. As a child, I would often wonder why people's attitudes, behaviors and beliefs could be so different from one another. I wondered why some people believed in things with great zeal, yet other people believed the contrary just as vehemently.

The overall concert offered a wide verity of choir song, from classical pieces composed by Mozart to musical show tunes. The combination of which resulted in an overall enjoyable experience. The concert was not the first choir concert I had ever attended so I went in expecting it to be similar to the high school choir performances I have seen before. I was not expecting the scale of the concert to be so large. Instead of being one choir and an hour-long program there were four groups along with a much longer program. Each of the choir groups had a different dynamic, sound and feel to it. The differences made it interesting.

Ever since I was a little kid, I have been going to church. Over the years, I have felt like I have come closer and closer to God. Through God, the church has influenced me to become a better person. They put me on the right path, helping me find the light that lead me out of the darkness. God, and more specifically the church, has given me hope and strength. They molded me into a person who looks forward to the future, and what I can accomplish. It is hard to believe that I will be going off to college soon. It seems just like yesterday that I started High School. However, as scary as the real world will be, I know I’ll have my family and friends to help. I know when I begin my work as a Computer Scientist, I will have God at the helm guiding

During elementary school I decided I wanted to move in with my father who did attend church religiously every Sunday morning. Catholic mass was awful and difficult to understand. My father put my brothers and I through communion and made us participate in church bible study to further understand the religion. As I got older my views on Catholicism had gotten worse, I started hating going to church. When the nuns called my age group to have children’s church my father forced me to go, they took us to a room that had no windows and was always cold. The nuns made us read the old testament in the King James Bible version and I always had a hard time reading and understanding it because of the way it was written. This experience made me hate and

In my second field experience, I’d decided to go to a Baptist church. However, I did not come from a religious background. Although I am not completely in the dark when it comes to religion I have learn about different religion through friends and books. Therefore, I thought this would be a great opportunity to finally experience a service and put my ignorance aside. Meaning the assumption and expectation I had of church service. Furthermore, it provided me the opportunity to challenge myself and my own biases I have towards going to church. Once I went to church I was surprise to see so many black people, for the first time since I moved too Greensburg, I was actual able to see a room overflowing with individual who looked just like me, my first emotion was excitement and enjoy. Some of my expectation, was something I have learned from my mother. My mother always told me that “black people churches last longer”, with this in mind I was prepare to be there for a long time. However, to my surprise it did not last as long as I’d expected it to. My overall experience, was warming, peaceful and positive.

Worship comes in different forms depending on how the church wants the service to proceed. For the Amazing Grace Church, the service began with the congregation singing a number of worship songs to the Lord that lasted for about an hour. Christian praise and worship by music, and in fact, music is a great tool for helping them feel closer to God. Music is an emotional language because it effectively affects their emotions and the lyrics can swell their hearts. There is nothing bigger and greater than the grace of God that is delivered to them from condemnation through the sacrifice of his own Son. Thus, Christian chooses to praise and worship Him by singing. While singing, the congregation stands on their feet and they seem to be affected by the songs in some way as they raise their hands as a sign of accepting the Lord into their hearts. The emotion that was thrown from the congregation was very distinctive to us as we could see that the songs are an important tool of expression. According to the pastor of the Amazing Grace Church, singing let the people focus on the worship, helps them respond to God’s grace and also guide them to reflect on God’s glory. In his opinion, singing mean nothing if people do not respond to what they have sang and related it to God and reflect it to make them better believers.

Since the day I was born my parents took my sister and me to church ever Sunday. I grew up in a loving Christian home and was encouraged at an age where I could fully understand, to purse a relationship with Jesus. I accepted Christ into my heart when I was in the second grade and was baptized in the fourth grade at age 10. Growing up I have always been super involved in Church. I have a heart for people and love serving. Since 3rd grade until now, my senior year of high school I have been on the leadership team with my youth group. I can not imagine my life without Jesus as the center. I have been pushed to step out of my comfort zone and because of that I have grown in several different ways. For example, I am an extrovert and enjoy getting new people, but never liked public speaking as I felt nervous and intimidated. By the many adult leaders, and pastors coming along side of me and encouraging me to step of on my comfort zone I now highly enjoy speaking and spreading the truth about The Lord in big groups of people. I am so thankful for the many God loving people that have come in my life and helped stretch me. Jesus is my entire life and I am nothing without him.

In my life I have never been a person to attend church or religious ceremonies. I have gone twice to church and I personally didn’t like because I think that one doesn’t need to go to church to worship god. I believe that as long as you have faith god would never abandon you. My experience in the Jehovah`s Witness ceremony was very interesting because they are very similar to Christianity but their believes are different.