My Mother Served As Minister Of Music

Galindo analyzes that the fundamental “mission” of a congregation is the same as any other congregation that exists in any part of the world. He argues that though every congregation has a mission and a vision, at the same time, it shares a basic common mission. (43) This reminds me of my home church The First Church of Evanston and my Field Site, The Evanston Vineyard Church. Both churches have a common mission of welcoming people to the church, irrespective of their ethnic, cultural, racial, and economic and, gender backgrounds. The mission is to help people be received in the house of God with due and deserved Christian love so that they feel loved and welcomed. Both these churches encourage church attendees to attend the service and receive the Eucharist.

My experience with Christianity began in the Roman Catholic Church of St. Helena’s in South Minneapolis. I grew up a die-hard; attending every week with my mother and sister. I never understood the concept of God, Jesus and the Holy

“The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” by Dr. Ron Rosenbladt is a presentation that focuses on those who have left the church behind and no longer associate themselves with it. He categorizes those who have left into two sections: “sad” alumni and “mad” alumni. Sad alumni are those people who really wanted to believe but never could really get it right, while mad alumni are those who were “conned” by the church into giving themselves over to Christ and trying to believe and then when things didn’t quite work out, they were tossed away. This presentation focuses on how to bring people like this back to the faith, both the sad and mad alumni.

While walking out of the building, I found myself walking the same path as a classmate who was also leaving. “What did you think of that, Taryn?” With a smile upon her face, she looked up and said, “I just love how great it is to have that time to fellowship and have with God during a stressful week.” Her answer summed up my feelings perfectly. “Have you joined?” Not

On a particular Sunday, several months ago, I was making my anxious rounds through the sanctuary, checking on the two thousand minuet details that go unnoticed by everyone but the Pastor and a few influential widows. There I introduced myself to an obvious visitor, a professional looking women in her mid 50’s. I asked if she was visiting, knowing the answer, and was pleasantly surprised to learn she was a Truett Professor doing what she described as a field trip, observing churches her students attend. As I walked her to a seat that hadn’t belonged to an elderly member for five decades, I went back to my duty, working the room and politicking the old crowd.

Reading this I am deeply stunned and saddened by the irony that a church that preaches the need for love and acceptance, refuses to do the same. Hearing this from Barnett’s own voice adds more depth, pain, and feeling of being cheated by God himself. For these reasons, the personal narrative voice chosen is most effective as it places me directly into the shoes of the writer, Kristine

I always believed in living a holy life meant to have a relationship with all mighty; like a friend. You tell him about your feelings, your thoughts, etc.…and he is there to listen, not to judge. But at church, we are taught that committing sin means going to hell right away. Who wants a God who uses fear to have a loving relationship with a person? I grew tired of organized church and people using the scriptures to their own benefit. I became enraged watching these so called “pastors” asking their viewers exaggeratedly amounts of money, “plant a seed of faith” they say, “and God will reward you” Nice try

The book renewed hope and excitement for a pastor coming to the end of transitioning a local church from one chapter into a new one. This hope is not because the process is almost complete, but because of MacDonald’s focus on people being greater than the process. This reviewer was renewed in his heart for the real people he is pastoring. Those that are still on the team and in the family have weathered the storm as well, and are ready to be lead to wherever God might take

Everybody who has gone to church has the same question once in a while, how to take Jesus real teachings into daily life? That is what Shane Clairborne, the author of this book try to find as he experienced “spiritual bulimia” as he explains, “I developed the spiritual form of it where I did my devotions, read all the new Christian books and saw the Christian movies, and then vomited up information up to friends, small groups, and pastors” (Clairborne 39). Motivated to find an answer, Clairborne tries to understand one of Jesus teachings, “to become the greatest you should become the least” he began by reading the Scriptures, going to church but that raised more questions until he went with some friends to stay on Philadelphia streets, there

In their book, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too, writers Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson report their discoveries concerning 324 churches that made rebounds from five or more years of level and/or decrease. There is promise for the 70 to 80 percent of North American houses of worship that are as of now in a condition of upkeep or decay. Comeback Churches establishes a decent framework for perceiving the issue and will help pioneers in the Church begin moving in the right heading. Furthermore, it makes an extraordinary showing with shielding the requirement for Churches to genuinely assess the wellbeing and welfare of their body. A great guide to any Church pioneers and any individual who should notice that their

Establishing a Sense of Urgency: The Deep and Visible Concerns of Fellow Church Members Walking Away from God

Sitting in church on a cold Sunday in January, the hair on the back of my neck stood up as my pastor preached a sermon that, for once, made me feel like she was speaking directly to me. I’m not an extremely religious person; I don’t go to church every Sunday or pray at night before I go to sleep. I just go through the motions. But this time was different. “The time we spend in between leaving home and finding our way back home is where people gain the ability to grow into their full potential.” Those words spoke to me, and I was reeled in, just like the rest of the congregation, wondering what our Pastor was going to say next.

While living at my grandma’s she took me to church. And Sunday school every Sunday. That brought me closer to God. Like Grandma says all of the time, “Jesus is who we should try to live like. “Before long, I learned it does not matter what people say about me because people talked about Jesus. It does not matter what they call me but what I answer to. The only thing there is to do is to try to live as Jesus did. “The world is not perfect,” Grandma says, “but it is our job and our duty as Christians to up lift His Holy name, tell the world who he is, and help those who are in need.” Going to church also taught me that I should love everyone no matter what they do, where they come from, how they look, or they act. You should always treat people the way I would like to be treated. However, it also helps me to know that not all people are heartless; there are people in the world that love to help others overcome their fears and day to day life problems. The church is one big, happy family; it brought me closer to my old friends and showed me that God will never put more on me then I can handle, passing his test makes me wordy of his

In examining my experience during the recent Cohort Intensives held at Payne Theological Seminary (PTS) in Wilberforce, Ohio; I was quite intrigued with how all of the scholars and guest speakers reinforced many of the initiatives I have already implemented in the context of my own ministry. Likewise, my time spent in class with my Cohort mentors Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie and Rev. Dr. Kenneth S. Robinson was both scholastically and spiritually invaluable. During the week-long Intensive class sessions with my mentors, I learned a number of new things about myself that I was not previously willing to address. In short, I had a moment of self-actualization that required some personal omissions on my part regarding my faith and yes some internalized oppression as labeled by author Gayraud S. Wilmore. Opening up in class and admitting a few of my own short-comings was nothing short of liberating. Suddenly, I felt as though I had an epiphany; that has given birth to a renewed zeal, mind, and spirit. For the first time in years I am certain that I am now moving closer to the apex of excellence where God intended me to be.

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.