My Religious Upbringing. I Am A Member Of The Church Of

Topic A: What was the environment in which you were raised? Describe your family, home, neighborhood, or community, and explain how it shaped you as a person.

I have no religious beliefs but was christened as child. I am British but also a ¼ Irish and ¼ German. I don’t know a lot about my German culture as I have no contact with the German part of my family.

In the Introduction section of the book, The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Israel Galindo states that a congregation is a “corporate relationship organization” (3) and is not an organization. He points out that the hidden life of a congregation would depict the “nature” of a congregation. This further identifies the relationships and faith of the congregation. According to him, the universal principles are followed by the congregations so that “systemic relationships” can work. The leaders learn the roles that they have within the people who are the congregation. The journal will focus on Dr. Fowler’s question “what is the purpose of this gathering we call the church?”

Growing up I thought of church and the bible as something that was out of my reach intellectually. With this being a central thought, I just decided to table the hearing and understanding of the truth of Jesus until I was an adult. As an adult, I have learned a great deal about what Jesus Christ was about and why He died on the cross, however, I did not think of the gospels as hinging on the kingdom of God. I knew Jesus as many people do, as my savior and one who loves me to the point of dying on a cross for my sins. Gordon Fee articulates this well as he explains Jesus' ministry and purpose of His ministry. My understanding of the gospels are now clear in that the kingdom of God is the pearl and gold nugget that we are attempting to obtain

Although the New Age worldview and the Christian worldview have some aspects in common, they are extremely different worldviews. The most significant difference is New Age believers do not worship the one and only God, that Christians worship. New Age movement believe you can worship any God or participate in any spiritual act as long as it helps you find your inner divinity. The Bible tells us that God is a jealous God and he should be the only God you worship or acknowledge; “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3, King James Version) and “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:” (Exodus 34:14, KJV). The New Age also believe that they are their own gods and do not belong to any higher power or they believe they are equal to said higher power. This is opposite of what the Christian worldview is, that humans and all creation belong to God; “For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.” (1 Corinthians 10:26, KJV) and “The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.” (Psalms 89:11, KJV). Furthermore, the New Age movement believe we

I grew up knowing this gospel, I lived in Salt Lake City, my parents were extremely emerced in the church with callings like young women’s president, primary president, Sunday school teacher, elder quorum president, 2nd counseler to the bishop, stake relief society president, and 1st counsel to the stake Sunday school president. Their testimonies and examples help me understand the principles of Christ’s teachings. I grew up knowing what was good and what was bad, and from an early age I hated being in the wrong. I liked to please people and felt so uncomfortable with the feeling of guilt. Looking back on it now I can see that is a gift that God gave me, it was great it kept me out of trouble for the beginning years of my life, but it wasn’t

Established Church: A church that is officially recognized and approved by the government and its also recognized as a national institution.

Before deciding on the definition, I considered religion as being an “organised system of beliefs, ceremonies and rules to worship a god or a higher being”. The only phrase that I agreed with was the fact of religion being an “organised system” mainly because of the fact that there is a set way of practising the religion by, for example, praying and attending mass. In contradiction, the rest of the definition makes it seem as if religion is straight-forward on a community basis, in contrast to a personal one. Use of “a god or a higher being” contradicts the idea of polytheism, associated with religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism (Theism.net, 2014).

I was not raised in a Christian environment and did not become a Christian until age 20 or so. Therefore,

I grew up in the church. My father was a deacon and my mother was a Sunday school teacher. I never remember a time that church was not the center of my life. I experienced great hurt in my young life and nobody knew pain I endured. I would not realize until much later in my life the affect that one event would have on me. My teenage years were turbulent. These years were a time that was marked by poor choices and rebellion. I developed two lives. One I projected in the church and the other outside the church. I never really gave the fact that I was living a double life much thought.

Individuals in different cultural groups experience the world in different ways based on various perspectives. Basically, they have diverse worldviews. According to Sue, “Worldview constitutes our psychological orientation in life and can determine how we think, behave, make decisions, and define events” (as cited in Mio et al., 2012, p.7). The multiple concepts of worldview are important to understand; however, it is also crucial to that I am able to establish my own worldview through my past childhood experiences. I will able to construct my own unique worldview through the concept of roles, emotional expressions, interdependence/individuation, power, communication, subsystems, family rules, family myths, and family rituals.

This story was influenced by my worldview, which is if you do not have a solid foundation then you can not grow. This is exactly what we see illustrated in this story a person who did not have a solid foundation in God. We saw how he started to grow and then got sucked into all this sin and started to crumble because he did not have a solid foundation in God. I believe that if you want to grow in life you need to have a strong foundation in God and on top of that a solid foundation in family and friends. There are many things that have influenced this worldview and one of them would be the book we read in eighth The Cross And The Switchblade. This work of literature impacted my worldview by showing me that a solid foundation looks like. In this

The biblical creed and doctrine in which my core religious beliefs are founded upon originates from the message of the Gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ, which is rooted in the significance of the life of Jesus Christ. In Scripture, doctrine refers to the entire body of essential theological truths that define and describe the message of our soon coming King's core beliefs. For instance, the word of God declares, “Those who accept Jesus Christ will live for eternity with him after they die”(John 11:25, 26; 2 Corinthians 5:6). Further clarification of the word states, "Christians will be raised from the dead when Jesus returns" (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17), and lastly, "God will create a new heaven and a new earth" (2Peter 3:13). Specifically,

I was raised in a Christian home and attended church quasi-regularly up until the age of six. Church participation after the age of six became inconsistent, due to conflict in the

church as I grew older, but have recently started trying to find my way back to the Lord. I have