Obstacles Of Moving To A Church Community

In chapter five what really caught my attention was the section on community of the church. Personally, I believe the church communities are failing to reach out to others, and reach the full potential of what the church can be. I believe many churches are slowly becoming a social club that merely mimics what Christianity should be. Many people go to church for the popularity and inspirational quotes. “The church as a community does not require conformity. Christians are not meant to be cookie-cutter copies of one another” (90). I have been told by friends about the hurt their family member has felt because the church rejected them due to he or she being gay. Hearing these stories broke a piece of me because this is not how a Christian community should behave. God does not reject us for our unworthiness, however, he loves us. Which in my eyes means we are not to reject anyone from attending the church, yet, show them love. “The church is the place where the story of our personal redemption branches out and intertwines with the stories of other persons seeking redemption on the road towards full salvation” (91). As a community, we are not to reject

Within the book You Lost Me by David Kinnaman, the author discusses why young Christians are leaving the church and rethinking faith. He gives us an overview of the trends within the mosaic generation. Through this overview, we as student ministers can better understand the generation in which we are ministering to. With this understanding, we can reach these students and bring them back to their home, that is the Church. In this report, I will discuss the book by chapter and finish with my reflection.

Though one may favor exchange processes that conclude with a social association that values the idea of equality, however Blau states that exchange processes can “give rise to differentiation of power” (Blau 1964: 114), which results with relation to superordination and subordination. Blau explains this disequilibrium as a result of needs for resources from unlike partners and efforts among equals to gain advantages over the other (Blau 1964: 114). Relating to intrinsic rewards, if one counterpart gains a reward from the exchange, the other counterpart expects repayment in the form of future wards – hence the principle of reciprocity (Blau 1964: 121). Reciprocity between unlike counterparts creates this sense of imbalance

At Baylor, students coming from a religious non Baptist home with a close network of individual who share their beliefs, may find themselves longing for their religious community once at Baylor. In Derrick Ho’s, a writer for CNN, article, he says, “Homesickness isn't necessarily about home…. It stems from our instinctive need for love, protection and security -- feelings and qualities usually associated with home.” Here Ho is expressing his belief that the lack of familiarity and community in a new place can make someone feel homesick. Ho, in his article also quotes Josh Klapow, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the University of Alabama's School of Public Health, who said “You're missing what's normal, what is routine, the larger sense of social space, because those are the things that help us survive” (Ho). Religion is a source of identity and a way of life for many students. Without a place to express their faith, it can be difficult. Not having individuals with similar view around, can lead students feeling alone. For non-Baptist students it is not easily assessable to find religious groups because many are not recognized due to refusal to sign the Affirmation Statement. Without recognizing these different religious organization, finding people who have similar ideals may be hard because of Baylor’s large campus.

Those who are sad about leaving the church are often depressed because when they came to the Faith, they were so excited to hear the great news that Jesus Christ freely forgives the sins of all people and had died on the cross for all people, including them. They joined the church hoping to listen to the good news, or

The church that we used to attend -Wooddale Baptist- was a mega church just outside of St. Paul, Minnesota. Every Sunday, I had the same schedule consisting of Sunday School, snack time, and then “Big Church,” which was with the adults. Due to the unthinkable amount of kids, I was never given the opportunity to make anything more than acquaintances. Every Sunday it felt like I met someone new, plus I only got to know their surface layer identity. Once we started at my new church, Aldersgate Church, my social and religious outlook improved. Starting on the first Sunday, my family and I had made plenty of good friends. We even had dinner plans with two strange families after church that night! Little did we know that these two families became the most supportive and trusted people we would ever meet. Also, the small community within the church and the pastor inspired me to grow in my faith than ever before. I began to enjoy Sunday school, and understand the lessons. Exchanging churches changed the way I worshipped God, and gave me the chance to meet new

God loves his Church and Jesus is the one who builds the Church. Then, it goes without saying that God loves the local church and Jesus builds the local church. Unfortunately, there are many factors that come into play, causing churches to become complacent or stagnate before entering into a season of decline. Yet this can be avoided through the process of revitalization.

help within this new church. At first my brother and I didn’t like the idea of moving away from

Community is built of two main elements. First, community requires communal caring. Members need to put themselves in positions where they are able to relate to other members and does everything “within reasonable limits of self-sacrifice” (65). The second is communal reciprocity. Individuals will serve other members of the community, not for exchange of goods, but to provide generosity and support. These elements of community appear in the lives of all individuals, even the most capitalist ones. Humans are entirely capable of these.

Living in community will expose selfishness, ambition, jealousy, dissension and impurity in ourselves, allowing us to experience loss, despair, and stress. Even so, all of this is important to our spiritual formation because we mature as Christians,

Within the context of American society, we have strayed from the true purpose and identity of what the church was originally created to be. When we hear the word, “church,” we think of a building, a mere location where believers gather together every Sunday. The church of America might believe the essential elements of the church are an air-conditioned sanctuary, ten different ministry opportunities, and a full band to lead worship. While none of these things are necessarily bad, they do not comprise the biblical model of what the church was created to be. The church can be divided into two components: the Universal Church and the local church. Once a person becomes a believer, they are part of the Universal Church, the body of believers

The reality of full churches and choir stalls, lively Sunday schools, and overflowing basements is dead in today's Church. The unexpected has happened. Christ's followers, gripped by fear, are now scattered, or remain silent. Parishes, at worst, carry on blindly, or at best, look for comfortable compromises and expediency. They ignore cultural diversity in general. The rhetoric of denial continues to pour out of parish bulletins, newsletters, and diocesan and national journals. It is status quo.

Over the years, many models have been developed and implemented to endeavor to make disciples. Some of the models have been effective and others have not. Among some of the most biblical and efficient models are the ones that involve small groups. Within the small groups models, they can be broken down into further detail, such as pastoral involvement, the church’s goal, missions mindedness, etc. In this paper, I will explain my philosophy of small groups in a church and the importance of the relational group in authentic disciple making. I will also explain how missional groups can help the body of Christ move out into the community. Finally, I will summarize my status in regards to living in community with other believers and being missional with that community.

In cultural anthropology, reciprocity refers to the “non-market exchange of goods or labor ranging from direct barter (immediate exchange) to forms of gift exchange where a return is eventually expected as in Christmas presents and (delayed exchange) as in the exchange of birthday presents”(Lavenda). The theme that I used in was how do people without cars get rides. I structured my questions to be about how comfortable people are with asking for a favor, which in this case is a car ride, and how they made their own informal economy. The informal economy is the diversified set of economic activities, enterprises, jobs, and workers that are not regulated or protected by the state. This is achieved when two or more people come o their own agreements with things such as car rides, without having a central based government authorization.

Mrs. Jackson and I have the type of relationship based on reciprocity. “Reciprocity, a social norm dictating that an action performed by one party requires a compensating movement by the other, is a cornerstone of cooperative exchange relationships. I think our relationship works so well because we are both very in tune with how we think relationships should be within the workplace.