Pentecostal Observation

Recently, there has been a rise concerning spiritual gifts. New Charismatic and Pentecostal movements that have recognized the availability of these gifts have grown exponentially in the past century and, subsequently, have brought interest into the practice of these gifts. Spiritual gifts are not without controversy. Christians who believe that certain spiritual gifts have ceased disagree with Christians who pertain to these new movements. Through careful consideration over Scripture, however, one could adhere that all scriptural spiritual gifts are available today since the purpose of them is yet fulfilled, namely, the edification of the church remains necessary, and, in spite of unbiblical misuses of these gifts, most of these

For my Religious Experience Paper I decided to visit a worship center. I decided to choose this as my project piece because I had already been contemplating out of curiosity how this particular worship center worships based on previous discussions and invitations from a friend of mine that always stemmed from conversations of each other’s religious practices or functions etc. So today I was accompanied by my friend Lenore to experience her church. Multiple times during conversation Lenore has invited me to visit her church, Bandera Road City Church otherwise known as BRCC. I will admit I have wondered what kind of experience goes on behind that door at BRCC each time I’ve passed by it. I grew up Catholic and still practice Catholicism despite my concerns for some of the ways of the church. I won’t get into the personal issues as it would take too long to discuss in this paper and is not the purpose of the paper but have mentioned it in a couple of my posts in our class discussions. The way parishioners treat my sister because she is Lesbian, the outlook the church has towards LGBT is hurtful rather than the loving way of Jesus. As well as the fact that my previous parish advised me that I could no longer teach religious education since I divorced my 1st husband. Therefore, there have been times in my life that I asked myself if I wanted to continue to practice Catholicism and continue to attend Catholic Church Mass. This assignment allowed me to finally accept

In the past couple of decades the rise in non-denominational churches has been increasing greatly and are said to be the second largest group of Protestants (Moore, 2011). It is said that most that break off and become apart of this fast growing belief come from a protestant upbringing. The study shows that more people are determining on where to worship by how they like the nursery, if the worship music is good, is it close to home, rather than I am a Catholic I need to go to a Catholic Church. As of 2010, four percent of Americans fall into this non-denominational group (Thumma, 2010).

Gangel, Kenneth O. “Marks of a Healthy Church.” Bibliotheca Sacra vol.158 no.632 (October - December 2001): 467-477.

For this assignment I took part in a religious service at a small Orthodox Church in Baltimore.

In the religious project I choose to attend a church of a different domination. While I grew up Baptist and the Baptist culture are very familiar to me. the church I decide to attend was Holy Ghost Catholic Church. The reason I choose a Catholic church was because I have always been curious of their worship service. Right away, I noticed the pulpit and as in the Baptist culture this too seemed to be sacred. As only the priest and his helpers were allowed in it. The next thing that stood out to me was the church pews. That I thought all had foot rest. I soon realized that it was for their knees for praying. My experience was very eye opening as I went there not knowing what to expect. I didn’t find the music or choir selection as fun or energetic as in the Baptist

Passion is when a person has total devotion and is given meaning. With Jesus as their guide, the disciples were given not only a sense of purpose but also a sense of duty. This passion towards Jesus and the religion made in his message, was imperative as it was the key factor for the disciples as they committed their lives toward the development of Christianity. “With little more than passion for the message of Jesus as their guide, the early Christians overcame numerous obstacles to ensure his legacy was maintained for the world.” The early christians not only had to live their existence in the hopes to make Christianity a recognised religion, but they needed to have the passion at the very heart of their existence for this idea to flourish. They were faced with many obstacles to overcome, including the fear of being alone, hurdles the Council of Jerusalem took control of, Paul’s missionary journeys, and persecution.

Perhaps it was because I’m Catholic and not Pentecostal. Everyone in the sanctuary was moving around and socializing. Members of the church walked to the front of the altar and praised by the means of the Holy Spirit. It was a lot the different than my church but it was really a great experience. The members of the church raise their hands, kneel to god, and speak in tongues. Speaking in tongues simply means speaking to God in a way that they don’t understand themselves because the Holy Spirit fills their body. Another thing that was different about this church was the choir. Their choir was amazing and every selection they sung made me feel good inside. I got chills from some of the notes they hit. This church was very prompt and orderly. It started with a prayer from one of the Deacons of the church. The deacon openly asked the congregation for prayer requests and testimonies. One young lady gave a testimony about how she wanted to thank God for letting her see another day and healing her from cancer. It was also a special service honoring the Olive Branch Police Department. I’ve never seen anything like that during a church service, it was really amazing and touching. Another thing they did that was uncommon to me was an altar call. Towards the end of the service Elder Shannon called for an altar call. Altar call is when the members of the church go up to the altar for prayer.

I.1. Background: I serve as a pastoral intern at the Vineyard Christian church of Evanston. This marks my second year of internship at this church. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of becoming familiar with the culture of a non-denominational setting of the church. The Evanston Vineyard comprises of 57 nations of the world. The church is not only unique because of this particular diversity but also because of the Spanish speaking congregation that gathers together in the LaVina auditorium, every Sunday, in one of the auditoriums in the same building of this church.

As I walked into St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church, I was welcomed by everyone I passed by. There was a pleasant odor filling the halls that a fresh cooked meal was being prepared making me feel like I was at home. As I walked into the hall members of all ages were there to attend the Wednesday Night Recharge ranging from cute little infants, to

My first reaction was shock, because it was so vast and filled with beauty, something which I have never experienced before. Even with the quantity of people on that day I still felt quite small in a huge church. I like many others, did not go for religious purposes but to experience and see what was laid out in front of us. I do wish I came by myself because I constantly felt as if I did not take in what I was experiencing. If I was given more information about what the church’s history and background was, I would have felt much more comfortable and calm. One thing I did notice was the amount of marketing for the church. They had turned something so holy and made money out of pamphlets and miniature Saint Joseph and to light a candle you would have to purchase one. They sold plants and books and even snacks and drinks. It felt degraded to the actual purpose of the Oratory. I am pleased that I went, and would like to experience more church’s such as this one later in the

     Another part of the service that I did not get to witness was the actual baptizing part. In the English service they do not have a pool to baptize people in. They only baptize people in the Spanish service so I was not able to see this happen. The rest of the service was all about the preacher preaching. His sermon was not right out of the bible. He talked about real life situations that are related to what the bible talks about so I found it better to relate to what is going on in your life. It got pretty boring though when he kept on talking for around thirty to forty-five minutes. The whole service was around an hour and forty-five minutes to two hours.

Iglesia Cristiana Discípulos de Cristo is a small Hispanic congregation in Miami, FL. Church attendance fluctuates from 70-80 in any given Sunday. The worship milieu of our church consists of a simple liturgy characterized by a contemporary/charismatic approach where people participate through extemporaneous prayer, lifting hands, call and response and other expressions. We have an order of service, but our worship is considered non-liturgical.

For my second analysis, I went to a church in my hometown of Paris, Texas called Freedom Church. This church is a new non-denominational church that is trying to reach to the “de-churched and unchurched” as their tag line says. They have only been operational now for less than a year, so they are still trying to get new people to join their church. For this reason, this past Friday they put on a huge Easter event for kids and adults that had games, dinner, and a worship service. I saw and experienced some aspects of what non-denominational believe, and the freedom this church let people have during worship. There were also many things that happened throughout the service that I noticed that we talked about in class that I found they were

The objective of this report is to contrast and compare the culture of the Calvary Church with Catholicism, which is the religion that I practice. A field trip was taken to the Calvary Chapel in Rancho Cucamonga On February 12 of 2013, in which a clear observation of its services was