Personal Narrative: My Faith Community Practice

To say my faith life has been completely revamped in the last year would be an understatement. I had views and ideas about faith that seem somewhat vile to me know with the experiences I’ve had. From just lectures to the retreats my spiritual side has gone from that of a holiday catholic to a Campus Ministry Student. From little things to big ethic topics I’ve changed in a multitude of ways, my Spiritual Autobiography looks like looks like someone else wrote it compared to any year before it. I think faith is one of the most important aspects of our life and it took me until last year to realize it.

As I finished reading the first three chapters of Courageous Faith, I found myself to be most identified with Abraham. The beginning of new things is hard and challenging, and it takes great faith and courage for a person to make a decision that can change his whole life. This was what happened with Abram. God told him to leave behind his whole world to move to Canaan. He had to face new and unfamiliar people and environment, but he believed in God and follow His will. Throughout my life, I have met with changes throughout the years. From elementary to high school, I always go to a school far away from the previous with new environment, and all the people there already know each other and are friends. Then I study abroad in the States, this

Today was a boring and very uncomfortable day for me. Everyone know my last day here at Grace Christian Center is tomorrow so everyone is telling me that they’re sorry that I’m leaving. I’m not sure if its true or not , but its nice to hear. When I walked through the doors of GCC I went straight back to my seat and started cleaning out my desk. I don’t have much in there but I want to make sure that I leave it in better shape than when I got it. Just because I’m leaving doesn’t mean that I have to leave my work area cluttered. After cleaning up my area I decided that I was going to go downstairs to eat lunch with the rest of the staff member, which was odd because that’s something that I normally run away from. Me and the staff ate

Walking through the forest, a lone owl hoots at my presence. There are thousands of creatures accompanying me in this dense wood, yet my eyes catch only this owl. The leaves crunch under my feet; the predators and the prey of the forest watch in curiosity as this strange intruder stamps across their land. I know they’re there, somewhere, yet they stay shrouded in their leafy homes. It was in that moment that I found what fascinates me the most: why am I here among these creatures? It wasn’t a feeling of alienation, rather, a lack of understanding for the purpose of our existence.

If I were to start my own Faith Community Practice I would first plan to sign up for EMU's online Faith Community Nursing Course in order to fully understand what an FCN is and how best to go about establishing my own practice. After completing the course, spend however much time I needed to figure out how exactly I want to run my practice. After figuring out a baseline plan, I would go about facing my other challenges. One challenge that I would most likely face is where to set up my practice. I would most likely want to start my practice in service to my home church at Lindale Mennonite Church. I don't believe we have an FCN practice there and I think it would an amazing opportunity to serve my home church in that manner if they allow. My

If I were to start my own Faith Community Practice I would first plan to sign up for EMU's online Faith Community Nursing Course in order to fully understand what an FCN is and how best to go about establishing my own practice. After completing the course, I would spend however much time I needed to figure out how exactly I want to run my practice. After figuring out a baseline plan, I would go about facing my other challenges. One challenge that I would most likely face is where to set up my practice. I would most likely want to start my practice in service to my home church at Lindale Mennonite Church. I don't believe we have an FCN practice there and I think it would be an amazing opportunity to serve my home church in that manner if they

After worship at church, our team rented a Mercedes van and a minivan. It was my first time in a van and it was pretty cool. This van was especially large and could seat 18 people. During the time we were on the road, I got to read a book, talk with my dad, and talk with my friends. We got to eat dinner at Chipotle and we drove to the church. We passed the houses, which were very small. Some of them of them had a weather-beaten and rundown look. Finally, we arrived at Eight Street Community Church..

Not realizing I've fallen into a deep paralyzing sleep until the next morning. Sliding out of the foot of the bed with the inability to stop. This vision stuck with me. Talking with a church member, Jeff Hanson, a lean guy jolly with dark circles under his eyes, and nonjudgmental Christian, a friend of my parents.

Sure Pastor. I love the idea of a church wide time for revival. The back the school bash is that same week. Would it be possible to use one of those nights for the bash and the other two nights for the revival? This will minimize cost and effort. Also, Can I let the committee ( Bridgette, Natalie, Delphine, Nette, and Savanah) know to reschedule the groups that are coming to August?

As a person that had a religious upbringing, I think it is interesting to view myself where I was and where I am at this moment in time. I do not have a religion; in fact, ever since I was around 15 years old I rejected religion immensely. My mother and the rest of my family used religion as a way to “put me in my place” as they would say. Right now, I see religion as just that; a way to keep people in order. I’ve always been an inquisitive person, someone that strives for the truth, and anything that hindered me from doing so I refrained from putting my trust into it. With that said, I went into this interview with low expectations. I’m not too keen on things that put me out of my comfort zone, but one thing that being in college has taught is that in order to grow sometimes you are going to have to be uncomfortable. Since I got to Old Dominion in 2014 there has been this Christian group on campus that has been more than persistent in harassing me and some other people on campus. I never considered giving them the time of the day until this assignment required me to interview someone from a culture group that I do not share a membership in.

I was very lucky to have the opportunity to interview one of my husband’s friends through his church. I interviewed a 51 years old woman who was born in Belle Plaine, Minnesota and has been living in Belle Plaine, Minnesota for the entire time. I apologized to her at first and thank her for the times she gave to me because I will ask her many questions.

Growing up with one Christian parent and one atheist parent confronted me early on with hard decisions surrounding faith. Faith, to me, became choosing between two parents more so than understanding my core beliefs and making the hard choices. I gave my life to Christ for the first time at a very young age in Sunday school; however, the pivotal point in my walk was during my freshman year. Up until that year, the only Christians I had direct contact with all simply went to church on Sundays and often were drunk or in another arguement as soon as Sunday night. The first time I saw someone act like a follower of Christ and not just proclaim to be was through my soccer coach. This coach never went around telling people that he was a believer,

My journey with God started in February of 1993, when I went to a ladies’ conference in Columbus, Texas. It was while the speaker was explaining that she knew there were some of us out in the audience, who felt guilty about something they had done in their past, and they did not feel that God could forgive them for it. But then she quoted from God’s word; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 NASB) The speaker continued on to say that all we need to do is

Humans from my own point of view are God's creation, because the bible makes me understand that humans were created in God's image, and during the creation of man, God blew the breath of life into man to make him come alive. I assume the reason humans are so unique is that they were created like God. The reason why humans are the best of all creation is that they can think, invent new things, and have dominion of all other creatures on earth. Humans are the only living creation that is conscious of their own existence, because they have advanced knowledge and skills to do things, for example, humans can clothe themselves, cook their foods, and even invent numerous technologies. Humans have a well-regulated sense that is able to

Interviewing several pastors can be eye opening in that you will begin to see different character qualities, disciplines and where they are in their spiritual journey. My intention was to interview several pastors, however, I was unable to obtain the responses needed to complete a study such as that. I did get to meet with one pastor, and I believe that it was truly difficult for him to answer most of the questions even after giving him some time to think about each question. My interview was with a very intelligent and spiritual man named Les Harvey. He is currently serving at the Church of the Highlands Greystone campus under many great leaders.