Personal Narrative: What Does It Mean To Be A Church

In addition, going to the baptist church made me realize that no matter what your culture is, humans all want the same things. People want a sense of meaning and purpose, and to feel inspired, hopeful, unconditionally loved, accepted, and uplifted. People want to have an understanding of who they are, and what that entails. When people are feeling scared and insecure about the present and future, they demand explanations for the unknown, or the difficult elements of their life. Furthermore, people need order, structure, and security in their lives by being told what they should think/believe, how they should behave. People also seek a sense of belonging and community. Overall,it doesn’t matter if you’re Jewish, Christian, Caucasian, or African American, at the end of the day, humans generally all want the same thing, but just have different ways of showing it or expressing it.

Church, temple, sanctuary, or the Lords’s house, these are just a few names that your average person might call the place you come to worship God, I have always called it home. The Church I have been attending, Memorial Baptist Church, which is also where I attend high school, I have been attending since I was the age of three years old. Moving to the area that my family lives in now, I do not believe is any accident. At the age of two years old, my father was stationed in Tennessee for the military. After passing away from brain cancer, my Mother moved my two older sisters and me to Killeen Texas, to be closer to her family. Memorial Baptist Church was the only church we have ever been members of since moving to Texas, it has always felt like

For many years, I have worked in ministry as a support ministry member. In 1993-1997, I served as Administrator at Beacon Light Full Gospel Baptist Church under the leadership of Bishop Darryl S. Bister. I was responsible for all of his appointments, drafting of documents, and overseer of additional staff members and responsible for the day to day operations. In 1997, I was called to Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church with my husband under Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr. I served in many capacities in this ministry from worship leader to Administrator to the Registrar for Greater St. Stephens School of Ministry. My husband along with our 3 children was then called to Denver, Colorado to serve at Heritage Christian Center under Bishop Dennis Leonard. We serve in that ministry

I attend Gospel Light Freewill Independent Baptist Church in Thomasville, NC. It’s a relatively small church, with about 50-70 people on a Sunday morning. My grandmother, my aunt, and my uncle attend this church as well. I consider myself to be a child of God and a true “born again” Christian. Being “born again” means that one has accepted God into their heart and has been changed on the inside. I accepted him into my heart on October 9th, 2012. Growing up strictly in an independent Baptist church, I didn’t know that other churches were different, at least not until I visited my boyfriend’s church which is Southern Baptist. My pastor preaches heavily on hell-fire and brimstone. He walks up and down the altar, yelling and jumping. There are

In 1920s, due to urbanization, Chicago’s population was 2.7 million, which is 90 times more than in 1870s. European immigrants and people from rural places moved to cities. This demographic change brought, among other things, new religious. Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Christians, and also Irish, Poland, Italy Catholics, European Jews, black Protestants from the American South and Midwest. They all had to learn how to live together and respect each other.

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

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

Throughout my time with the Methodist church, I have experienced great opportunities and also many challenges. My family and I have been taught by a man who I think to be one of the most godly men I have ever met. Reverend Felder has always had a positive outlook on St. Luke UMC future even through trials and adversity. In fact, I truly think the Lord used him to save St. Luke because when he became pastor the city of Augusta had the land the church occupied labeled a future parking lot. However Felder had a vision for the church and the vision included having the sanctuary packed with families from the neighborhood of Harrisburg. The church is now an entity in the neighborhood that it was not before Reverend Felder came, and while is has a

To begin, this is my worldview and how I view the world. I do not believe in labels because it hinders a person from their full capability. I do believe in the understanding a person not just by their appearance but by who they are personally and behavior. Anyone can appear appealing and charismatic, but only a true follower of Christ has like a special glow about them, which is rare in my world. I have learned that it does not matter what denomination, ethnicity or upbringing a person comes from as long as they know The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus has done miraculous things in the past and in the present. Since I am on this Earth until I either die an earthly death or Jesus comes back, I try to live my life to the fullest.

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 a FCN is and how best to go about establishing my own practice. With that first challenge out of the way once completing the course, 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 a FCN practice there and I think it would an amazing opportunity to serve my home church in that manner if they allow. My challenge within that is where to actually set up my practice whether that be coordinating

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.

I was saved in my youth, but in words only as I was not regenerated. As a kid, my parents took us to church every week and I learned scripture, studied the bible, read and participated in youth groups, participated in Boy Scouts from age 4.5 (earning my Eagle Scout at 17) and even joined Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship in my undergrad.

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

Since the day I was born my parents took my sister and me to church ever Sunday. I grew up in a loving Christian home and was encouraged at an age where I could fully understand, to purse a relationship with Jesus. I accepted Christ into my heart when I was in the second grade and was baptized in the fourth grade at age 10. Growing up I have always been super involved in Church. I have a heart for people and love serving. Since 3rd grade until now, my senior year of high school I have been on the leadership team with my youth group. I can not imagine my life without Jesus as the center. I have been pushed to step out of my comfort zone and because of that I have grown in several different ways. For example, I am an extrovert and enjoy getting new people, but never liked public speaking as I felt nervous and intimidated. By the many adult leaders, and pastors coming along side of me and encouraging me to step of on my comfort zone I now highly enjoy speaking and spreading the truth about The Lord in big groups of people. I am so thankful for the many God loving people that have come in my life and helped stretch me. Jesus is my entire life and I am nothing without him.

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.