Personal Religious Experience

From as early as I can remember, I would stand in church, clueless as to what is going on. It did not really matter why I was there, but the fact that I went. My dad was never catholic and never went to church. It frustrated my mom and I knew that it was my responsibility to go. Growing up, I would still go,

Chances are if you grew up in the south, then you most likely have been to a church service before. I remember as a kid getting the wakeup call every Sunday morning from my mom, “Get up and get dressed for church!” Even if I did not feel like going, she would drag me out of bed and make me go. Anne Lamott writes about the same thing in her essay “Why I Make Sam Go to Church.” Lamott wrote “Why I Make Sam Go to Church” in 1999 as part of a collection of autobiographical essays in a book called Traveling Mercies. My main reaction to this work was a positive one. I thought the essay was eye opening in a sense and it shows that everyone needs guidance and help from others sometimes.

Describe your personal experience of God and the understanding of God you derive from biblical, theological and historical sources.

43% of Americans attend church to grow closer to God. Attending church is important. Although about 75% of people do not attend church, about 40% of people attend church regularly. People should attend church because they could learn about our omniscient and indescribable God, lovingly and willingly serve God, and fellowship and pray with other Christians.

I’m a Coptic Orthodox and my family try to go to church every sunday. We also sometimes come in Friday and Saturday nights. In Sunday, there is a liturgy, or a mass. In church, people get baptized when they’re a few month old and they take their first communion. In Friday and Saturday we have hymns classes and Choir/Band meetings. In Sunday, we all go to Sunday School after the liturgy. I also pray every day and try to read the bible before I sleep every night.

“More than forty percent of Americans attend church every week” (Huffington Post). Every week I attend mass at St.Michael Chaldean Catholic Church in El Cajon, California. Every time I go to church I do not sit with the parishioners instead I serve.What this means is that I help read passages and help with what is needed.

I stopped attending mass and believing that I didn’t need to go to church every Sunday. However, this changed when my school priest Fr. Kevin Lutz showed me the Latin Mass. That is when I realized how amazing the mass truly was. When I learned the symbolism and all of the solemn respect the Latin Mass had for God, was genuinely mesmerizing. The Latin Mass made the English Mass much more sacred because now I knew why every part of the Mass was being done. Furthermore, going to Mass became a habit that if I skipped on Sunday, I felt like I hadn’t done something important. That is the way I still feel

One may feel as if they cannot relate to the teachings in the church sermons. In his article about church decline, Dr. Krejcir mentions that, “the people will get the feeling that the teaching or the church is not informative, in-depth, or relative to them, thus they are not receiving anything worthwhile from which they can grow or use in their daily lives” (1). If people do not feel a connection to church, then they are not going to attend. Another reason why someone would not want to attend church is if the church is based around money. Dr. Krejcir also stresses this point saying, “Another big turn off is being overly money-oriented so that people feel the church wants their money but not them” (4). If people feel that their money is valued by the church more than they are, then they are more likely to stop going to church. Additionally, some people choose not to go to church because they were not raised in a certain church or religion. The Huffington Post points out that, “one-quarter (25 percent) of Millennials identify as religiously unaffiliated…11 percent of Millennials were raised without faith, more than half of Millennials left their childhood faith” (“More Millennials Losing” 1). When focusing on the younger people of the world, having a home congregation is becoming more and more uncommon. This can also be found when looking at the nation as a whole. Dr. Krejcir reports that, “Most of the

Based on my personal experiences and beliefs, I agree with Emerson when he wrote, "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow". Within my sport there is a constant demand to push yourself past what you have already accomplished, and I have come to the realization that if I do not ignore the fear or hesitance being said within myself, I will not become any better at what I do and I could potentially never know what I am capable of. To put this quote simply, it is to say that if you do not take a chance, or go forward with something, you will not move or make any new achievements; i think that this particular quote can be applied to any part of my life such as, school, sports, relationships,

By the time I was around the age of twelve, church was not as big of a deal as it once was. We stopped going to the church I loved due to some very unfortunate events that occurred

First if you’re a Christian, church is not something you go to. It’s something you are.

Methodist church on his “Four Point Charge” to preach. Usually Sunday nights were for returning to the largest of the four churches that he hadn’t served that morning. It was his life, and the congregations paid him with respect, appreciation, chickens, vegetables, and desserts. We kids were in church enough that we never got into trouble and we had little time for anything else. Church involved Sunday School class, regular church services, communion the first Sunday of each month, Methodist youth group, Wednesday night prayer meeting, and choir practice. Then there were the pageants, church dinners, picnics, and the yearly Harvest Sale and Supper

I grew up in a Christian home where my faith really shaped who I am, my ideas, and...how I view the world and life. There’s one lesson in particular that...is an ongoing process and it’s kind of a struggle sometimes to remind myself of but I thought it’d be really cool to share it with you today.

Growing up on the border of Newark and East Orange has placed me in a melting pot of different cultures and religions. Raised as a Catholic I have only been taught about the teachings of the Bible, and what my family members have learned about it. My grandmother has always been the religious example in my household when it came to spreading the Catholic faith. During the early years of my life all I’ve known was the Catholic religion.

¶ 324.9a - Describe your personal experience of God and the understanding of God you derive from biblical, theological, and historical sources.