Personal Statement : ' Freedom Church

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

I grew up in a Baptist Church that I attended with my family. My family was very involved with the church and so we spent a lot of time there. My brothers and I used to spend hours in that church helping out and simply running around as the little kids we were. Several years ago, we started attending a non-denominational church that met in a middle school because they had outgrown their building. The first service we went to, the pastor of the church announced his resignation. After that, a few other leaders left

On the Sunday, the 20th of September I went to St. George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church located in 4335 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20011. The church rents out the National Theater for service every Sunday. This church is a non-denominational church and it is not at all traditional. The Pastor is Brandon Samuel, a middle-aged man with a wife and kids. The service was from 10:00 am to about 12:00 pm. I am a Christian so this church experience was not new to me, but it was quite different from my church at home as the church I attend back home is a Pentecostal church.

The first cultural event I experienced was going to the non-denominational church with my girlfriend and her family. My expectations were to be going to a church that was more of a cathedral look. I expected to see religious statues and carvings within the church. To my surprise, it was completely opposite. We drove up to the campus and it was huge like a basketball stadium. When we entered the church it was huge with a very modern look. It looked nothing like a church. Then we entered the auditorium where there were floor seats and balcony seats that which looked like you would sit in at a sports event. This was the day I met my girlfriend’s family so not only was I nervous attending a church service in a place so big and different from what I expected I was meeting her family. I met the family everyone was really kind and welcoming. The church service began and it was like a concert. They had drums, guitars, keyboards, and singers. The dynamic was not similar to what I have experienced in the services I had attended back home. It was loud, fun, and people were so comfortable being there. The pastor spoke

I’ve gone to the same church in Hartford almost every Sunday since I was born. The old building holds countless number of memories for my family and me. It has set the stage for a number of Christmas plays and Sunday School concerts. It’s where my little brother and I were baptized, and just recently it was where my goddaughter, Aurora, was baptized. After 20 years of marriage, it was where my parents renewed their vows, and a year later, it was where we held the funeral for my dad after he lost his battle with cancer. When it’s not a place of worship on Sunday mornings, it’s a daycare, where I work and care for a group of rowdy three-year-olds. In my 19 years of membership, the church has seen three different Pastors and

The service itself was much laid back and relatively small. There were 25 people at the church on that Saturday, and they were all very friendly. The pastor was very enthusiastic and welcoming to us. At the beginning of the service, he introduced us to everyone in the church and he encouraged us to research as much as we wanted to. In my opinion, this service was very similar to a catholic worship, or similar to the service that I used to attend when I lived in Venezuela. There was a lot of sitting, reading, standing, and singing. As we learned in class and in Williams’s Religion in America, music is a very

I really enjoyed my first week in the HIM Department at Baptist Health Lexington. I was required to attend orientation on Monday and Tuesday before I could begin in the HIM department. One complaint I have is that I wish I would could have used those two days to become familiar with the HIM department because a significant portion of the orientation was over pay and benefits which didn’t pertain to me. My preceptor, Linda, as well as all of employees in the department, made me feel extremely welcome and were eager to answer any questions I had this week. I was surprised at how well the HSA program had prepared me for working in this type of setting. When talking with employees in the department about their specific job duties I felt that I was knowledgable and gave off a good impression. Originally I had been a little bit nervous but after getting started I gained a boost of confidence and became really excited about the future and starting my career. Baptist Health Lexington is definitely an organization I would like to work for one day. They are focused on employee satisfaction, providing the best care possible and have a lot of exciting changes coming in the future, such as the opening of the new North Tower in a month and the move the Epic EHR system in June.

For my project I attended a Catholic mass at St. Jerome’s at 7955 Real Rd in San Antonio, Texas. I choose this project due to the fact I am Pentecostal and wanted to evaluate the differences between the two types of services that these denominations provide. I attended the 8 am mass which they have Monday thru Friday every week. Throughout this paper I will make note of things I observed and also compare those items against my background having participated in Pentecostal services.

“What did you think of the service?” my dad asked as my family packed into the van. My parents wanted to show us different types of churches than the Anglican one we had attended for years. While we wanted to visit more, we had suddenly found our next church before searching more than a month. We believe that some denominations are more righteous while others not, but as long as they are Christian I say that does not matter. Anglican and nondenominational churches along with others do not matter as long as they have truly Christen congregations.

This past weekend, I asked a friend if I could join him in church to see what it was like to attend a Baptist service. He happily agreed to bring me along and told me that he would answer any questions I had. This experience was not only new, but opened my eyes to a whole new religion. Before this past Sunday, I had no clue how the Baptist faith celebrated their Sunday, nor knew anything about the faith. Through this experience I have learned quite a bit of differences between my faith and his. The three differences that stood out to me the most dealt with communion, the way the church was set up, and the baptismal ceremony.

Singing the chorus to the songs , jumping and clapping uncontrollably made me forget about all my worries. We sat down knowing it was time for Gods message. I listened closely writing down important notes about Gods works. Bowing our heads, I felt the presence of God moving in the room. I drowned my face with slimy snot, pouring my eyes out to God. I thanked him for loving me. Realizing, God will always be on my side even when my family is not there. Knowing today that God is my saver makes me a stronger than I was before. Later that week, I was baptized in the ocean , I felt

I kneeled with my brothers and sisters in Christ as we watched the priests walk into the dim auditorium. They were singing a hymn while following Father Jose holding the blessed sacrament encased within the golden monstrance that glistened in the spotlight. Other than the illuminated host, there were lights shining up on the

Vivian, I want to applaud you on how dedicated you are to getting your education. I am glad you attend a church where they fellowship and share information with each other to help and encourage one another. I take stories like yours and tell them to the kids I work with so they can understand the sacrifices people to better themselves and their families. Your adventure continues to climb higher and higher on the ladder of success because you put God first in your life and he has truly shined his light on

Social Meditation was about to start and my group and I didn’t want to keep our kind hosts waiting, so we promptly found an empty seat in the circle of matts symmetrically placed across the room. Then the main service commenced. It began when our host Bradley started reciting a story that he sent out through email regarding courage. As he read the piece, I began to notice some of the art that was displayed across the room. I could appreciate elaborate crafts that depicted a fiery phoenix. When the written piece was read, Bradley explained that the phoenix symbolizes courage, the theme for that night. The reading made us reflect about ourselves and also on our courage experiences throughout our lives. We then followed with an exercise where we all paired up in what the group referred as diad’s. We then proceeded to listen and meditate about this meetings question “what do you really want?”. We were told to keep everything private, so unfortunately I can’t further explain the rest of this exercise. What I can say thought, is that the exercise, made everyone feel more comfortable, peaceful and trustworthy. We then ended Social Meditation by discussing and talking about whatever was wondering through our minds. The community was very loyal and trustworthy. The ceremony was like no other religious experience I’ve ever had; It

It was safe to say that it was the total opposite. When I arrived at the church, they had golf carts around the parking lot taking people to the church. The church was very large and modern. When I walked in, it reminded me of a hotel because they had security outside patrolling the cars as well as outside the church. This was something I was not used to because I usually do not see security at a church. As I walked in, the church had a large modern lobby. Before entering the auditorium where the ceremony was held, everyone had to pray before entering. This was completely different from Catholics because usually, you pray once you get inside. When I sat down they had people handing out packets of wine and the Eucharist. The ceremony began with people singing for about thirty minutes followed by a praise dance. It was a beautiful experience because everyone was very engaged and singing along. The people sang with so much power and emotion. The reverend spoke about God, but what I liked was that he related the information to personal experiences. He spoke about information that has been occurring in today’s society, which made it more personal. People were very