Reflection Paper

The church that we used to attend -Wooddale Baptist- was a mega church just outside of St. Paul, Minnesota. Every Sunday, I had the same schedule consisting of Sunday School, snack time, and then “Big Church,” which was with the adults. Due to the unthinkable amount of kids, I was never given the opportunity to make anything more than acquaintances. Every Sunday it felt like I met someone new, plus I only got to know their surface layer identity. Once we started at my new church, Aldersgate Church, my social and religious outlook improved. Starting on the first Sunday, my family and I had made plenty of good friends. We even had dinner plans with two strange families after church that night! Little did we know that these two families became the most supportive and trusted people we would ever meet. Also, the small community within the church and the pastor inspired me to grow in my faith than ever before. I began to enjoy Sunday school, and understand the lessons. Exchanging churches changed the way I worshipped God, and gave me the chance to meet new

I was born in Bogota, Colombia where most people are catholics. Thus, I was baptized at the age of five. I also went to a catholic school from kindergarten up to second grade. However, I barely attended church because my parents were busy throughout the week to go to church. Then, at the age of nine my family and I moved to the United State.

I can’t recall not being a part of New Hope Baptist Church because when I was growing up my parents attended everything and they “had us in tow”. I remember being brought to church in the winter and my parents lining us up on the seats next to the potbellied stove. We were required to take care of our “personal business” before entering because we were not allowed to walk while the services were in progress. I really have a hard time understanding why some young people today cannot sit through an entire service right now today. As children the church conferences often baffled us. While watching and listening, sometimes things got into a disagreeable mode. As children, we thought those deacons were at odds with each other, but when they

I grew up in the St. Louis suburb of Eureka, where I still live today. If you ever look at me and wonder where that scar on my forehead came from, well it happened when I was roughly 12 months old when I fell out of a moving car. My parents raised me as a Methodist at the Eureka United Methodist Church. During my years attending Geggie Elementary School, every Sunday my parents would force me to get out of bed and go to Church with them. During church, all the children would go to Sunday school while the parents were listening to the sermon. In Sunday school, we had a teacher, sometimes my mom, who would give out fun church related activities. However, I did not enjoy doing that mostly because it involved getting out of bed early and since I did not like the subject matter either, but at that age, children do not fully grasp the importance of attending church and

Weekend “Mass” in the Catholic denomination is a form of church service where churchgoers gather to worship God for at least an hour. A shorter vision of Catholic “Mass” is practiced on the weekday and the longer version is practiced on the weekend. This religious meeting is referred to as sacramental worship where people truly believe they have established a connection with God. Personally, I am not familiar with Catholic worship as I grew up a Seven Day Adventist until I eventually moved away from the church. However, my mother’s acquaintance invited our family to “Mass” on the Easter weekend at a Parish near our house. We accepted the invitation and attended the evening Mass at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. This report expounds on the different elements related to Catholic “Mass” such as the setting, size of congregation, type of service offered, social aspects, and likely psychological processes involved in the experience. Also, the psychological effects of the songs, scripture readings, sermon style, and the building itself will be examined in detail. My

Sunday morning, I would wake up at 9 am, in order to attend the 10 am service. I can see why as a kid, I wouldn’t want to attend in

To begin with, I did not grow up in a church-going household. In fact, I can count the number of times my family went to church together with my fingers. The times we went to church were so monotonous and dull that I would annoy everyone surrounding me wiggling the squeaky pew.

At the time I had no idea what it meant to have faith or a God, I’d think nothing of what I’d learned and believe them to be just

When we went to church, we “had church”! It wasn’t 60 minutes and go home, we were there for hours. Sunday morning service would start at 9am and end at 12:30 or 1 and Sunday Nights would start at 6 and end between 8- 9pm. The ending time depended on how much the Spirit was moving! Just when I thought church was over, the Spirit would start moving again. At that time, I despised when the Pastor would say, “Let’s sing that song one more time.” I knew what that meant, yep, the Spirit was going to move again! So back under the pew I would go and find rest in Jesus!

As a young child my parents had always raised my siblings and I to go to church. Every sunday we would attend church, and every wednesday we would attend a type of youth group. It was a great experience to be so involved, getting to meet new people was also a major thing for me. As far as I remember, we attended a catholic church with my aunts and uncles. It was a nice church, great people, and great opportunities to learn new things, but we just never attached to it. By that I mean we would go to church, but leave without feeling changed, or impacted. When one attends a church one expects to leave with a lesson, or something one can learn from. This church just wasn't doing that for us, and then family problems started to come. As someone

Church was boring. Or at least that was the attitude of most of our church kids.

Religion plays an important role in my life. I identify as catholic, but there are some thing that me and my family don’t follow. We don't go to church often and when we do it's only for important events. This is because we’ve had bad experiences with

I loved church. From belting "Father Abraham" to watching Gospel Bill videos to coloring pictures of David and Goliath, it was endless fun. The Sunday School teachers seemed immortal, and I loved talking to them, and I wanted to be just like them when I grew up. I learned to obey my parents and love my neighbor and speak in tongues. And of course I learned to love Jesus.

I've been attending church for as long as I can remember. The earliest time I remember going to church was when I was in pre-school, and I attended the same church until high school. Sundays were routine, we attended church, went out to eat after with other members of the church, and then went home to watch either football or baseball (sports being my second religion). Skipping church was never an option, nor did I really want to miss it. I had good friends at church, and was genuinely interested in the bible and the stories we read.

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.