Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church

Grand Rapids first is an Assemblies of God church. As a result, its theology is closely related to that of the pentecostal denomination. Also, the worshippers varied from toddlers to the elderly. Because of this context, worship was very diverse. The worship team sang songs that were familiar to both the youth and to the elderly. Also, the words of the songs were projected on a screen for people who were not conversant with the songs. Additionally, Pastor Sam preached in a way that was applicable to both the old and young. During his preaching, he gave quality examples that resonated with everyone’s life, no matter the age difference.

The meeting was held in a large sanctuary and there were around 200 people in attendance of all different ages and races. The children’s ministry that accompanys Celebrate Recovery was also attending the main service so members ranged from elementary school age to around eighty years old. They have services for middle school and

I had the privilege of interviewing Brian Bagwell for this project. He is, in my opinion, one of most humble, wisest man we have at Church of the Highlands. Once you get through a joke or two, the fruits of the spirit radiate from his personality. A man that I have the privilege to call my mentor and teacher. He is currently serving on staff at the Church of the Highlands as a Dream Team Coordinator. His shares the vision of the church which is passed down from our senior pastor, Chris Hodges. Evangelism is the definition of the church so to speak, Church of the Highlands stands behind the final authority of God’s word which is the bible. It is often said among the staff “we do not argue the essentials, but we can disagree the non essentials.” The church believes and acts in spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, and helping people move through four steps our God has outlined in the Great Commission. Our Church exists to see people saved, delivered, redeemed, and fulfilled. This is accomplished with four systems that allow the people to move through the four steps. The first is weekend services to allow them to know God (saved), small groups to find freedom (delivered), growth track to discover purpose (redeemed), and dream team to be fulfilled and make a difference (fulfilled). This vision is how the church evangelizes (Bagwell). This vision is clear to all members of the church who call Church of the Highlands home, and even clear to people

I was a Follower of Christ and I didn’t even know it. I was the last of three boys to two faithful Christian parents. My parents attended St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron, OH. I was baptized and confirmed by the same Bishop. Some of my earliest memories are of me standing in the pews with my parents and stacking the prayer books as if it were my own pulpit and I would pretend to be the priest giving the Sunday sermon. I didn’t know what he was talking about but I always thought that I would be like him one day. I was an acolyte and attended the youth programs regularly with my friends. I completed my studies to earn my God and Country award with the Boy Scouts.

For an observation of an AA meeting my classmate and I made arrangements to go to an open meeting at Our Lady Star Of The Sea Church, which was held in a basement during a Tuesday afternoon session at 4:00 p.m. I first looked up the sessions online on a website where it held all the meetings on Staten Island and this one fit my schedule well. Its not unusual for me to be attending or visiting churches but for this assignment it did feel a little out of my comfort zone, because I didn’t know what to expect or what others would think of me. I chose a seat in the back corner that wouldn’t be too obvious yet it seemed like a typical seat for a newbie to sit at. The room was fairly large and I was surprised at how big the crowd got at least 30 plus people attended.

Mid-sentence the pastor interrupted himself and said, “Let us pray”, without giving us time to prepare we began praying. This sporadic praying happened many a times during the meeting. Also, I have never heard the phrase “can I get an amen?” taken so seriously. The pastor would sometimes wait for the audience to say amen and if no one would, his response to silence was, “SAY AMEN”. To me it came off forceful and demanding, but the rest of them seemed to be used to it. Like I mentioned before, there was no program or itinerary handed out. The meeting seemed very unorganized, which is different from what I am used to. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Going to a baptist church was a bit different. A lot of our beliefs were the same though! For example, we both believe that Jesus Chris performed the greatest act of the atonement (died for our sins). As well as, the resurrection of Christ. They study in the Old Testament and the New Testament like me (although we use different versions). The message of the meeting seemed to be to make it to heaven. That was their happiness. To make it to heaven, they are to follow the commandments given to them by their God, and live their life

The church must be a central part of rebuilding the community, they are strangers to. There are a variety of ways of reaching the community, however, whether the church elects the execution of at least one or more of these methods are something of a different matter. Pleasant Hill Baptist Church (PHBC) today, does not have an ongoing focused vision, structured outwardly, in place. By the same token, in regards to connecting or bridging the outside community to the relevance of the church, there have been several attempts made. Examples: Service on the lawn, “Cross” walk Easter Sunday, and Church cookout and picnic day. These creative ideas used to get the attention of the community were only temporary.

Description: One Sunday, every month, I help in the nursery at my church. This shows leadership because I teach the children right from wrong. I also play with them and entertain them.

Dr. Anthony Jordan is the Executive Director-Treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO). The BGCO is a convention of 1813 Southern Baptist churches comprising of about 614,000 members. This organization’s purpose is to help the churches that are members of the convention spiritually, financially, and structurally. They provide a number of camps and conventions for people to attend and use. They also provide assistance in handling the business and professional aspect of a church’s ministry. One of the most popular camps that the BGCO puts on is Falls Creek Youth Camp where around 50,000 students attend over an 8 week period. Dr. Anthony Jordan has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southwest Baptist University and a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (BGCO.com). He has been the Executive Director- Treasurer for the last nineteen years. Before he became the Executive Director-Treasurer, Dr. Jordan served as the lead pastor at Northwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City from 1982-1996 (ohbc.org). The members of the BGCO have been very positive about the way Dr. Jordan leads and structures the convention. In the rest of this paper, I will inform you of how Dr. Jordan handles ethical dilemmas, how the convention is structured and the culture surrounding it, and the leadership style and qualities that Dr. Jordan uses and exemplifies as he holds the position of Executive Director-Treasurer of the

He is also able to reach the younger unchurched people in the area. He has begun to set things in motion again, causing the church to develop a heart and a desire to reach the local community with the gospel of Jesus. He has revamped the mission statement that now provides direction and purpose for the members. He has a vision to develop disciples who make disciples. He and his wife have started to invest in the lives of younger adults in their congregation. They are building leaders who will be able to lead others, equipping them for ministry.

By this time, the room became filled with girls who took time to welcome me personally. After a few exchanges, the singers began to start. The song lifted the room’s spirits, and everyone joined along in singing. Looking around, I became so happy to see young women close to my age having fun worshipping Christ. Faces were covered in smiles as the song ended. After the song was done, the president stood up and announced she would be the speaker. Sharing her personal testimony, my nerves were struck with the influence she had experienced. Finishing her story, she closed us out in prayer.

In chapter 7, David Platt builds the case for the argument that there is no other way to get the gospel out to about ( 4.5 billion people) by missionaries alone. The church itself seeing the urgency in this matter needs to step up and take immediate action. “ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” Matthew 28:19-20.If Bible believing Christians would take this command seriously and do what God has called them to do, then more people around the world would have intimate and life “ saving and changing” relationships with Jesus Christ.

This year I got to participate in a youth outing with the youth at my church. Corp Cadets Academy, is a young people’s trip with The Salvation Army for the weekend. On October23-25,2015where the whole division of Florida gets together. It is a time where youth are able to be themselves, have fun, get away from home and worship the Lord and are able have a time alone with God surrounded by people who are trying to do the same thing. At the event, I got to see different types of talents on each day and see how the youth would praise dance in different songs and, put on plays and skits for us.

     Another part of the service that I did not get to witness was the actual baptizing part. In the English service they do not have a pool to baptize people in. They only baptize people in the Spanish service so I was not able to see this happen. The rest of the service was all about the preacher preaching. His sermon was not right out of the bible. He talked about real life situations that are related to what the bible talks about so I found it better to relate to what is going on in your life. It got pretty boring though when he kept on talking for around thirty to forty-five minutes. The whole service was around an hour and forty-five minutes to two hours.

They would put the kneeling board down and do a prayer. Three girls, dressed in white, came out and lite some candles. The service didn’t begin until everyone was in their pews and then came silence before anything else happened. After a while of silence, we got up and sang a hymn. The priest, with the three girls in white, walked down the center aisle as we sang. He then prayed a prayer from a book and one of the students came up to the podium and said the first reading. The student told us what we had to recite back to him throughout the reading. There were about three different readings at different times also each one had a different phrase we had to recite back. The priest read from Luke 6:42 King James Version, which stated “Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.” The priest kissed the Bible at the end of the reading. We sang a few hymns and sat down. He stepped off the stage onto the ground and talked about a saint you saved many slaves lives by spreading the love of Jesus. He tried to connect the scripture to the story, but it was semi difficult to understand how they connect. We then kneeled and the priest read another prayer to us. Multiple times throughout the service we would sing a hymn, sit down and listened to readings or the priest, lastly we would kneel and pray. They prepared communion at the front on the stage. Everyone waited in line to get bread to eat in honor of Jesus death. To be able to take communion there were step to be taken also being a part of the catholic church. After communion was taken we sang a hymn and said the Lord’s prayer. It was hard