The Site Survey For Adult Learner

On Monday, I went to the local Crossroads Baptist Church, located at 850 Edwards Ferry Rd NE, Leesburg, VA. This was my first time experience as I am Hindu and my parents never exposed me to any churches. Dr. Kenneth K. Baldwin was the pastor at the time I went. Luckily, I got the chance to speak with him after the service. After our brief conclusion, I realized that he had a great vision for his church and is leading it to success through his passion. I sensed his passion for preaching and religious beliefs as they were evident during the service. Despite this being my first visit to a church, I learned a lot of valuable things about churches and Christianity.

One of the members who assisted the church said that 20 or so members live with the pastor and his wife, and some of those members

I must admit their style of worship is entirely different from what I am accustom to in worship service. Upon arriving at the church and entering into the Sanctuary, I was greeted by ushers at each entrance of the Church. Although, to my surprise was an enormous painting of Jesus that covered the entire wall behind the pulpit (Horne, 1983). The painting of Jesus revealed him with his hands stretched out with nail prints in the palm of his hands reaching out to you as you walked in the church (Horne, 1983). The seating of the pulpit was a huge chair in the center of the pulpit that sat up high for the Pastor, with chairs to the right and left of him for his ministers. Further, I notice as the members entered the Sanctuary one by one that they went to the altar and knelt down and prayed (Horne, 1983).

On any given day of the week, if one was to pass by a Mormon church, then they would always see lights on in the church house and cars parked in the church parking lot. The church is often a safe haven for many people and they view it as a place where they can come closer to God by learning from the scriptures and the gospel leaders. Yet, it is not only scripture study classes that occur within the walls of the church. A variety of different activities occur throughout the week that is catered to all sorts of ages. These activities give the members of the church and even non-members a chance to develop relationships with each other and to find a comforting shelter.

"When I asked this of one search committee, a couple of guys looked at me like, 'Why would you want to know that?'" said John Beukema of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois. "That told me a bundle about them. They were not thinking about outreach."

As a Ministry Leader at Fellowship Bible Baptist Church, I have always had an interest in how other ministries and denominations across the country held their worship services. However, I had the privilege of visiting and worshipping with the Holy Community Pentecostal Church in Adel, Georgia. The Church is a Non-Denominational Pentecostal Church that was founded in 1983 under the leadership of George Horne. The church motto is serving and reaching out to the entire community, as well as meeting the needs of the people.

It may be useful to develop a questionnaire which can be used in talking with elderly members of the church, relatives of church members and community residents. Statistics from the local municipality may be helpful. Interviews with local elected officials, staff from neighborhood health and welfare organizations and other health care delivery systems, and the area agency on aging should be able to help the planning committee discover the problem areas of elderly people in the community. Prioritize the unmet needs and service gaps.

The general location I chose for this church planting project was in the inner city areas of Baltimore, Maryland. There are currently no daughter works and only three preaching points in the Baltimore City area. It is because of this that I decided to use one of the three preaching points as my foundation. Based off of information from the Reever family, I chose the preaching point in Armistead Gardens. This preaching point is located 20 mins northeast of Central Baltimore near the Inner Harbor area and 20 minutes southwest of the mother church in Rosedale area. The demographics of Armistead Gardens is made up of white, lower class individuals. The majority of these individuals are either, middle aged and single mothers, teenagers, or children. There is a very high presence of gang activity and crime. It is here that the Abundant Life Church of Baltimore, Maryland, pastored by David Reever, sends out a group to hold weekly meetings in a space rented from a Baptist church. This group consists only of one single adult and one married couple. The attendance currently runs between 10-20 people per week.

ADD History, Pastors to date, location of church, age of facility, current membership 40 members representing 17 households,

Other general information I would like to review are the size of the church membership, current lawsuits against the church, the church’s reputation in the community, and the number of churches in the area where the church is located. Basically, I am trying to determine the church’s prospect for growth in the future. Since the church depends on the contributions of its members, it is very important to determine if it will be able to sustain its membership going forward.

This area is brand new to them and they don’t know about all the different Churches there are. Being able to choose the right Church and getting to know the people of the that same parish is important for all the newcomers. Holy Spirit and the other parishes in town do a great job with having volunteer opportunities and putting on social events that can bring the Church together. With all the activities in the Church, there is still not a event or group that helps take in college students that want to attend Church. There is a small gap in the Church that leaves out a specific age group. This age group is ranging from the age of 18 to about 25. This group is caught between 2 different groups that are very different in life styles. People in this age group are most likely students and have busy lives in brand new environments. This either forces these young adults to join a Bible study that includes people that are older than them or a youth group made up of high schoolers. Joining these groups wouldn’t be a bad thing, but they wouldn’t meet people their age that are going through the same thing they are. Just like youth groups, and men’s\women’s group, Holy Spirit could organize a college group that helps students choose a Church and join their

The family-integrated church model (p. 182-183) is not easily compatible with the format of Christian Endeavor. The family-integrated model does not have age-specific ministries, but CE is set up in such a way to work with churches who have a separate children’s or youth program. While CE values and encourages intergenerational learning, this happens in age-segmented group. Age-segmented grouping can be helpful because it can supports children and youth to learn, grow, and serve in ways that are most appropriate developmentally and spiritually where they are, while still valuing intergenerational connectedness.

There are various programs designed for adult learners that address the different aspects of learning that is to be accomplished in specific settings. These different programs come in all shapes, sizes, and formats; subsequently, they vary from highly formal to informal programs, from information or skill sessions that can last for an hour or two to

My understanding of skillful teaching has been formed through my practical teaching experience, and further developed as a master of education student who has the advantage of learning and discussing the most recent literature about education and methodology. I found that I completely agree with, Brookfield’s explanation and understanding of skillful teaching. Throughout his book, Brookfield, (2015) mentioned four assumptions of skillful teaching which included helping students learn, adopting a critically reflective stance towards teaching practice, awareness of how the learners are

Adult learner engagement should be at the forefront of any teaching philosophy, with this in mind, we have designed a new orientation program that will set the tone for autonomy and validation of prior learning and experience. In analyzing our first year orientation delivery, we discovered that we are missing many key components as discussed in FCP 601. In order to meet the information gathered from our FCP course, we have redesigned our year one orientation with international and domestic students in mind. Merriam and Bierema (2014) suggest, “adults want to know why they need to learn something and how what they learn will apply to their immediate situation.” Updating our orientation process is pivotal in setting the tone for the program,