Three Types of Churchgoers Essay

It is true that Sunday was a showman who craved an audience and loved applause. But he also touched the lives of countless men and women of all social classes, helping them escape various forms of personal bondage and find freedom in the gospel. And if he did not convert all of urban America to his brand of Christianity, he at least played a major role in helping to keep conservative biblical Christianity alive in this century (Dorsett 3). To understand fully why he thought, lived, preached, and teached the way he did, we should look at his

I chose to do my religious ethnographic study at my home church, Tabernacle Baptist Church in Youngstown, Ohio on Sunday, May 8, 2016. Tabernacle is an 112-year-old historic Black Baptist church located on the lower Northside of Youngstown surrounded by a mixed income housing development, homeless shelter, Youngstown State University, and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. I would say the average age of a Tabernacle member is 55 years old. About 70% of the members at this church are “middle-class” families. Until about five years ago, its membership was almost exclusively middle class. There has seen an influx of membership in working class individuals and students since the arrival of Tabernacle’s young, vibrant pastor, Rev. Christopher McKee, Jr., three years ago. The church is attentive to the needs of this demographic but remains true to its historic Black Baptist church roots. The church previously struggled with this conundrum until it came to the reality that an exclusivist mindset around worship is detrimental to the body of Christ when it did not have a pastor for over three years. The church was dying because no one was welcome to it and it did not have a leader. Though it was difficult, this reassessment was beneficial in making Tabernacle more relevant and welcoming to the community it is blessed to serve.

Located in the heart of downtown Cedar Rapids this Historical brick building with its’ decorative molding and beautiful stain glass windows is the home of a subculture of biblically based Christians. This church family meets every Sunday like many churches who revere Sunday as being the Lord’s day, set aside for rest and worship of God. Biblically based Christianity is a vast culture of faith in God carried out by many subcultures called churches, made up of people who seek to worship God and to foster a personal relationship with him. One of the most important things that make a subculture is a question of what is it that brings these people together? This foundational question is not only the question of the subculture, but is also the defining

Another challenge concerning the Millennials is that a lot of these young adults are growing up without attending church. The Barna group calls them the unchurched segment and report that this segment has increased in the last 10 years, from 44% to 52% (5 Reasons). This is a problem because it decreases the chances for new members to join the church. The majority of people that follows a specific religion learned about that religion in early childhood. Students of human behavior believe that “The most significant borrowing occurs in early childhood. Family is thus an important factor…” (Wuthnow 106). If the number of the unchurched segment continues to grow at this pace, in the next few decades, this will continue to be a major concern for church leaders across the Americas. It is a lot harder to try to reach those people that have never attended church or don’t come from a religious background than try to reach those that belong to a church or have been brought up in the faith.

In the past couple of decades the rise in non-denominational churches has been increasing greatly and are said to be the second largest group of Protestants (Moore, 2011). It is said that most that break off and become apart of this fast growing belief come from a protestant upbringing. The study shows that more people are determining on where to worship by how they like the nursery, if the worship music is good, is it close to home, rather than I am a Catholic I need to go to a Catholic Church. As of 2010, four percent of Americans fall into this non-denominational group (Thumma, 2010).

55% of Northwest Texas’s churches have fewer than 50 weekly attendees (and 9% of the conference’s total weekly attendance) while 9 churches contain 27% of the conferences total weekly attendance. In comparison to other conferences, a large portion of the conference’s

Individuals are quick to tell where they attend church, because they take pride in it. Most of the church population finds themselves going to what church is popular within the community or to a family church. A religious sect usually correlates to someone’s secular life in some manner. Religious denomination is weakly related to both types of educational goals, and seems to have no real influence on occupational goals.

Next, going to a baptist church had some similarities and difference compared to going to a synagogue. The similarities were that they are both places where people in the community come together to pray and worship God. Another similarity is that there are parts of the service where there are readings from either the torah or bible that are long and boring. There are also parts of the service where there is standing and singing. Furthermore, there’s also the similarity of there being one person who leads the service, in a synagogue its a rabbi, and in church it’s a pastor. The rabbi or pastor speak and the community listens or participates when asked. A final similarity that I noticed is that at both synagogues, and African American baptist churches the services discuss topics that are culturally significant.

They give examples from C.S. Lewis when discussing this subject. They quote Lewis with the term “Chronological snobbery”. This term means that while older generations only find value in the traditions and heritage of our faith, the younger generations only find relevance in what is current. They also write this type of separation between the young and old has effectively begun dismembering the body of Christ limb by limb. The authors also put focus on the act of individual preferences through church shopping. This according to Page and Gray, result in the encouraging of churches to offer consumer-driven programming in order to keep members on their rolls.

Within the context of American society, we have strayed from the true purpose and identity of what the church was originally created to be. When we hear the word, “church,” we think of a building, a mere location where believers gather together every Sunday. The church of America might believe the essential elements of the church are an air-conditioned sanctuary, ten different ministry opportunities, and a full band to lead worship. While none of these things are necessarily bad, they do not comprise the biblical model of what the church was created to be. The church can be divided into two components: the Universal Church and the local church. Once a person becomes a believer, they are part of the Universal Church, the body of believers

Over the past years of my life I have seen many changes, some for the good and others not as good. Change can be demanding and also crucial. The early believers would encounter this. One can see that significant change happened, when reading through the gospels and the book of acts it is obvious to the reader that the believers who followed Jesus would never be the same again.

The Chinese Christian church in the United States often has ethnic characteristics, but different Chinese churches often have special concentration in the composition of the congregation, which reflects the tide of Chinese immigrants in different stages. For example, descendants of early immigrants from southern China usually have their fixed church. International students from the mainland of China have the church which they set up together. And other "informal immigrants" also formed Christian organizations. According to Aihui Lee, she divides American Chinese Christianity into four categories.

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

The first, and most domestically prevalent, circumstance deals with Christianity and how it truly shapes the daily lives of its followers. Before college began, my family and I would attend church every Sunday at 9:30 am. This Sunday could be easily used for sleeping, watching football, working or traveling, but we saw it as the Lord’s day and attended mass. Christianity also shapes the behavior of its followers by integrating honorable priests, meaningful homilies and lessons from biblical scriptures and other ageless writings.

I entered into the worship service, unaware of what to expect. I was not familiar with this church, it was a non-denominational church, but the pastor had his roots in the A.M.E. Zion Church and branched out to establish his own church. I walked into the sanctuary prepared to participate in the Sunday School. I found a seat and readied myself to engage in some meaningful discussion. After sitting for several minutes, I asked one of the gentlemen who was standing at the front of the church if they had already started and where was the lesson coming from. He looked at his watch and indicated that he didn’t know if we had time for Sunday School. A puzzled look came over my face and I couldn’t help but express my confusion as I looked at