Why Is It Important?

It was my responsibility to help her reach a different understanding. With compassion and love, I discussed with her the circumstance of her history. We read religious text together. I was able to attend her baptismal service later that week.

I talked about the witness report I had to complete and I asked if my sister could listen to me while I share about what God has been doing in my life. My sister is not rude in any way, I knew she was going to sit there and listen to what I had to say. The statements that my sister said to me when I asked her her thoughts about the Gospel is that the Gospel was interesting and hard to follow because of the temptations that she knows the devil wants her to do. I was amazed when she said that the Gospel is hard to follow because of temptations that she knows the devil wants her to commit because I know as a Christian, I struggle with the same mindset. My sister and I grew up in the church our whole lives and she has heard the Gospel plenty of times, but as we have gotten older, my sister has drifted away from the church. My sister is on the path of partying and hanging around the wrong people. My sister has not grasped the whole understanding of the Gospel because she does not want to let go of her old ways to be right with the Lord. I told her that no human on this earth has to have it together in order to accept Jesus into their

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

Although the small group of church goers were mostly elderly Caucasian people, they were diverse and friendly towards new individuals. Those who wore the traditional, elegant attire of a Sunday worship service greeted with a firm handshake and a gentle smile. On the other hand, those who preferred to wear casual outfits greeted with tight hugs and hearty laughter from seeing a new face. After talking to more than half of the attendants, it was evident that everyone knew a lot about each other. It was nice to hear that most of them had overwhelmingly positive words to say about the church itself. Then, I finally met the middle-aged pastor who was glad to see someone new and introduced me to his wife. She had a stoic expression and had nothing to say. Honestly, the wife’s silence struck me as surprising considering how the other people were talkative, but it is nothing to be overly concerned about. After all, it was almost time for the Sunday service to

One teenager, named Jazmin, came to our missionary facility every day to talk and interact while we were aiding the community. After multiple days of speaking broken Spanish with her, I inquired more information about her from our ministry leader. He communicated to me that she has become less and less involved in the church due to social pressures from her friends to party, sexually engage with men, and become under the influence with drugs and alcohol. Hearing these activities associated with this young women, broke my heart. I was conversing, playing, and interacting with this child, and I was clueless about the struggles and obstacles that were being forced onto her. I wanted to take her out of this place, give her a deserving education, proper living conditions, and a safe environment to grow into a young adult; but, I could not give her any of these things. When I volunteered for this trip, I had an agenda for what I wanted to accomplish, such as building or renovating houses, yet what I failed to realize is that the people we are aiding just want to be loved. They wanted someone who would listen and give them the attention they are craving. After

For my interview this week in Systematic Theology class assignment, I had the privilege to speak with a friend who was an elder leader at the church I used to attend. His name is Pastor Ken Barr, a Bachelor in Psychology at Regent University in 2014. I have known Pastor Ken for over three years of my walk with God. He is also one of the leaders who taught the new disciples of the church, who wanted to learn how to become future disciple leaders. I had the privilege of learning many things through his ministry, even Theology of God’s nature. He was also the one who guided me to explore the study of Christian Ministry in Regent University two years ago. I consider him my Mentor. On Monday November 7, 2016 we set up a meeting on Facebook

The owner of the house, Violet, was such a sweet, nice, caring, and God-filled elderly woman who would join us during our discussion. An example of how God worked in her life, before my group was assigned to her house, she prayed constantly for God to provide her with the repairs and fixes she needed. Soon enough, my group came along and God provided her for what she needed on her old home. At the end of that amazing week, I saw God in a new way. I saw that God is always there for you and will always provide. In the past, my faith has been plateaued, staying stagnate, and just melancholy. Now, my faith and relationship with God has been closer and I have been faithful to Him and because he hasn't given up on me, I won't give up on Him. What this experience reveals about me is that no matter what I go through in life, whether it is bullying, negative emotions, bad times, etc. I know God is there for me and He hasn't changed how He feels and cares for me. This also reveals my loyalty to not only my friends, family, and acquaintances, but also my loyalty to God and Him

As God would have it, the friend I originally invited to the concert could not attend so I invited another friend who is not a believer. She and I have known each other for 20 years (meaning she knew me before I was a believer). Karen and I have had many conversations about my faith in Christ, but Tuesday night was special. Before the concert I asked her, "So what do you believe?" She responded that she wasn't sure. She mentioned that she had not been raised in church and that frankly religion scared her. There was a pause as I prayed for God to give me the words to speak. Then I tried another approach, "What do you believe happens to a person when they

What better way to know if something will work than actually trying it? For most, due to constraints such as limited time and resources; companies and people can’t commit to every idea that comes to them. They have to evaluate the ideas and determine if they’re worthwhile to act on. A big determiner is the question will it work? Now, you can use all the math equations out there, and hire the top analysts and experts to predict if it’ll work. Or you can do a little ooch with the idea and see what happens. While it may sound funny, even childish, ooching is a valuable method for testing our ideas and theories. By ooching the theories with mini experiments, we can gain invaluable information before we commit to the

This lady did not seem to be listening to their conversation about God but had her head turned toward the window the whole time. Both have now made a profession of faith. This reminds me that we are always in ministry.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending and being a bridesmaid is a dearfriend’s wedding. She has had a rough road and I foresee that she will likely face issuesthroughout her life due to past situations. I chose to talk with her earlier on about thisproject, and I wanted to use her story and experience as an example of her faith in Godthrough her divorce and her pastor’s support for her through this rough time.Melissa, a quiet and beautiful you woman, married an older man that has strongItalian features, a great job, and promising lifestyle. In my conversation with her, she knewon their wedding day that he was controlling and had a temper. It just wasn’t anopportunity that she could pass up, though. She wanted a good life and family.

God knew I needed help with this and my relying on God to provide always comes through. Scripture tells us to rely on God. My past experiences tell me that when I allow God to be involved those messages are usually the best. The reason I felt uncomfortable originally was from previous experiences with this woman. I know that the service must relate to the congregation I am delivering the message to which was not her but the elderly people in the room. She is more of a traditional service person. I am a little too liberal for her but I do rely on God’s grace to

The religious event I chose was the Walk to Emmaus. This is a seventy-two hour course on Christianity. It takes place at Settle United Methodist Church started at 7:00 pm on Thursday and ended on Sunday at 6:00 pm. Once I arrive a lady meets me at the door and says “what road are you on, on your faith journey.” I stop for a minute to think and reply “I really don’t know at this point. I have been dealing with a lot these past few months. I have questioned my faith, and at times even felt abandoned.” She grabs my hand and says, “So let us get you registered then.” Following registration there is an introduction to explain what will take place the next few days along with an orientation. “Welcome everyone” the lady begins. She continues to explain that in the next three days, that Emmaus will teach us to inspire, challenge, and equip us for Christian action in our homes, community, and work. There will be no cell phones, television, or internet. Finally that night we are told there will be an evening prayer and then silence to reflect until morning. Once I am settled in an elderly lady comes and sits beside me. I did not see this lady earlier in the group. She says to me “all your questions will be answered.” I look at her and say “All of them, really? How does He have all the time for me, with everyone else’s prayers needing answered also?” She smiles and walks away. I lay down to try to sleep, but I can’t I am too worried about Connor. With Connor’s health at question and

Knowing the people and understanding who they are and how they view things will give us insight on how to achieve the team’s goal, while including each individual team member and actively listening to one another to know where they are coming from. Communication is extremely important in this phase because everyone has a different communication style and different understanding of things. Perception is a very personal thing. Taking a managerial approach and ensuring that everyone is heard so that we know no one is left out, will ensure that we develop a team full of of individuals who feel good about themselves, feel validated in having their voices heard, and most importantly, feel excited about working together towards our unified goals.

I have been struggling with difficult people unrelated to this church for a little while and talked with Linda Gray, asking how she dealt with difficult people in her life and yet remain Christ-like. Linda graciously encouraged and though nothing new was imparted I resolved to continue to walk in love whether I thought it would be fruitful or not. As I went home with more peace in my heart than I’ve had in awhile I realized I wasn’t alone in this walk of faith.