Upon entering Grace Lutheran Church in my hometown, Malverne, Long Island, I was immediately greeted by two courteous young teenagers, who seemed to be about my age. They were quick to welcome my family and I to their Sunday worship service, offering us bulletins and showing us to our seats. In total honesty, I had never attended a Lutheran worship service before, and so, I was not sure what to expect. Growing up, I had always passed Grace Lutheran Church, as it is located on the main road in my village, but I never understood what made their Sunday worship celebration different from what I am accustomed to as a Roman Catholic.
As I looked around their place of worship, I observed no statues or large works of art. The walls of the worship
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The youngest members of the Grace Lutheran Church community lead the congregation in song all on their own. There was both an organ and a piano, both played by teenagers, who guided their younger counterparts in creating beautiful worship music for all those gathered. At the song’s conclusion, Pastor Anglada led the congregation in prayer. The exceptional feature of this part of the worship service was when those gathered offered their own intercessions from their seats for all to hear. I was amazed, once again, by the degree to which the congregation participated in this service. They were not merely passively listening to intercessions being read by a lector, but they were actively responding and openly offering petitions and prayers of their own. Other members of the community were able to hear what others were asking God for and were able to join them in asking God to bestow His mercy. I was then astounded again when the congregation shared the peace of the Lord with one another. It would be entirely accurate to say that nearly every person present hugged or shook the hands of all the others gathered. After observing the strong communion of the Grace Lutheran Church community, I listen as the pastor recited a biblical statement …show more content…
The pastor recited a version of a Eucharistic Prayer, which did not include the same verbiage that I am not accustomed to hearing at Roman Catholic Mass, and the gathered community recited the Lord’s Prayer. All baptized Christians were invited to receive Communion, but since the regulations of the Roman Catholic Church declare we do not partake in Protestant communion, my family and I went on the receiving line, putting a cross over our chests. The pastor respected the disciplines of our own church and offered each of us a blessing. At the very least, the pastor’s actions embody the respect offered to those belonging to different churches or denominations, making religious dialogue seem all the more possible. By respecting each other’s differences and learning about what exactly makes us and our practices different, we open the doors to Christian
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is one the world’s well-known choir since its one of the prominent and oldest. The choir started out as an insignificant group, but rapidly began to be more popular as the years progressed. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a chorus of 360 men and women in total. They have entertained millions of spectators by performing in places such as at the “World’s Fairs and expositions at inaugurations of U.S. presidents, in acclaimed concert halls from Australia and Europe to Asia and the Middle East” (Mormon). “In 1929, the Choir began broadcasting Music & The Spoken Word on radio” (Mormon). Now they have various radio and television stations. The Mormon Tabernacle has been broadcasted live all over television and several social media sites. They are also known as “America’s Choir” because people all over the world enjoy their harmonious music. Each member has a distinctive voice and their belief in god, makes this effort to influence others through music. The choir is “an ambassador for ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” their music surpasses the traditional restrictions, which led to numerous people bonding universally through music. The Choir performs at least two sessions per year, and they also have a demanding calendar which they must follow. The Choir grew successful by the aptitude, commitment and dreams of its leaders. Every single person in the choir and others outside the Choir helped the Choir be cultivated and helped them develop into the enormous Choir that they are today. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir also has a school where students train known as The Temple Square Chorale. They aid students by assisting them with their vocal skills and music reading skills. When a...
In my paper I will talk about my visit to The Community Church at Murphy's Landing (CCML). I have chosen this particular Church because it is a family church type and my neighbor goes there and she encouraged me to go with her. I went there with my neighbor on April 6, 2014.This church is an appropriate for this assignment because the people there are welcoming me with an open heart and they are willing to help and provide me with information. When I visit the Church’s site I read these words “We know visiting a new church can be intimidating. But, we want to help you to be as comfortable as possible when and if you join us”. The people gather in the church weekly to glorify God in joyful worship. The expressions of worship on CCML take many forms a prayer, a hymn of reverent awe, a guitar ringing with a chorus of praise, or a warm handshake and a welcoming smile. Their weekly services begin at 9:30 each Sunday at church. Also, they have weekly podcast if anyone wants to listen online. They have many types of services for parents, kids and students. People at CCML were so friendly; they gather around me and start welcoming me, one by one. People there introducing themselves to me, one after another and provide me with their contact information and help. Then we start talking about the church services and Christianity in particular. The mission of CCML was knowing, growing and loving. They seek to live out our mission by worshipping together as a local community of believers, growing in spiritual maturity through discipleship, education, and small groups, caring for one another within the context of the larger church body and small groups, and Communicating the love of Christ to our world, both through local outreach and global mis...
Secondly, the Church can insist on its identity as an inter-generational community. It can do this structurally, by refusing to segment congregations by age, and temperamentally, by recovering a biblical respect for maturity and rejecting popular culture’s infantilism, thereby offering to children a goal of growing up. Popular culture exalts perpetual adolescence.
In an age when culture continues to lower standards of intellect, Marva Dawn makes compelling observations and suggestions for the Church to rethink its’ strategy on impacting society. How do we evangelize without weakening the message of what we are communicating? The majority of her text focuses on the worship environment generally, but later she focuses on music, preaching, and liturgy specifically. According to Dawn, a gathering of believers should emphasize God as the subject and object of worship, challenge each individual to grow in godly character, and accentuate the community of believers (not only in the room, but throughout history as well). Through this grid, she encourages leaders and participants to evaluate each worship element. If these primary goals are accomplished, then worship will not be empty and simpleminded. Instead the worship atmosphere would be held to a higher standard and, she believes, both pleasing to God and attractive to those who do not know God.
Before entering the main sanctuary, I must first pass through a second set of doors. Unlike the first metallic ones, these doors are made of darkened mahogany wood, and a panel of glass that has several Hebrew verses inscribed within it. After doing so, I am immediately hit by the extravagance of the room. Shapes like the letter “U,” the room is filled with at least three hundred chairs on its main floor. Each of these seats is made up of polished mahogany wood, probably of cedar origin, and is layered with bright red cushioning, the type that allows one to remain quite comfortable for a long period of time. Placed right within the center of the seating arrangements is a raised altar, upon which the Hazan, or leader of services, stands in order to recite the prayers for the congregation. From this focal point, one can see the many signs of Judaism throughout the room, such as the Magen David, or Stars of David, ...
The second parishoner to show her gratitude was another older women. She was wearing a flowered dress with a big floppy hat. She asked that we sign the official guest book and requested that we fill out an information card. She had a smile and a heart each made of pure gold. She took great pride in her job. The church had named her "the greeter" over 21 years ago, and according to her version of the story she had not missed a Sunday yet. We took our cards and moved into the sanctuary.
The church external appearance was quite different than other churches that I have seen. It was basically a big white stucco block with a gold dome on top and four decorated spikes on each corner of the building that surrounded the dome. The people of course were all Greek and were very well dressed. Most of the men and boys all wore suits, and If not they had some kind of vest on. I don’t know if this was some kind of rule or tradition, but it mostly seemed as a respect to God. The women all wore the basic dresses, and all the skirts fell down below the knee. Everybody was proper and ordered. As I walked in the church I entered a lobby of some kind. What I saw hear was something like social hour. Everybody was in there. They were all speaking Greek, and I felt as if I was in a family reunion party. The children were all together; the adults talked together and the young adults all were together. The way they all socialize is when someone comes up to say hello, they give each other a kiss on the cheek and a hug. These people are all very close to each other. It seems as if the church is the center of their lives. I admire that trait as well. To enter the auditorium you must enter this little room, which has a piece of garment from St. Constantine and St. Helen. Also there were candles lit. As they walked through this little room they lit a candle and knelt down for a moment to pray, and then touched each garment and made a cross over their chest.
The air is cool and crisp. Roosters can be heard welcoming the sun to a new day and a woman is seen, wearing a clean colorful wrap about her body and head, her shadow casting a lone silhouette on the stone wall. The woman leans over to slide a piece of paper into one of the cracks, hoping her prayer will be heard in this city of Jerusalem. Millions are inserting their prayers into the walls of Japanese temples, while an inmate in one of a hundred prisons across the United States looks past his wall toward the prayers he did not keep. Billions fall asleep each night surrounded by four walls and thousands travel to China to witness the grandest one of all. Who builds walls and who tears them down?
Youth Ministry is thought to be the stepping stone for adult participation in the church. (Martin, 2014) Consequently, many believe that the role of youth ministry in a local church is vital to it’s existence and the key to it’s continued survival, as the youth are believed to be the “church of tomorrow.” (Codrington, 2010) Ministers and church faculty as a whole are tasked not only with preparing young people to do the world’s work, but also to promote good citizenship and passing on a desire to make the world a better place.
For many who experienced an energetic youth group as teens, that experience did little to connect them to the larger community and mission of the community as adults. The youth, Mark Senter argues, are typically “spectators in a middle-aged church,” relegated to their own youth lounge. Seeking to change this reality, the Strategic model “creates a community of leaders to establish a new church”. Senter’s definition of the strategic approach defines youth ministry as “a community of leaders and youthful Christians that enables a parachurch or church-based youth ministry to establish a new church to maintain a theological continuity while expressing faith in a community relevant to both Christ and culture… It calls upon the youth ministry to be and become a holistic intergenerational church that is relevant to the world in which it lives.”
For my service visit I decided to attend a Roman Catholic service at the Gesu Church located on Marquette's campus. To preface, I grew up in a very loose Roman Catholic household. My parents were baptized in the Church and have gone through many of the sacraments. However, they found that unnecessary for their children as between myself and all my siblings, none of us were baptized or went any further in the sacraments. The only times I have ever attended any Roman Catholic service was a wedding or two I attended when I was very young, so I couldn't have a full understanding of what was going on and was likely asleep anyway.
My involvement in the life of Epiphany Lutheran Church is different than most others. I started attending our church when I was a child. I attended Sunday school every week with my grandmom. I remember being excited to go every week and I always had a lot of fun. I attended church regularly up until I was around ten years old. Since my parents were getting a divorce, it made going regularly difficult. I usually went with my dad and grandmom, but until the divorce was finalized I did not see them as much as I used to. Once, I started seeing my dad weekly again, I visited him two days during the school week. By the time, the weekend and Sunday occurred, I was with my mom again. She was not as actively involved in the church as much and preferred
When the church came into view it had a fairly large parking lot; however one had a few cars. Walking into the church there was very minimum color and the colors that were present were dark colors such as blue and maroon and brown were the three main colors. The service was to begin at 10:30 am but began over 30 minutes later. We were greeted by the pastor’s wife and the secretary of the church. There were no symbols or figures on the walls or on the windows of the church as compare to a catholic church.
Growing up, I was raised in a southern Baptist church setting. Every Sunday you were required to attend church which included going to Sunday school, first service, and second service. You were also required to be active in the church whether it be ushering or singing in the choir. For my foreign experience of worship I decided to attend a Catholic church. At first I was a bit skeptical about stepping outside of my background history of worship because I thought that attending a Catholic church may change some of my beliefs or practices. I will admit before my attendance to this Catholic Church I had negative thoughts and was determined that my paper would be only about negative experience that I had. Once I entered the church all of my negative thoughts were out of my mind. Prior to researching background information I really didn’t think that Catholics and Baptist had a lot in common, besides their belief in the faith of Jesus Christ. In my essay about my Catholic Church experience I will describe the physical setting of the church, tell you about the church service, and lastly tell
The church responded with “Lord hear our prayer” following each need. The priest then stood up and began to prepare the communion as music played in the background. The entire church kneeled during this process to show their respect towards one of the most holy parts of the ceremony. Catholics believe that during this preparation, the wafers and wine are turned into the body and blood of Christ. I thought that this process was incredible.