St. James Research Paper

My family moved to Meridian, MS from California when I was around six or seven years old. Since then, all the way up to the ninth grade, my mother took my sister and me to Saint James A.M.E. Church for Sunday services. One Sunday, a cousin of mine brought me along to the service of her new church, and ever since then I have been attending New Freedom Tabernacle. I have found that NFT has certain qualities about it that have always attracted my attention in ways that St. James could not; so, I became an official member of NFT within a few months of the switch. St. James and NFT are two very separate, distinct churches in a multitude of ways, yet they also carry certain traits that make them very similar.
Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church is one of many A.M.E. churches, which is a denomination that has derived from Methodism. This church is very structured, following certain practices and ceremonies such as having pastors rotate out of the church on a certain schedule, communion, and more. …show more content…
James, I was a lot younger than I am now. In my immaturity, I didn’t find as much interest in church. While this was in part from ADHD, I also found myself tending to fall asleep from listening to pastors drone on and on in a monotone voice. Now, I am able to pay more attention and enjoy services because I am older and can appreciate more things. However, there is still a clear difference in these services. At St. James, the pastors are all older men who have no energy, and seem to cough and spit into the microphone about unknown subjects. Conversely, my pastor at NFT is a very energetic young man in his early thirties who runs around the church, jumps on pews, reenacts things from certain experiences, and tells personal stories and encounters to capture the attention of the audience in a pleasing and meaningful way. This difference is the largest between these two churches and was the deciding factor when it was time for me to find my new