Church Comparison For this spiritual growth project, I attended three fairly different Churches. For the first, I attended CCF, which is a non-denominational evangelical Church. The second was First Presbyterian Church of Siloam Springs, a Presbyterian Church USA member. Finally, I went to St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which is under the Diocese of Little Rock, which in turn reports to Rome. Growing up, I have been a part of several Churches, so I really did not have any expectations of what any of these should look like. Although none of the Churches I attended growing up were exactly the same, CCF was a pretty close blend and probably what I would call most similar to my experiences growing up. In undertaking this project, I was not sure what
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Whenever I used to think of Presbyterian Churches, I had a negative bias. Maybe it is the whole Church hierarchy thing, or maybe it is how they were presented to me in Bible classes, but for absolutely no good reason, I never held a particularly great view of the denomination. I definitely do not agree with everything the Presbyterian Church has to say, and I would question some of their Calvinist theology, but I can say with full certainty that they are a great part of the Church. First Presbyterian of Siloam Springs was extremely welcoming and in my mind balanced tradition and theology well. The service actually reminded me a bit of the Church my family attends when they are stateside. There is a formal feeling about the service, but not something that impairs the ability to worship by clouding the point of our worship. As I sat in the back pew, I paid close attention to see if I spotted anything that might be particularly weird. Instead, I found the whole atmosphere to be fairly nostalgic and no-so-different from that with which I had grown up. After visiting that first time, I am definitely considering at least one or two more visits during the semester to better acquaint myself with the Presbyterian …show more content…
It outlines five major benefits of corporate worship in that it provides awakening, assurance, advance, acceptance of another’s leading, and accentuated joy (Mathis). I believe that for the most part, all three of the churches I attended provided those five things for their congregations. There were very different approaches for how these things were carried out, and the various members of the congregations received the corporate worship differently, but I believe their needs were met in a way that best suited them. That is not to say that I believe everything taught at those churches is right or wrong, just that congregations attended where they were most receptive to God, either by choice or upbringing. My time in these Churches reinforced a few of my beliefs about God. First, God is good. I may not share in the Catholic tradition, but I still felt God’s presence with those people in their time of worship. He is good and he is present no matter what our denomination. Second, I believe that He reveals himself to us differently. In each service, I felt the presence of God and reacted a bit differently. During the service at CCF, I would say I felt God more deeply in the singing and praise portion of worship. At First Presbyterian, it was through the sermon and the community. At St. Mary’s it was through the time of reverence before communion. The project was a great experience, and while I do hope to visit a
Whenever I used to think of Presbyterian Churches, I had a negative bias. Maybe it is the whole Church hierarchy thing, or maybe it is how they were presented to me in Bible classes, but for absolutely no good reason, I never held a particularly great view of the denomination. I definitely do not agree with everything the Presbyterian Church has to say, and I would question some of their Calvinist theology, but I can say with full certainty that they are a great part of the Church. First Presbyterian of Siloam Springs was extremely welcoming and in my mind balanced tradition and theology well. The service actually reminded me a bit of the Church my family attends when they are stateside. There is a formal feeling about the service, but not something that impairs the ability to worship by clouding the point of our worship. As I sat in the back pew, I paid close attention to see if I spotted anything that might be particularly weird. Instead, I found the whole atmosphere to be fairly nostalgic and no-so-different from that with which I had grown up. After visiting that first time, I am definitely considering at least one or two more visits during the semester to better acquaint myself with the Presbyterian …show more content…
It outlines five major benefits of corporate worship in that it provides awakening, assurance, advance, acceptance of another’s leading, and accentuated joy (Mathis). I believe that for the most part, all three of the churches I attended provided those five things for their congregations. There were very different approaches for how these things were carried out, and the various members of the congregations received the corporate worship differently, but I believe their needs were met in a way that best suited them. That is not to say that I believe everything taught at those churches is right or wrong, just that congregations attended where they were most receptive to God, either by choice or upbringing. My time in these Churches reinforced a few of my beliefs about God. First, God is good. I may not share in the Catholic tradition, but I still felt God’s presence with those people in their time of worship. He is good and he is present no matter what our denomination. Second, I believe that He reveals himself to us differently. In each service, I felt the presence of God and reacted a bit differently. During the service at CCF, I would say I felt God more deeply in the singing and praise portion of worship. At First Presbyterian, it was through the sermon and the community. At St. Mary’s it was through the time of reverence before communion. The project was a great experience, and while I do hope to visit a