“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This was the sermon that was given on Sunday March 15, 2015 at River of Life Church in Smyrna, TN. God loved the world so much that he sacrificed his son Jesus and because of that, if we all believe in Jesus and God, if we all pray to them and do as they want us to, we will gain access to heaven and God’s afterlife. When one goes to any church, they are practicing what are known as the 4 C’s, Creed, Code, Cultus and Community, without even realizing. At River of Life, I saw these four things play out in the short time I spent there.
Creed is a statement of shared beliefs from the community. The word …show more content…
They derive from creed and the behaviors that the creed says they should act in. When a Christian is saying “I believe in” they are setting values and rules that they must follow. For the members here, “it is to love your neighbor, to support each other, to do everything in the name of God and always remember that God is watching and seeing what you are doing.” The Pastor said that the reason he became a youth pastor was because he wanted to help people see themselves the way the Lord sees them and love themselves as much as he does. Education also plays a huge part in their Code. Outside of church the children are always studying the Bible and they base their life around how God would want them to live. They practice this idea of Code everyday of their lives and are continuously thinking about how God would want them to live.
For the church, they choose to worship the way many other Christians do. They have Jesus on the cross hanging on the wall and their bibles in every pew. They choose to worship by praying to God and praying for him to guide them through their hardships. During this sermon in particular, they were praying for God to grant them eternal life and into his divine home as the members called it. This is their Cultus. The way they worship in the church is like many Christians. Outside of church, members pray many times during the day, their houses have their idols, and the bible is a well-worn …show more content…
So this experience was different for me to go somewhere that so much emphasis is placed on the social aspect of religion. To me it was odd to see the broadcasting equipment and to hear the conversations of the different “groups” they wanted to create to “get the word of God into more people.” I loved how open a lot of the people where to me coming in as an outsider and for them being willing to talk to me and share with me why this was so important to them. What was really special was being able to see creed, code, cultus, and community all come into play in an actual church. To learn about these things is one thing, but when you see how they play out in real life, it makes being an outsider and taking the outsider’s viewpoint much more
Creed is a statement of shared beliefs from the community. The word …show more content…
They derive from creed and the behaviors that the creed says they should act in. When a Christian is saying “I believe in” they are setting values and rules that they must follow. For the members here, “it is to love your neighbor, to support each other, to do everything in the name of God and always remember that God is watching and seeing what you are doing.” The Pastor said that the reason he became a youth pastor was because he wanted to help people see themselves the way the Lord sees them and love themselves as much as he does. Education also plays a huge part in their Code. Outside of church the children are always studying the Bible and they base their life around how God would want them to live. They practice this idea of Code everyday of their lives and are continuously thinking about how God would want them to live.
For the church, they choose to worship the way many other Christians do. They have Jesus on the cross hanging on the wall and their bibles in every pew. They choose to worship by praying to God and praying for him to guide them through their hardships. During this sermon in particular, they were praying for God to grant them eternal life and into his divine home as the members called it. This is their Cultus. The way they worship in the church is like many Christians. Outside of church, members pray many times during the day, their houses have their idols, and the bible is a well-worn …show more content…
So this experience was different for me to go somewhere that so much emphasis is placed on the social aspect of religion. To me it was odd to see the broadcasting equipment and to hear the conversations of the different “groups” they wanted to create to “get the word of God into more people.” I loved how open a lot of the people where to me coming in as an outsider and for them being willing to talk to me and share with me why this was so important to them. What was really special was being able to see creed, code, cultus, and community all come into play in an actual church. To learn about these things is one thing, but when you see how they play out in real life, it makes being an outsider and taking the outsider’s viewpoint much more