I chose to evaluate my home congregation of Beautiful Savior in Omaha, which was an interesting challenge. Having grown up in the church as the son of a DCE (now a pastor) there, I was already pretty familiar with the educational opportunities provided, but it was interesting to take a much deeper look at it and evaluate the shortcomings as well. The Dirt on Learning offered a strong basis for the critique of educational ministry from the perspective of the parable of the sower, making parallels with how it relates directly to education. Beautiful Savior is a unique church in the LCMS. It is a large, contemporary, and progressive church that is pushing the boundaries of ministry in some areas (as well as pushing the buttons of some people in the synod). The overall sense that I got from the time I spent observing, interviewing, and teaching is that a lot of the different ministries blur together and there is a bit of a Beautiful Savior ‘bubble.’ Being a large church, it is easy for people to blend in to the crowd and not go deeper than attending a service on Sundays. Having spoken with the three DCE’s on staff, the all had very similar things to say regarding this.
A few quotes from the DCEs attribute educational struggles to people who just don’t want to get involved. “People have a natural resistance to anything that threatens their comfort zone. People are too busy [to get involved in educational programs],” said Jim Haack, DCE.
Scotte Hansen, DCE, likewise said,
Galindo analyzes that the fundamental “mission” of a congregation is the same as any other congregation that exists in any part of the world. He argues that though every congregation has a mission and a vision, at the same time, it shares a basic common mission. (43) This reminds me of my home church The First Church of Evanston and my Field Site, The Evanston Vineyard Church. Both churches have a common mission of welcoming people to the church, irrespective of their ethnic, cultural, racial, and economic and, gender backgrounds. The mission is to help people be received in the house of God with due and deserved Christian love so that they feel loved and welcomed. Both these churches encourage church attendees to attend the service and receive the Eucharist.
For this assignment, we had to attend a meeting of a spiritual tradition that is not our own. As this assignment's due date approached, I became very anxious! I didn’t quite know where I wanted to go. In my sewing class one day my friend, Kelly Jorgensen, had asked if I had finished the assignment. I had not. “Me and Karlie Mortensen are going to the Baptist church over by Riverton Hospital this Sunday at 6:00 PM if you want to join us” she offered. I found this rather funny. The day before, as I was driving home from work, the Harvest Valley Baptist Church sign had caught my eye. I thought to myself that I should
The church must be a central part of rebuilding the community, they are strangers to. There are a variety of ways of reaching the community, however, whether the church elects the execution of at least one or more of these methods are something of a different matter. Pleasant Hill Baptist Church (PHBC) today, does not have an ongoing focused vision, structured outwardly, in place. By the same token, in regards to connecting or bridging the outside community to the relevance of the church, there have been several attempts made. Examples: Service on the lawn, “Cross” walk Easter Sunday, and Church cookout and picnic day. These creative ideas used to get the attention of the community were only temporary.
Another reason is not being pushed to take advanced classes. I experienced many teachers just try to push student to get the basics so they would earn their high school diploma. When in reality this is not preparing us for the college work. I understand everyone is not college material, but for the ones who
Every week, approximately sixty to seventy devoted followers of Jesus gather in a traditional, white church building nestled by the woods, across from a horse pasture on the edge of the small, mostly blue-collar town of Sparta, Michigan. As they take their seats, those with gray to white hair fill the pews to the left of the aisle, while those whose in their middle age fill the pews to the right, along with a dozen middle and high school students in the back. Baptist Bible Church (BBC) was founded in 2008 and led by a part-time interim pastor until a full-time pastor could be found. However, since their founding as well as their leader's passing in 2010, BBC has been unsuccessful in finding the right pastor for the job and has continued
* Illness/disability- this can cause a child/children to miss out on a large chuck of the education and struggle to achieve due to them taking
Our educational culture only satisfies a select group of students who are at the top and leaves others behind. These book smart kids deserve to go where they are going, however, what happens to the kids who are not as book smart as others? Many students are having a hard time because they are not book smart even if they may be good at something that is not educational. As stated in Jack Schneider’s article, America’s Not-So-Broken Education System, “The education system simply stopped working. It aged, declined, and broke, but we can fix it by first ripping it apart” (Schneider Par 2). As of now, the education system is very unsupportive of some students and teachers. Backed by the government, public school pay does not support teachers in America while in other countries, being an educator is considered a privilege. By not supporting teachers, it is hard to find educators who are willing to put in the work to help their students. As a result of not having good teachers who are motivated to teach their students, it is also likely that the students that they end up having to teach are also unmotivated as well. In this cycle, some teachers and students gain practically nothing from going to school, which demonstrates the broken education system that we have at this time. The ever aging education system is not up to date with either
I was able to attend three church services at the Athens First United Methodist Church and gain insight on what it was like to be a weekly congregation member. While focusing on the members of the congregation and their mannerisms, the pastor and the way that the congregation was being addressed, and the overall routine of the service I was able to write-up the way that I felt and the things that I noticed while being present. I feel as if the Catholic and Methodist church are different and attending the mass was not something that I was used too. I was experiencing a different religion and church service. I felt like there was a sense of community at each service and I really liked the way that I personally felt welcome each time I went. I am not saying that the catholic church does not have a sense of community, maybe it is because Athens is a small town and members get to know each other very well or what but I felt a strong community vibe. I was able to focus in on the members specifically and the way that they interacted with one another and the pastor. Friendly, is the word that I would use to describe the members. Each person had a smile on their faces on entering and exiting the church. Reverend Robert McDowell did a wonderful job interacting and engaging with the congregation throughout the service. He wanted his people to listen and reflect on the words he was saying not just blankly listen to. Going to the Methodist church was an eye opening experience to me, realizing that going to church and being in college is not a bad thing. It takes up one hour of my time one day a week. This project made me realize the difference between religions and unfamiliar places and how it can be educational and exciting to
Church of the Brethren does not accept abortion. Participating in abortion is not support their beliefs. Church of the Brethren is a denomination that was formed to continue their practices their own way. They started as a small group and to this day still recruit new members. They solely use the New Testament as their source of guidance for the practice they preach. Rational Choice theory explains Church of the Brethren 's position in opposing abortion.
The compassion shown by the Pastors and leaders helps people's faith walk become "a mile deep" while walking in Christ and engaging in the community. Individuals who remain active in the church, are the ones discovering their gifts and using their talents for the glory of God and to build the kingdom of God up. Also, the church must take ownership of their faith and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ to the point where they are willing and ready to reinvest their faith into the life of another person. One of the ways to succeed in doing this is by putting together
The Mormon service I visited, had a few similarities but also a few distinct differences from the Catholic service that I am used to. Before this particular Sunday, I had never attended a Mormon service, nor had I spoken to anyone who believed in Mormonism or the “Latter Day Saints.” With that being said, I was welcomed much more openly than I had originally thought. Before entering, I was approached by two members of the church; two young women (sisters) between the ages of roughly 19 to 22. I arrived about an hour before service, that way I could ask a few people some questions, but the two girls beat me to the punch. They initially asked me if I had visited before and I responded saying that it was my first time, and I was attending as a student observer, with no intention of converting, but would love to learn about the faith. They nodded and proceeded to explain to me the reasons as to why they believed so strongly, and also a bit of background information on the faith. One of the girls, explained to me that there has been a lot of skepticism about Mormonism due in part to the fact that Joseph Smith Jr, was so young and how his explanation of “Moroni” (An angel no one had ever heard of), and his entire religion and the scripture used, “Book of Mormon,” could have just been a part of his imagination. The other girl told me how she was beginning to lose faith a couple years back, but she then regained it, after she experienced her own tests, and was able to get passed her
This lack of motivation from students also is lowering expectations that were once high. Now in American education, for the most part, if a child thinks something is too hard in a class and feels that they are going to have to challenge themselves they give up automatically and the instructor or even the government is lowering standards to accommodate this mentality. When in reality pushing the student is what is going to help them in the long run. According to Chester Finn, chairman of the Koret Task Force, spending less on education is not the culprit of this lessened motivation because, “Performance has been flat in the United States and yet spending has been going up dramatically for a century” (Bethell). Sure more money can help get the resources for a school to be built and to hire instructors, but if a child does not want to be in
If our vertical relationship is not maintained and kept healthy then it only points to one major problem and that is we are out of fellowship with God. Jesus knew that people could see the difference whether people were sincere or not. That’s why he stressed the importance of a right relationship with God so that when we do good works or witness people will know we are sincere. Wheeler and Whaley write; “Our daily actions toward all people, believers and non-believer should reflect a commitment to life style worship evangelism.” The size of our churches and budgets due not matter in winning souls for Christ. We must understand that if people know that we love God and love them we then can have a great opportunity to share the gospel. The authors write; “worship and witness are best demonstrated in how we react to, reach out to, treat, manage, talk with and pray for people.”
One web source, "Student Potential Instruction," proposes the problem that not all students are reaching their highest potential in school. The specific argument of the site is that school technology and training is inadequate, and that some students do not receive sufficient challenges or motivation. Students can begin to feel inferior
This paper is the final results of my internship ministry practicum II experiences reflection in my church organization work settings and training. My experiences from different areas of exposure sharpened my skills for my professional role of the Doctor of Ministry Program in the theological field of counseling and teaching. My ministry practicum consists of direct involvements with hands-on, real-life interactions under the supervision of my Supervisor, Chaplain Andrea Fletcher. This Comprehensive Written Review analyzes the full spectrum of my observation and participation in tasks from my Ministry Learning Agreement Form. The opportunity allowed me to view other leaders in ministry exercising their gift and in turns