Good and Bad

Today was an emotional day. I'm super excited that the Steeleres won their Monday night football game last night in overtime against the Baltimore Ravens. The bad news was that I got my grade back for my engineering test and it was more than disappointing : ( Hopefully I'll do better on the next one.

Literature Review

Northstar Church is one of over 44,000 Baptist congregations nation-wide. The Baptist denomination is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The Baptist faith is strongly based on the fact that followers of this faith should chose to be baptized (fully immersed in water) as a display of their faith. There is not an age restriction on becoming a member of a Baptist church; however, one cannot become a member until baptized, and cannot be baptized until they fully comprehend the significance of professing their faith (this is why the majority of Baptist churches reject infant baptism). Baptist churches share the ideas of the belief in one God, the virgin birth, forgiveness of sins through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), the need for salvation, and the Second Coming of Christ. Since Baptist churches do not have a governing authority, many become associated with denominational groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention.
Although the denomination is the one of the largest, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has reported that the baptism rate is on the decline. Baptism-“a key measure of vitality and evangelism”-has declined 5% from 2006 and is currently at 345,941 baptisms per year. The SBC also disclosed that the membership numbers dropped by 40,000 from 2006 to 2007. The promising statistic is that attendance has increased slightly and the number of congregations has grown by 1%.
A study at Case Western Reserve University examined the beliefs about God and forgiveness in a Baptist congregation and attempted to identify core beliefs about God and forgiveness. The results showed that core beliefs included that “God commands us to forgive others”, “God wants us to love our enemies”, “I believe that God has forgiven me of all my sins”, “God has forgiven me for some pretty big things”, and “God is both merciful and just”. This study, although preformed on a limited sample of members of a specific Baptist church and convenient college students, represents the fact that the majority of conservative Christians believe that God is merciful and just, that Christians are morally obligated to forgive others (it is a Divine mandate), as well as the fact that God’s forgiveness is necessary but certainly attainable.
A large piece of what Northstar represents is contemporary and creative worship. Pastor Gordon Atkinson states that “Preaching is such an esoteric art form. It requires creativity but only within very rigid rules.” Creative worship can involve using art, dance, contemporary music, digital projection, and other multi-sensory experiences. It is very easy however to add these forms of creativity and actually take away from the message. Worshipers must not lose sight of what worship is all about: identifying and rejoicing the presence of “God-with-us”. Benefits of creative worship include a picture to explain a point visually, reading the words of the songs from a projector instead of a hymnal, or using images to match the feeling of a song or scripture. Contemporary worship music is beneficial in that fact that although it is all themed by its content (Christian beliefs and lyrics) it is represented by many different genres including rock, country, gospel, and hip-hop.
Although the number of baptisms has fallen in the past year, Baptist churches still represent the values and beliefs they had aimed to represent. By emphasizing the fact that God merciful, just, and easily accessible by the means of creative and contemporary worship, the Baptist community can still reach out and touch the lives of many more people.

Bibliography:

Atkinson, G. (2008, June 3). Where do sermons go?. Christian Century, pp. 10,11. Retrieved September 24, 2008, from Religion and Philosophy Collection database.
Bott, R. (2007, November). Creative Worship. Clergy Journal, pp. 8,10. Retrieved September 24, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.
Exline, J. (2008, Summer2008). Beliefs about God and Forgiveness in a Baptist Church Sample. (cover story). Journal of Psychology & Christianity, 27(2), 131-139. Retrieved September 24, 2008, from Religion and Philosophy Collection database.
Price, D. (2007, December 22). Compilation 'WOWs' Christian Music Fans. Billboard, 119(51), 74-74. Retrieved September 24, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.
SBC reports baptism rate lowest in decade. (2008, June 3). Christian Century, Retrieved September 24, 2008, from Religion and Philosophy Collection database.

Relief at Last

What a relieving day! I had a quiz, two tests, and an exam this week. I finished off with my Chemistry test today and I also completed my interview. I’ve been attending the church services at Northstar for the past three weeks and I am getting a good feel for the community interactions. As soon as you walk into Blacksburg Middle School on Sunday mornings, there are plenty of church members and their families’ conversing while helping themselves to the complementary donuts, bagels, juices, milk, and coffee. The members, attendees, and leaders off the church are extremely welcoming and friendly. All sorts of people will come up and introduce themselves and are genuinely interested in learning more about you. I think what I would like to zero in on at Northstar is the fact that since the church is relatively small it is very close knit and has a strong emphasis on volunteer work. The church is very organized, and this is mainly due to the members choosing to be active. Northstar encourages its members to do more than just attend Sunday services.
My interview took place this morning at Starbucks on Main Street. I interviewed Cody, the worship leader/youth and college leader, for Northstar. Since he is not too much older than me he was extremely easy to talk. He gave me a lot of useful information and insightful answers to the interview questions. Since I was relatively familiar with the current events of the church, it was really easy to bring up other topics as he answered questions. When I ran out of interview questions, we just started talking about life. This added a nice touch to the whole interview experience. As of now, I am not left with any questions unanswered, but if I think of anymore at a later time I know Cody will certainly be available for a follow up interview.

Interview ?s

Do you have any questions about the process?
Is it okay if I record/quote you?
How long have you been involved at Northstar Church?
What is your role at Northstar?
Can you tell me about your involvement in the church?
What denomination is the church?
What, to you, makes Northstar unique?
Why did you choose to attend and/or serve at Northstar?
Do you feel a special connection to the church? How would you describe it?
What are your goals that you would like to accomplish at Northstar?
What makes Northstar a community?

Goal (noun): Result or achievement toward which effort is directed.

Since blogging is closely related to our class this semester, I would like to become more knowledgeable and efficient at using Blogger. I would also like to become more comfortable creating and writing my own blog. I know that the style of writing on a blog is more casual; however, I am having a hard time adjusting my writing simply because it is stuck in my head that I am writing an assignment for English.

I have always been taught that writing is a process. I cannot honestly say that my own writing commonly goes through a process. I don't usually write a first draft, second draft, etc. I just write my paper, and read it over once checking for simple errors. I know this isn't doing my writing justice so I would like to learn to really edit my papers as well as edit them multiple times.

In previous research assignment I have relied on the internet as my main source of information, unless required otherwise. With so many resources available at the library at Tech, I would like to take advantage of the opportunity.

Not As Exciting As A Tech Football Game But...

I sit in a small room with dull gray carpet and bright neon white lights. Large rectangular tables are lined up with two chairs assigned to each table. This is the setting of the dreaded tri-weekly two hour study hall of a student-athlete at Virginia Tech. I am extremely amused as I survey my teammates and their actions in the already too familiar surroundings.
Directly across from me is a diver named Cara. Cara is five feet tall and I can only see her blue eyes, deep in concentration, from above the laptop. She is constantly combing her fingers through her blonde bangs and I notice her fluorescent pink nail polish chipping off of her finger nails. She occasionally rests her cheeks on both fists, causing her face to scrunch up looking stumped at the problem lying before her.
Haley, another swimmer, is sitting with her back towards me so that I can see her screen and her progress on her day’s agenda. Unlike Cara who sits rigidly in her chair, Haley sits comfortably, cross-legged in the chair with her ear buds in. She is looking up definitions on WikiAnswers and trying to write a paper, but not making much progress.
The nonchalant Alex doesn’t even bring her laptop with her for our two hour adventure. She only brings a book to read. While she reads, she props her feet up on the table. She is constantly checking the time on her cell phone which is always followed with the phrase, “Oh my God”, whispered under her breath.
Last Emily plays with her shiny pearl earrings while she stares in awe at the computer screen with her mouth wide open. Occasionally she takes a sip from the bottle of Aquafina water bottle sitting next to her laptop.

"Knowing" about my Community

In class on Friday, our groups discussed the assigned reading, "How Do You Know?" We concluded that most truths come from personal experiences. If they do not come from experiences it is common that they come from reliable experts on the specific topic. We also acknowledged that there is an uncertain "gray" area between fact and opinion and between truths and non-truths. Finally we stated facts change with evidence and evidence changes with time.
After deciding to learn about the Northstar Church community, I realized that much of my research will relate to our findings. In the study of a religious community, I can assume that many believers in God are believers due to personal experiences with God as well as a relationship with a pastor, preacher, or worship leader who is experienced and knowledgeable. A possible "gray" area within a church or a religion could be the Bible. The Bible can be interpreted in multiple ways and can be relayed to a congregation in many different manners. Different followers have different religious paths, and the beauty of religion is that there is not one path that is truth or not true.

Top 2 Communities

I have narrowed my list of communities into two that I am particularly interested in. The first is a diving team. The swim and dive team are grouped together here at VT, but I now realize that I don't know much about the sport and think it would be a really interesting topic. I could research the VT dive team as well as a club dive team (not associated with VT athletics) that practices on campus at War Memorial Pool. My second topic of interest is religious groups. The two religious groups I have in mind are an off campus church called Northstar Church as well as an on campus youth service such as CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ), NLCF (New Life Christian Fellowship), or COW (Campus Outreach Weekly). Although I am not an active member of any of these religious communities yet, I have attended a service at each and plan on becoming part of one of these communities soon. I know we discussed in class that it maybe difficult to research a community that you are a part of, but I am hoping that since I will be a new member I will have much to learn. If anyone has thoughts or knowledge on either of these topics, please let me know what you think!

Communities I Belong To

hokie swim team
religious community
steelers fans
people in a relationship
former bertucci's employees
english speaker
vt student
music lovers
engineers
freshmen