As a Baptist church, they hope every guest will join them in their mission to become more like Jesus Christ, and they will do everything they can to support you along your spiritual journey. Friendship Baptist Church’s pastor, Dr. Paul Cowles, delivers compelling, relevant sermons that resonate with long-time followers and newcomers alike. Every Sunday, they hold a morning worship service, as well as a special worship service for students later in the day. On Wednesdays, they hold student ministry meetings as well as adult choir gatherings, so members receive another wonderful opportunity to sing, learn, and praise the word of God. They also offer Sunday School for children and adults, with separate, helpful classes divided into six different age groups.
Faith journeys are relative to a variety of different upbringings people have, and no one is exactly alike another, as God's relationship with people is personal. Moreover, my own faith journey is different from others. However, faith journeys can look very much alike in comparison.
I believe that I am qualified for this scholarship because of how much I have grown at Wendell Baptist Church. It has helped me grow in my walk with God through missions and through serving. It has helped me appreciate the little things in life like the slides during services on sunday morning. Showing me that the little things like that do not just happen and some people put a lot of work into making them happen. Wendell Baptist Church has also shown me just how great my life is and how the problems I think I have are actually not that big of a deal in the long run.
As I walk through the doors hundreds of memories flood into my mind as the smell of yesterday’s incense hits my nose. In a way I grew up here from baptism, first communion, to confirmation. Various friends and family scattered in the pews nodding to you as you enter the church since in a small town everyone knows everyone. The church is large and ornate for where it is placed; a little town of roughly 200 people. The inside is magnificent with intricately carved wooden pillars and elaborate paintings of Bible stories on the dome ceiling.
Within all these clubs we volunteer in the community throughout the years, like the Chapman Township Haunted House we do for the community every year. In the summer I also participate in the Saint Joe’s Festival, which is held by the church I’m a member of. I usually help run the game stations.
I try my best to participate in as many as I can. These include Student Council, People Helping People, cross country, basketball (high school and AAU), softball, church choir and Relay for Life. The past three years I have been an officer in the Student Council and a member of a team whether it was sports or church. On the basketball court I am the point guard which is the playmaker of the team.
I have taken part in many spiritual growth opportunities over the course of my life. The home school education my parents have blessed me with since second grade has enabled me to study hard, while learning in a Christian atmosphere. For the past nine years, I have attended Bible Study Fellowship which has helped me grow deeper in God’s word and my love for Him. Bible Study Fellowship’s rigorous
By volunteering at my local church and helping with local service projects, I have realized the commitment and perseverance it takes to lead by example. At my local church I continue to help with the organization of my youth group. After speaking at church staff meetings for several months we made it our goal to improve the youth group by ensuring that children and teens of all ages were included and had an opportunity to participate. I was able to create a system where teens who attended high school were paired with a middle school individual of the church. This provided a sense of inclusiveness and made the youth group more enjoyable for everyone.
Before I discuss my experience at Grace Lutheran Church I feel it would be beneficial to explain my Church Background, so that you can better understand my outsider view of the Sunday morning worship Service I attended. I have been raised in the Baptist/Southern Baptist church my entire life. My parents are from South Carolina, which is also where I grew up, so our idea of Church has always been a small community with a very relaxed atmosphere. I stopped attending the Baptists church when I was 16. I chose to join Bent-tree Bible Fellowship, a non-denominational church.
Living in a predominately Caucasian neighborhood that were Christians and Catholics, in Lakewood, Colorado, I was exposed to many friends that are these religions. Therefore, they would ask me to go to church with them to watch performances that their church is putting on. I would go to these church events, even though I am Buddhist because I wanted to be exposed to other religions and see how they worship their god. Although I never thought about changing my religion, I do find it interesting how differently my religion is to everyone else’s. My parents never knew I went to other church events because they are strict about me just being in temples.
The transmutation from the fall semester to the spring, was quite strenuous, no longer was I a part time student. I was taking 16 credits and this meant adjusting to the course load. The first couple of weeks were a hassle and I felt that there were not enough days in the week to complete the assignments. Now, in the mid semester, one of my main priorities was to purchase a planner and a calendar.
I am Wiley Hayes, and I serve several roles with Beyond the Bridges Ministry (BTB). My duties include serving as the program’s administrative assistant, managing the central office, and providing direct services to program participants. I have received training to mentor those who enroll in our Re-Entry Ministry, encouraging them to face the long-term challenges of returning from prison to their communities, as well as helping them solve the immediate and practical problems of housing and employment. I have seen how BTB makes a difference for ex-offenders. It helps them put their lives back together, find a place in the community, and put prison behind them.
Specifically at MSU it’s a club called Young Life Beyond which focuses more on college aged students. Once a year they hold a summer camp where adults and kids participate in activities centered on sharing the word of God. While pouring over the resources about Denver Young Life, one thing in particular really stood out: the effect it has had on the lives of the children they have reached out to. If there is anything needed in this world today, it’s the need for more of a focus on our young people and Denver Young Life does just
Over the past few weeks we have been reading the multifaith manual and from reading it I have begun to see some of the other religions in a different light and leaned about ones that I have never heard of before, it has been an eye opening experience in many aspects, some more than others I have found to be fascinating. The first has to be the religion of Wicca which surprised me when I started reading about it the first time but after reading it the first time I had to go back and reread the chapter, when I was done reading all I could think about was how the Wicca reminds me of old witch covens from old stories, it was also curious to see that there are people who still worship the old Egyptian, Greek and Norse gods, gods that I had
During my winter term, I spent time exploring my faith and facilitating conversations with other students at a national conference for FOCUS in San Antonio, Texas and following the conference I returned to Greencastle to continue faith formation as well as community outreach. My internship facilitated through the FOCUS Missionary team on DePauw’s campus was very fruitful. FOCUS is an acronym that stands for Fellowship of Catholic University Students. During this experience, I lived and worked beside the missionaries. I became a member of the team so that I could explore and discover the behind the scenes of missionary life.
