Christianity at Its Finest

Experience Related to Identity:

Christianity at its finest

Growing up in a household where my Mom was Lutheran, and my Dad was raised Mormon, was a great learning experience that helped expand my thoughts on religion. After my parents got married my Dad stopped practicing Mormonism, but my Mom always stayed a true believer in the Lutheran religion. My Mom couldn't help but want the same for her children, so at a young age my sister, brother, and I were all baptized Lutheran. Up until my family packed up and moved to Reno about 5 years ago we attended church every Sunday. After moving to Reno, we always made it a ritual to attend church on holidays and other special occasions at the Holy Cross Lutheran Church. Going to church is always something I have enjoyed, but I felt it was time to expand my horizon to see what other cultural experiences and different religions have to offer. So in order to get out of my realm, I decided to attend the Sparks Christian Fellowship service. In order to get the full experience in relation to our class, I wanted to apply different concepts I have previously learned. The concept that really stood out to me for this particular event was being able to improve intercultural relationships.

Having gone to church most of my life has given me a strong persona on what goes on within a particular culture and religion. It was time to expand my knowledge on other cultural beliefs, and religions to see the different types of rituals, artifacts, religious personnel, and places of worship other beliefs had to offer. Before attending the Sparks Christian service I decided to contact the pastor to get some more insight on how things took place within their church. I found this to be very influential, because now I wasn't just going to attend this service, but rather be apart of the Non-Denominational Christian religion. I explained to him what the importance of this visit was, and what I wanted to get out of my experience. He gave me some very good advice about being open to new things, and was very positive about having someone like myself to experience their culture and set beliefs. On the day of the service, I strolled into the Sparks Christian church with a very open mind and willing to learn something new. It didn't take long before I became acquainted with the environment, and instantly started mingling with others. The people were extremely nice and very accepting to everyone. It took a moment before I found the time to approach the pastor; because of course he is walking around introducing himself, and trying his best to socialize with everyone in the congregation. When I introduced myself and told him who I was, he was very welcoming to have me there, and couldn't wait to show me around. They had a table full of early morning refreshments, and told me I was welcome to whatever I wanted. He walked me though