Visitation in Religion: Assessing Authority, Doctrine and Faith - Essay Sample

Introduction

Governance in religion demands a visitation, especially for the leaders. It is a practice of exercising authority within the scope of belief. Visitation involves assessing the doctrine and the understanding of individuals in a specific spiritual set up, how they conduct themselves, the theme of their faith and how they carry themselves to learn how to improve or incorporate what is necessary for the church life mission (Jones 2). This paper will be able to illustrate an implication on visitation at the holy protestant church as in contrast with the conservative churches.

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I happened to visit one of the protestant churches, "Autonomous Pentecostal," as it was part of the doctrine of the church I attend. The autonomous church is located in Chicago, Illinois, in the united states. The visit took one month to understand the tradition of the church and therefore took place between February 16th to 18th March 2019. During the period, the programs, especially teaching about religion, relied upon pastor "Selena" except one of the services that an external preacher was invited.

Although the visitation was restricted to the "Autonomous Pentecostal church" within the period of visitation, I interacted with other church members in the region since the primary services at the church occurred during Sundays. Besides, being a guest learner, we could visit other church meetings during weekdays laying out the foundation to which similarity and difference in these religious beliefs, especially in carrying out of their services and perception of sacred facts.

Conducting of Service

The Autonomous Pentecostal church is one of the protestants churches in the world. Although the church is not widely spread in the united states, its gaining popularity due to its distinctness in service. The church is first to lead by a female pastor; this is a unique thing that has since been adopted by the member as a regular thing. Accordingly, the uniqueness in service makes this church outstand. For instance, services are categorized into chapters with specific essential requirements; however, one of the services in the program was considered crucial than the rest - giving to God.

The church service is scheduled to begin at 8.00 am and end at 4.00 pm. During the first one and a half-hour of the period, it allocated to children. all church members are required to at least pray for their children while at the same time, the children are presented to God by the preacher. All services in the church begin with a song of worship, allowing members to sanctify their hearts and making sure they are acceptable to God. After the dedication of the children follows the main religion in which all members are supposed to sing along the proposed songs - usually by the praise and worship team. During this period, members are allowed to present their needs to the preacher for special prayers that follows immediately after the worship time. The congregation is required to remain standing after the worship to allow for the sealing prayer making the end of the session. Special prayers are conducted for members who had requested during the worship period. One of the church members, usually a pre-chosen member, stands to officially welcome the teacher - pastor to preach the theme of the service. Every service is guided by a different item that is selected randomly from the "Holy Bible." During this period, sermons are given and finally sealed with a song a prayer.

All new members are welcomed first, followed by individuals with testimonies, after which the choir is welcomed by the programmer of the service. During all this period, few female members do not attend the service as they are required to prepare the food for the church congregation, which is later presented to God through prayer before allowing people to eat. After usually eating at 1.00 pm, the church is allowed to have a break of one hour during which all visitors are addressed by the pastor. Finally, every member resumes precisely at 2.00 pm for the continuation of service.

The Belief of The Congregation

The church believes in unseen God. The use of the holy bible is an indicator of the belonging to a religious group - Christianity. Members believe that through prayers, God answers quests and therefore relies on prayers in all activities. All prayers are marked with unique special wording showing commitment and trust to the creator - "we believe in you, through your son Jesus Christ" followed by "Amen" as a sign of acceptance. Although belief in extraordinary power working within the members is present, the religion does not restrict the members from seeking western medicine since they believe even science is God-given. The perception of this notion has given its popularity within many ethnic groups since it layout a comprehensive perspective for acceptance. They believe in direct prayers and less need for confession to a mortal being.

The belief of the congregation is rooted in the fact that "when you give you receive more." With this kind of believe, the only services recognized is this, and a member can miss a service due to lack of something to give - I observed this through investigations of members who had lost more than one function.

Distinctness With Other Religious Groups

As the name of the church suggests, it is a free governed protestant church that does not follow any code in leading. For instance, the church is headed by a female leader - pastor, which is contrary to most of the conservative religious groups in the united states, such as catholic (O'Brien 2). According to catholic, the authority of the church is fully men-chosen, and women are just part of the subordinates, this is true since all services in church are led by male individuals - fathers. The highest-ranking of the church fraternity in conservative catholic is the pope who intercedes for all members in the churches around the globe. Autonomous Pentecostal presents itself as a unique figure since all members give their quest directly to God (Jones 3).

Although conservative catholic religion believes in God, the procedure to which services are conducted varies widely. For instance, special programs are followed in bringing up the sermon; there is no instance of a random selection of chapters in the bible to make the theme of the service. Topics of service are predetermined from the highest rank of the church organization to lower subordinate churches. Additionally, procedural reading that does not apply in the autonomous Pentecostal is evident in catholic doctrines; prayers are followed by specific codes that must be recited by all members of the church (Jonson 44).

The code of dressing varies with the service in the autonomous Pentecostal; for instance, the dedication of a child in the church required the leader dedicating to put on special garments that were never used during regular service. The garments worn illustrate a symbol of humility - however, the conservative churches are part of the leadership responsibility (Jonson 46). Besides, the protestant church does not restrict members on what dress on as long as they all observe ethics. Particular groups of individuals who only need to be recognized are allowed to have a unique tag addressing their position in the church.

Summary and Conclusions

Spiritual humans tend to have a uniqueness in how they perceive spiritual life. Thus, although belief in various religious groups may be similar, distinctness in how procedures are taken in the church is a concern as it raises the question, "what do individuals believe in?". Visitation is one of the most recognized forms of learning that can provide facts for arguments. Visiting the "Autonomous Pentecostal church" is one of the greatest achievements since understood religious conflicts arising are not due to what we worship and believe in, but the procedural difference observed in worship the same God. Doctrines within the diverse religious environments should thus be moderated to ensure that conflicts do not arise. Religious leaders should take initiatives to ensure that peaceful coexistence within the community by fostering annual visitations to explore beliefs.

Work Cited

'Brien, Eugene. "'The Boat has Moved': The Catholic Church, Conflations and the Need for Critique." (2011): 14. Accessed on Dec 6, 2019. http://docplayer.net/152291248-The-boat-had-moved-the-catholic-church-conflations-and-the-need-for-critique.html

Johnson, Phillip E. "Concepts and Compromise in First Amendment Religious Doctrine." Calif. L. Rev. 72 (1984): 817. Accessed on Dec 6, 2019. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/calr72&div=43&id=&page=

Jones. "What happened to the Catholic Church? (Part 1)" How the Vatican culture created a church that feels as if it is dying of shame. part 1(2018): 2, accessed on Dec 6, 2019. https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/what-happened-catholic-church