This past week we took our midterm.  The midterm consisted of 3 questions and I was very intrigued by the questions that were asked.  The one question that stood out to me was about my first congregation visit, New Life Redlands Church, and it asked questions from that McGuire’s or Chave’s book can answer.  For example, one of the questions was “Which of the contemporary trends by Chaves can you see operating in this congregation’s religious life?” In my essay, I explained mainly two trends of Chaves that I’ve noticed that I can see operating in this congregation’s life.  The first trend that I saw during my visit was the increase in technology. As I explained in my first congregation visit essay, the church Facetime called another church from a different location. I’m almost certain that churches back in the days were unable to do that because their technology was not as advanced as today’s society.  I also noticed that many people were on their phones. I couldn’t tell if they were using their phones as a distraction or they were on some sort of bible app. However, they were still using technology and people back in the day were not even able to use a bible app. The second trend that I noticed was the increase of attendance of more older people.  There were only about 3 youth age members, 8-10 high school through college age members, and the rest of the members were around 40+ years old. I’m still not sure if it’s because majority of the people have been going to that church ever since they were little kids or not. Though I did have a conversation with a two people and the women did say that she has been going to the church ever since she was a little girl.  She even pointed out her mother to me. Nevertheless, these were the two major trends of Chaves that I was able to see that was occurring at New Life of Redlands Church. I’m eager to see what other trends I can identify during my second congregation and compare and contrast the two.