I found a strong correlation between the matters discussed in chapter 7 of McGuire and Monday’s presentations on congregation visits. Most people in class seemed to have positive experiences at their congregation, and pointed out several key themes. Congregations are indeed getting smaller and older, as our texts have pointed out. As a consequence, congregation leaders are generally excited when new-comers visit, and are eager to attempt to retain their attendance. Most people also pointed out a strong consistency in the demographic of their congregation, meaning that the ethnicity, education status, and economic class was seemingly similar between most members of the congregation.

McGuire’s chapter on the impact of religion on social change is reflective of many of these key themes pointed out in Monday’s presentations. McGuire notes that religion is inherently conservative, and thus often supports the status quo. At the same time, powerful leadership in a congregation can also act as a revolutionary force to promote change within a society. It seemed that some congregations strongly strived to promote social change, where as others fought to preserve tradition. More specifically, the United Church of Christ promoted liberal values and a step in a new political direction. People were encouraged to share their worries and their joys to in order to make the world a better place. On the other hand, some congregations were described as more formal, with a strong emphasis on ritual and tradition, rather than progressive discussion. Whether aiming to enforce the status quo or strive for revolutionary change, it seemed that most congregations happily opened their service to our class.

For my denominational congregation visit, I attended a service at the Second Baptist Church, located in Redlands. As someone who has only attended Catholic masses, it was an extremely different experience which I enjoyed very much. I was almost overwhelmed at how kind and welcoming everyone was towards me. Many gave me hugs or a hand shake when I said that I was a new visitor. They asked me why I was there and when I told them I was there as part of my Sociology and Religion curriculum they were thrilled. Their way of worshipping was fascinating to observe from a sociological stand point. Live music, dancing, jumping, shouting, and out loud praising were all ways in which they worshipped and worked specifically towards this group because of their cultural similarity. These are aspects that I found appealing because it kept me consistently engaged throughout the 2 hour service, something that I had difficulty with at the Catholic churches that I had attended. I was also able to make several connections between what I observed and what I had been reading in “The Social Context” and “American Religion”. It gave several explanations as to why this congregation functioned in the way that it did. When the service was over, I found myself wanting to come back again and I don’t even consider myself a religious person. Yet the people and sense of community that I felt was powerful. I would encourage any one to attend a service at Second Baptist.

In listening to the case study presentations given this past week has been a great way to learn about and explore different perspectives on many topics in religion. One presentation that was really memorable to me was on Nancy Tatom Ammerman’s Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life. After hearing what the group presented on the book, and learning the objectives of the case study, I became interested in reading the book after the fact, just to learn more about the different religious perspectives, and the presence of spirituality in different peoples’ lives. I related to the idea of subconsciously practicing means of spirituality throughout one’s day. Forcing myself to think of all of the things that I routinely do that may be perceived as spiritual made me realize just how much I do. Such a revelation has me somewhat baffled, because I have never really thought of myself as being religious even though I acknowledge my own spirituality. I correlate my overlooking of spiritual practices to the way in which I was raised, which seemed to normalize the spiritual, like a daily meditation or grounding oneself to nature. Because of this, I had a moment of confusion when I went to do my congregation visit and as part of the service, we were asked to silently pray for a couple of minutes; I realized I did not know how to pray. This confused me in the moment, because I could not distinguish praying from my own meditations and mantras and chants that went along with it. This revelation gave me a new perspective, and made me realize that perhaps what I deem my own spirituality has more in common with other religions, in that there is a certain way and order in which I go about my spiritual rituals throughout the day.

Mass has forever undergone a series of transformations, simple ones such as the priest facing the audience during mass, to more extravagant additions like blaring music and dance. This week, two presentations stood out to me, Shared Parish and Reinventing American Protestantism. One more than the other showed how traditional practices are changing in order to better engage the audience by appealing to different demographics of people based on either generational upbringing, or ethnic background.

Reinventing American Protestantism displayed perfectly how church has changed traditional service in order to engage a different generation of people. The new energetic movement of the uprising protestant church directly target the baby boomer generation in every aspect of its mass. Key attractions of the new style of mass are, reduced structure and a new age approach to delivering the sermon. The reduced traditional structure of mass includes expressing passion and one’s love of Jesus through loud music and lively dance rather than sitting quietly as a priest delivers the sermon. The preacher himself is not bound by traditional dress or lecturing styles. As the video presented depicted, the preacher has full creative liberty. These new programs have become increasingly popular and have grown substantially because of how appealing they are to the different generations.

In Shared Parish traditional mass in the United States has evolved to appeal and included those of different worshipping and language backgrounds. The anonymous parish reflects several across the country that have adapted, sometimes under contentious circumstances, to the increasing population and growing communities of immigrants.

In order to maintain its presence, churches must continuously adapt their appeal to keep membership. The two presentations this week show how just a couple of churches are adapting to the new age.

I enjoyed hearing about the different faiths that people read about. I felt that this technique of sharing different traditions was effective, as it switched up the pace of the class, making for a more engaging conversation. I enjoyed learning about all of the different faith traditions, as they were all so unique and displayed different aspects of American culture. Many of the book presentations touched on cultural phenomenons that are occurring right now, and explaining how religions are reconciling their beliefs to “keep up with the times”. While I am not one for verbal participation, I thoroughly enjoyed the questions that other students had towards the presentations and traditions.

One presentation that stood out to me was the one on Paradigm churches. I’ve known about this church style for a while, but was not aware of the religious experiences of the people who attend. I think the Paradigm churches are a good example of how religious life is not dying in the United States, but instead being reinvented for the millennial generation. The Paradigm churches offer community, which is an important aspect of belief, and yet focus on the individual’s relationship with God. These churches have succeeded by creating a safe space of worship for anyone who wants to join, while keeping with traditional Evangelical values. This intersection of modernity and tradition is interesting to study, as it appears to be an effective tool in growing congregations. I wonder how this phenomenon of Paradigm churches will affect the “non-religious” statistic, and create a rise in church attendance once again.

I have really been enjoying listening to the case study presentations. The Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes presentation really triggered my interest, as it began with a meditation, reminding the class to focus on breath and consciousness. I took a meditation practicum class last semester and I am currently taking a class called Compassion, which teaches students to be consciously compassionate beings. I have been trying to find ways to make myself be a more conscious person. I feel like I am able to enjoy myself and be fully engaged if I am more conscious of what I am doing and feeling. I always find it fascinating when content from my classes overlap and intertwine. The guided meditation on Wednesday was very similar to what we do in the compassion class that I am in, and the meditation class from last semester. 

Spirituality and living a spiritual life are interesting topics for college students and young people to discuss. In my meditation class we spoke about whether or not a meditation and consciousness class should be mandatory for freshmen in college. Starting the presentation with a guided meditation made me realize that it could be a good idea for a meditation class to be mandatory for incoming college freshmen. I found myself to be more engaged in the conversation and more focused on what the presenters had to say. It is important for people in today’s society to take some time out of their day to focus on breathing and consciousness. 

After the presentation on Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes, I’ve been reflecting upon how daily activities are infused with spirituality. The group lead the class through a beautiful guided meditation, leaving students feeling focused, refreshed and aware for the remainder of the presentation. I was reminded how strong the connection of one’s breath and one’s body can be, and how a short period of meditation can improve your mood and focus for hours after the fact. The presentation centered around the three subsets of spirituality, and how people implement them into their lives. I found their discussion of spirituality in the physical body particularly interesting, as I hadn’t before thought of medical appointments or exercise to be spiritual, but the more I reflected the more I concurred. Personal health and wellness is particularly important to one’s happiness, and it only makes sense that meditation and spirituality should be connected to that.

The presentation also brought up the idea of spiritual meditation while doing remedial tasks such as driving home, walking a dog or eating dinner. The things we do everyday can become some of the best time to connect your breath to your body, slow your thoughts, and think about spiritual life. Since this presentation, I have began to implement these breathing practices into my daily activities, utilizing my time spent with familiar things to also work on my spiritual well being. I have found that this multi-tasking has helped me to feel more spiritual and connected, more of the time.