Worship+&+Fellowship

Ways of worship for every religion are different and include different practices. Some ways of worshiping are prayer, music, or traditional rituals. Within religions the ways of worshiping are also different and at points controversial. Worshiping for someone can be a very personal experience and one may worship within a church, home, or publically. Like everything else in this great land of America, religious practices and ways of worship have changed over time and will continue to change into the future.
 * Worship **

Christians have always been in a dispute over how to worship. For example Catholics tend to be private with prayer and their music is out of the hymn books. On the other hand Evangelical Protestants have taken another approach of being open with prayer and for their music worship they tend to more enthusiastic and search for the personal meaning and relationship. About 40% of people under the age of 35 in evangelical denominations tend to be more enthusiastic about prayer and Bible reading than any other denomination within Christianity.(Wolfe) When they worship the, Evangelicals strive for the personal relationship, therefore it allows them to be more enthusiastic.

Jews are usually private like Catholics and they continue to be very traditional. There are many rituals that a Jew must participate in and their prayers are read from the Torah. They tend to be modest, but they also share in enthusiastic worship. Joking and gossip take place within the synagogue before worship. (Wolfe) Sometimes within the worship service there are even certain interruptions. Many Christians looking into the Jewish faith think of the Jews as quiet, impassionate during worship, while in reality Jews are just as lively.

Some aspects of worship are becoming more narcissistic with people praying, “Lord I want this,” or “I need this, help me”. [|Narcissism] within Christianity is explained in some portions of the Bible. Some of this is ok, but the majority would agree that more people should get over themselves and be thankful and gracious. Worship is one of the most important; if not the most important part of someone’s faith so understanding that everyone’s way of worship is different is important to understanding and respecting others. Worship is used for sharing meaningful time with the god you believe in. Like many things in America, worship is diverse.

Works Cited

"10 Tips for Worship Leaders: How to Enhance On-Stage Presence." //TheWorshipCommunity.Com - Worship Leader Resources, Articles, Forums//. Web. 08 Feb. 2012. .

Wolfe, Alan. //The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith//. New York: Free, 2003. Print.

Keathley, J. Hampton. "Christian Fellowship | Bible.org - Worlds Largest Bible Study Site." //Free NET Bible and Thousands of Bible Studies | Bible.org - Worlds Largest Bible Study Site//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. [].

Levin, Jeff, and Ph.D.. "Religious Fellowship | Institute for Spirituality & Wellness." //Chicago Theological Seminary//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. [].

Wolfe, Alan. //The transformation of American religion: how we actually live our faith//. New York: Free Press, 2003. Print.

Fellowship If worship is described as how a person lives and practices their faith fellowship is how you fit in with other believers. Many religious people feel as though fellowship is one of the most rewarding things about religion. People of similar ideas, opinions, and faith tend to align themselves better than people who view things differently, which is why connecting to a church group is considered a huge payback of religion. As with all other parts of religion though we see fellowship is changing and evolving from ancient practices to a more modern concept.

Early forms of Christianity focused fellowship as one of, if not the main, priorities of their faith. They only allowed themselves to associate with others who identified religiously and morally similar to them. Now fellowship could loosely be considered social gatherings that reference their religion in some manner. Although most religious organizations tend to stray away from connecting on too deep a level for fear not all members will agree causing the fellowship to fall apart. We see fellowship meetings that consist of creating small talk over coffee and doughnuts where the only "God-Worship" is praying for the food they are about to sample. Another problem many religion, especially Christians, face is the fact many so called believers find going to church obsolete. Why go to church when I can watch a semen on my television Sunday afternoon without all the hassle? This is the mind set of many Americans rendering fellowship a dead concept for the main basic foundation of fellowship is actually attending church.

Home church is also becoming popular among evangelical worshipers. They believe traditional churches focus too much on corruption foundations. Putting too much into their leaders who don’t connect with the listeners. Instead they find small gatherings of usually less than ten people at a home to be more God glorifying than attending traditional church. Fundamental religionist find home church to be similar to a group meeting and are only considered a bonus to regular church sermon. This idea of small group worship is taking hold in many religions though. Jewish Rabbis call on believers to form small worship groups to help strengthen their faith. Catholic priests encourage their members to create Fellowship groups that discuss personal issues and many other denominations have similar groups to renew faith during the week after Sunday service has "worn off". This idea of small groups promote individual confession and helps make believers feel connected to god and his members on a deeper level.

What we see is that fellowship as a whole is changing. The idea of small groups is becoming popular while traditional church sermon attendance is diminishing at an alarming rate. Traditionalists consider fellowship attending church and find any other type of meeting extra while more liberal church goers find home church or even church on tv a perfectly acceptable way of fellowship.