Virtual Religious Service - Essay Example

?Introduction Christianity is the religion I researched. I observed it in one of the Christian organizations during their virtual religious service with people identifying themselves to have acquired the born-again experience. Services like these are common nowadays to be featured on various modern media platforms. I also conducted personal interview and my respondent was a born-again Christian. I once have misconception about the group of born-again Christian particularly when it concerns about their aggressive move to win souls and make disciples, which as for them is the ultimate command of Jesus Christ to become his worthy follower. As for me then, this is just a fundamental way or strategy in order to increase the number of people in the church. With many people coming in and congregating, there would be financial advantage for all the leaders who were successful in building a Christian congregation. The other misconception I have is relevant to self-fulfillment or self-actualisation of a person. I once believed that there must be a strong sense of accomplishment when you can build your group and ensure a large number of followers who are willing to take part under one’s rule. I therefore had a funny thought concerning pastors that their ultimate reason of initiating a church is to gain the advantage of personal satisfaction of taking the pride for establishing a group, and not just ordinary but a multitude. The above were two of my greatest presumptions about Christianity, which have remarkably changed when I happened to observe one of its virtual service and actual discourse with a born-again Christian. The following includes the information I obtained that changed the way I look at Christianity, particularly from the point of view of a born-again Christian. Discipleship as a way to proliferate Christian values I have important discourse with a born-again Christian who tried to elaborate with me some vital thoughts concerning his belief in the words of Christ. Prior to his actual point, he managed to allow me to think of what is happening around. I noticed that he would want me to figure out what is going on in the world today. He mentioned about crimes, hatred, climate change and eventually the lack of love of people for each other. The bottom line of his point was eventually pointing to the fact that the world does not know what love can do for our own good. In fact, he managed to show me that if a criminal considered loving his neighbor, he would never end up doing the crime in the first place. If there is love for our neighbor, hatred would never dominate, but understanding, respect and carefree countenance showing love for everyone would have persisted. He also tried to establish the point on what is the ultimate reason of global warming. From his point of view, this happened because of the selfish interest of the capitalists, allowing them not being able to think of the future, but only on how they would add up something to their bank accounts even at the expense of the environment and the inhabitants in general. After these, he introduced me to the point that to love is the ultimate source of other prevailing Christian values, just as how Christ showed love for the humanity as our model. I pondered on this and then I thought that if many people like this man would think like the way he does, I am sure we will be living with peace and far away from troubles. This therefore eliminated my preconceived thought about Christianity and the people in the church. Increasing therefore the number of people in the church, especially those who have born-again experience just as this man would not harm the world, but it would instead give a great chance to change this blue planet for the better. As his concluding point, he told me that Christ’s pattern of discipleship, as an ultimate way to proliferate the Christian values, would make things happen for us for the better. Pastoral ministry is not about fame, but a great responsibility Hearing one of the virtual religious services of a born-again Christian ministry live via a media platform changed my outlook towards the kind of path that every pastor takes. It moves beyond my presumption concerning the matter of ‘self-actualization.’ Just I heard about the parable of the sower of Jesus Christ, I understood that every person is unique or different. We differ in our personalities, characters and even our beliefs and principles. I therefore imagined that with a varying degree of differences, it must therefore a great challenge for pastors to address the spiritual needs of every soul. It must have been a great responsibility for them to continue what Jesus Christ has started for the humanity. Based on my interview with a born-again Christian, it therefore made sense to win more souls and organise them as a congregation of multitude in order to proliferate the Christian values, which the ultimate intention is to change the world for the better. Pastors, as ambassadors of Christ, are therefore tasked with great area of responsibility for them to take all the rest of their lives. Recommendation When we ask, observe and have an open mind, we are allowing ourselves to be open to the possibility to learn something new and eliminate our preconceived thoughts on certain matters or issues. I learned that no religion could save us, but our belief and thoughts around us and the teachings of great men in our time would prove to be remarkable nuggets of wisdom that could help change our fate. A great step for us, so as not to bask our ways towards having misconceptions about religions, and eliminate personal bias thoughts is to enrich ourselves with an open mind to stay close to the reality, allowing us to observe the real prevailing events. Having all of these would allow us to determine the necessary truth and even would help us understand why religions need to be established in the first place. I learned many things from my interview and observation, allowing me to unravel the other sides that I have never explored before. Read More