Author(s):  
Ronelle Sonnenberg ◽  
Marcel Barnard

This article dealt with the relationship between education and youth worship in Protestant contexts in the Netherlands. Consequently, it dealt with the relation between Liturgical and Educational Studies. Our interest in the research project on youth worship in Protestant contexts centred on the question: How do young people, in a late-modern context, participate in youth worship? In our qualitative research, it appeared that ‘learning’ is a key word with regard to youth worship. This article discussed the questions: How are youth worship and ‘learning faith’ related? And, what are the qualities of learning faith in youth worship? Empirical results of the research in local youth worship services and national youth worship events were presented. These results concentrated on the dialogical dimension in youth worship gatherings and gave indications about the contents of what adolescents learn in youth worship gatherings. This ‘what’ referred, amongst other aspects, to the important content of ‘rules and freedom’. Respondents often valued and appropriated youth worship along the line of ‘(do not) have to’, with regard to a Christian life style, their relation with God, ethics, and doctrines. Moreover, themes in youth worship gatherings often focused on a specific Christian lifestyle, on its boundaries and its spaces. Some reflections with regard to the question ‘Why is learning faith a dominant element in youth worship?’ were given. The conclusions that the cognitive element is important in youth worship and that the explicit aspect of learning is a main approach in youth worship were discussed in relation to J. Astley’s (1984) theoretical notion that the language of worship is ‘performing non-cognitive’.


Author(s):  
James Wellman ◽  
Katie Corcoran ◽  
Kate Stockly

Humans are homo duplex, seeking to be individuals but knowing this is only possible in communities. Thus, humans struggle to integrate these two sides of their nature. Megachurches have been enormously successful at resolving this struggle. How do they do it, and what is it about their structure and rituals that makes so many feel as if they are high on God? The affective energies and emotional valences that characterize religious ecstasy are the primary focus of our study of megachurches. Empirically, humans want and desire forms of what Randall Collins calls “emotional energy.” Drawing on extensive qualitative and quantitative data on twelve nationally representative megachurches, we identify six desires that megachurches evoke and meet: acceptance, awe and spiritual stimulation, reliable leadership, deliverance, purpose, and solidarity in a community of like-minded others. Megachurches satisfy these desires through co-presence—being in the presence of other desiring people—a shared mood achieved through powerful musical worship services, a mutual focus of attention on the charismatic senior pastor who acts as an emotional charging agent, transformative altar calls, service opportunities, and small-group participation. This interaction ritual chain solidifies attendees’ commitment and group loyalty, and keeps them coming back to be recharged. Megachurches also have a dark side: they are known for their highly publicized scandals often involving malfeasance of the senior pastor. After examining the positive and negative sides to megachurches, we conclude that they successfully meet the desire of humans to flourish as individuals and to do so in a group.


2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Fish Mooney

The primary focus of research related to spiritual and ministry needs of older people, historically and in the present, has been on those whose cognitive abilities are only minimally impaired. The older adult with a dementia like Alzheimer’s disease, however, has not received as much attention. This may be related to a lack of any theoretical framework from which to understand what may be happening to a markedly confused person spiritually, and how a person with progressive cognitive impairment might still be able to maintain a relationship with God and be ministered to by a God who may only be remembered vaguely, if at all. Elderly persons with dementia with a faith background rooted in the Judeo-Christian worldview are often able to respond to various rituals of their faith, verbally, physically, and emotionally. Common practices like familiar prayers, Bible readings, hymns, and attendance at worship services where collective memory is shared can serve as memory joggers to reconnect the person, not only to the faith community, but to a faithful God. A spiritual care ministry to older people with dementia can be considered a ministry of memory.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-24
Author(s):  
Dame Christine Sagala ◽  
Ali Sadikin ◽  
Beni Irawan

The data processing systems is a very necessary way to manipulate a data into useful information. The system makes data storage, adding, changing, scheduling to reporting well integrated, so that it can help parts to exchange information and make decisions quickly. The problems faced by GKPI Pal Merah Jambi are currently still using Microsoft Office Word and in disseminating information such as worship schedules, church activities and other worship routines through paper and wall-based worship services. To print worship and report reports requires substantial operational funds, in addition to data collection and storage there are still deficiencies including recording data on the book, difficulty in processing large amounts of data and stored in only one special place that is passive. Based on the above problems, the author is interested in conducting research with the title Designing Data Processing Systems for Web-Based Churches in the GKPI Pal Merah Church in Jambi. The purpose of this study is to design and produce a data processing system for the church. Using this system can facilitate data processing in the GKPI Pal Merah Jambi Church. This study uses a waterfall development method, a method that provides a systematic and sequential approach to system needs analysis, design, implementation and unit testing, system testing and care. Applications built using the web with MySQL DBMS database, PHP programming language and Laravel.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-61
Author(s):  
Giuseppina Addo

The COVID-19 global pandemic impacted all social relations, including the way religious communities engage in worship services. Due to strict social distancing protocols, the only viable solution for many congregations was online worship. This article investigates how platforms in cyberspace, such as Zoom, can provide a substitute for the core religious practices found in physical worship services, particularly for African Pentecostal believers who rely heavily on the aesthetic and sensory experience of their religious environment. Drawing on the theoretical concept of affordance, it is argued that digital affordances such as the chat box and emojis are used by believers to communicate affective moments arising from the sensory experience of worship. Members of the congregation become ‘digital spiritual hype people’ who render support to leaders in order to create and regenerate an affective environment where the presence of the Holy Spirit can be felt. The Holy Spirit, a fundamental pillar for Evangelical Christians, is understood as an embedded presence within the digital infrastructure. The internet connection, the phone and computers and screens are all re-appropriated as spiritual tools through which miraculous healing can be dispensed to believers in need. This research stands at a critical juncture between what might be termed the ‘pre-COVID era’ and the ‘post-COVID era’. As vaccination plans continue to roll out and social distancing measures are slowly being lifted, a ‘post-COVID era’ for African Pentecostals means negotiating the boundaries between online and offline spaces to fulfil core religious practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (07) ◽  
pp. 55-61
Author(s):  
Jyoti Agrawal ◽  
◽  
Prerana Sikarwar ◽  
Bhavana Shakyawar ◽  
Prabina Yadav ◽  
...  

India is a country of faith and has followers of various religions. Religion has always served the mankind and played a significant role of ointment for the soul and has demonstrated to be positively associated with better emotional health. Along with all other aspects of life, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected faith, religion and spirituality in different ways. Due to fast spread of virus, numerous restrictions on religious activities have been implemented. The same has impacted religion in various ways, including the cancellation of the worship services of various faiths, as well as the cancellation of pilgrimages, ceremonies and festivals etc. In this brief review, we have studied the relief works and role of religious institutions, congregations, and individuals in this pandemic. Present study also studied the strategically and innovative approaches for revealing ongoing changes to religion, along with the changes in people mindset towards ways of worship, God, religion, humanity and physical gathering etc. The outcomes of this study revealed that pandemic made most people shocked and physical gathering in worship places is restricted. Presently, all over the world, worship is offering through online /livestream, by churches, synagogues, mosques, gurudwara, and temples on virtual platform. In this period, a great collaboration was seen among government, non-governmental organizations, wealthy persons, and common public in relief work. Though, this pandemic has put drastic loss in term of life, health, economy etc but optimistic are seeing grace of God here too.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-169
Author(s):  
Oni Andhi Asmara ◽  
Endang Susilowati ◽  
Agustinus Supriyono

This article discusses the development of the Charismatic church on the Christians life in Semarang City in 1970-2015 using historical methods and using social religion approach. Since its inception in 1970, the Charismatic church in the city of Semarang has had a major influence on the Christian life in the city. A series of innovations in worship and evangelism that are adapted to the times have made the Charismatic church much in demand by Christians in big cities, one of them is Semarang. Christian interest in the Charismatic church can be seen from the development of the number of Charismatic churches in the city of Semarang. One of the Charismatic churches that is experiencing rapid development is JKI Injil Kerajaan. In the beginning, there were 25 people in the congregations. One decade later it reached 3,557 people and continued to increase to 13,324 people on the next decade. This rapid development has brought significant changes to the Christians life in the city of Semarang. It can be seen, among others, from the increasing number of churches that are full of Charismatic churches at worship services. But on the other hand, the presence of Charismatic church with a new pattern of worship caused less harmonious relationship between non-Charismatic churches and charismatic churches as the result of the high increasing number of original church people who moved to the Charismatic church. It is because Christians in Semarang are mostly more interested in taking worship in the Charismatic church.


2020 ◽  
pp. 137-148
Author(s):  
Василий Воронцов

Поводом для написания данной статьи послужила обеспокоенность автора состоянием богослужения в наши дни. Причём тревогу вызывает не сокращение объёма литургических текстов, а потеря понимания и чувства значимости некоторых из них. Отсюда, естественно, развивается достаточно вольное отношение к ним и, соответственно, небрежное исполнение их во время богослужения. После краткого упоминания о том, как должна совершаться служба Богу, автор переходит к основному предмету статьи. А она посвящена ектении как важнейшей части почти всех особо значимых богослужебных чинов Православной Церкви. В публикации представлены виды ектений, дана характеристика их содержания, показано их место во всех службах, где они встречаются, выявляется их особая роль среди множества других молитвословий, из которых состоит то или иное богослужение. Особое внимание уделено причине неоднократного употребления ектений в составе канонов утрени. Здесь ектении призваны снять напряжение внимания при исполнении подряд большого количества тропарей. В наибольшей степени это относится к канону в первый день Пасхи. Неслучайно, только на этой службе ектении произносятся после каждой песни канона. Кроме этого, в статье даётся обоснование неоднократного произнесения ектений и на службах, не относящихся к суточному кругу, каковы ми являются все пространные чинопоследования Требника, такие как службы таинств Крещения и Венчания, чины отпевания усопших, молебные пения. Отдельно отмечается образ исполнения ектении священнослужителями и хором. При этом особый акцент делается на те изъяны при совершении богослужения, которые укоренились почти во всех современных храмах. The reason for writing this article was the author’s concern about the state of Orthodox divine service in our days. Moreover, it is not the reduction in the volume of liturgical texts that causes concern, but the loss of understanding and a sense of the significance of some of them. Of course, this follows a rather free attitude to them and their careless performance during the worship service. After a brief mention of how the worship service to God should be performed, the author proceeds to the main subject of the article. And it is dedicated to the litany as the most important part of almost all particularly important liturgical ranks rites of the Orthodox Church. The publication presents the types of litanies, describes their content, shows their place in all wor ship services where they occur, and reveals their special role among the many other prayers of which this or that Orthodox divine service consists. Special attention is paid to the reason for the repeated use of litanies in the canons of Matins. Here litanies are designed to relieve the stress of attention when performing a large number of troparia in a row. To the greatest extent it relates to The Canon of Easter in the first day of Easter. It is no coincidence that only at this worship ser vice litanies are pronounced after each song of the canon of Matins. In addition, the article justi fies the repeated pronunciation of litanies also in worship services not related to the daily circle, which are all the lengthy extensive ranks rites Orthodox Breviary (Trebnik), such as the services of the sacraments of Baptism and Marriage, the funeral rites for the deads, prayer services. The ar ticle separately notes the manner of litany execution by the clergy and choir. At the same time, special attention is paid to those shortcomings in the worship that are rooted in almost all mod ern Orthodox temples.


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