Religion refers to the collection of cultural beliefs that are organized and human beings relate to them since they believe that they give an order to existence. The world has a diverse range of religions that differ in many aspects. They differ in terms of faith tradition, membership, rituals, symbols and upheld values. In order to get a clear understanding of it, we chose to attend a religious service at Los Angeles. There were a range of worship points and meeting places for various groups. We chose to attend a church service. The main purpose was to gain a clear understanding of undergoing in the church. It would act to remove any misconceptions that were there concerning the religion and its various practices. In addition to attendance of the religious service, I also sought to speak to one of the members of the church that would help clear a few issues concerning the religion that were still obscure to me. This would call for me to pay full attention to the conducting of service to learn about the practices and procedure of the religion. Additional observatory skills would help unravel the values traditions and teachings that were taking place in the church.
Having attended a church service at a worship point in Los Angeles, the following revelations were made concerning the faith tradition. To begin with, the congregation believed in a supreme being called God. They also believed that he gave his begotten son to rescue humankind from the evil. The son is known as Jesus Christ. The religion followers believe that God is the Supreme Being that created the universe and that he holds the sole mandate of controlling according to his will in life. Additionally, he is omnipresent and watches over his people throughout their doings. He can punish. However, he gives opportunities to human beings to repent and be forgiven their sins. The followers believe that lives come from Christ, and he is the one that takes back the life when a person dies. His main goal is to make his people live in peace and rejoice in his creations. Additionally, he has given mandate to his people to rule and conquer the world with good things. The religion is monotheistic. The believers do not entertain worship of idle or any other object as it amounts to an abomination that is punishable by death. The magnitude of such a sin is so great that most of the congregants, I talked to, could not imagine of the dire consequences associated to that in the Bible. The religion is guided by a religious book known as the Bible that lays the foundations to the life of a Christian. In the book there are core values that require to be held so dearly to one’s heart. Those that follow the Bible teachings are believed to be blessed countless times by the Lord.
The membership of the church is open to all people that are willing to live according to the Bible. The Bible is believed to be the core foundation of the religion, and all those that follow its way are believed to be members of the unit. Additionally, the entry to the worship place is not limited to few selected persons that are the members of a specific church but open to all willing parties that want to observe the rules and procedures. Additionally, the people admitted must be willing to respect the place of worship. They should avoid smoking at the given grounds, indulging into quarrels and other behavior that the church deems irresponsible in their own wisdom. To avoid being doubled faced, the church encourages the membership to uphold the highest levels of moral stands in the society that will portray the religion in the best image. The members are also required to give offering in a form of tithe from their day to day life earnings. The membership is not discriminative on any grounds namely: gender, age, race or ethnic religion. However, open interview with one of the church leaders reveals that the church members have some reservation as far as the sexual orientation of individuals is concerned. The church discourages same gender marriages though such members are not prevented from attending the church services. The membership of the church comprises of people from all race including some people that openly confessed to being converted to Christians through getting evangelized to by the church leaders.
Furthermore, the church carries out various rituals as the service goes on. Among the rituals there is one that prayers are done to appease the Supreme Being that controls the universe. While the prayers are conducted, the people in attendance are required to be upright standing. The church leader utters a few words that act as the guidance before the players can commence. Closely tied to that are rituals whereby the church leader accepts the offering given out by the church members. The offerings range from tangible objects to money. The endowment is assigned differing names dependent on the intended purpose to the creator. Other rituals that are conducted in the church include baptism of new members in addition to newborn babies in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The people are baptized by being dipped in a pool of water and then some specific words are uttered by the pastor that declares the child baptized. Once person is declared baptized, they are expected to live according to given Christian teachings that are commensurate with the Bible. The members are also expected to observe a number of days in the Christian calendar to mark the various point in the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Among them, as learnt from the one of the congregants, there is Christmas that marks the birth of Jesus Christ. Additionally, they are also expected to mark the good Friday, as well as Easter Monday that marks the death and resurrection of Christ.