Taylor Ferguson Professor Germain English 1101 November 12, 2013 Mini Ethnography Project The discourse community

y of church is an interesting topic. Church is a place that Christians go in order to better their knowledge of what Christ did while on this earth, but to also grow a relationship with Jesus Christ himself. When people think of church, they think of a holy place that is developed for Christians to worship God. This is partially true in the fact that they do worship God there; however, church is a house for everyone to come and listen. Most traditional churches are seen for doing the same things over and over no matter which one you go to. Non-traditional churches put a different spin on things and are more laid back than the traditional ones. I was given the opportunity to speak with a member of a church as well as attend on in order to receive knowledge of the community. As I was conversing with the member, he informed me of many things that went on throughout a church service. He also told me things that most people dont know including that most people try to just please God by attending church when they really should be going not only to please Him, but to become more familiar with the scripture the Bible teaches. When I went and visited with the church, I noticed many things including random outbursts and hollers from members of the congregation. They were

praising the Lord. I observed things inside of the church including what I saw, heard and smelled. When someone looks at what a church does for its people, most would agree that it has a set of common public goals. The goals that would be included would be to learn what the message of God truly is, to better their relationships with God, and finally, spread Gods word to other people who may not know as much as themselves. When you look at these three goals and ask if the church is performing these adequately, you see that some churches do and others do not. Some churches place too much value on the religious aspects. For example, they are just trying to please God and do well rather than just following Jesus and listening to what he wants from us. Churches seem to want Christians to have good morals; however, even with good morals, you are still going to sin and outsiders are going to look upon Christians and claim that they are hypocrites. Churches out in the world that try to get people to follow Christ in a way that glorifies Him and helps to grow a relationship between an individual and God is living up to its goals. If the church is just trying to get people to have good morals, then the goals are not being met. Most of the public would see the churches holding a set of common goals. Churches allow for participation in order to receive feedback. In most cases, churches will have some type of small group where people can get together and talk about how they feel and ask questions in order to understand things at a higher level. Small groups allow individuals to get personal and not just be a listener to the message like church services on Sundays are for. When individuals get involved in small groups, they can receive more knowledge and are using gifts including

hospitality, teaching, and exhortation. Small groups allow for individuals to go from understanding a minimal amount of information to becoming leaders and being able to go out and teach others like their leaders did for them. With small groups, you are flexible with the times that you meet and the places that you meet and thats another thing that makes them so tremendous in their works. Most churches will have some type of response card somewhere inside the church. This card allows for individuals to respond to what they thought of the service and they can ask questions that members of the church can answer for them. These cards are great for people who dont want to speak out during the service. They allow for comments behind the scenes. When a new member enters into a church and tries to grasp what is being spoken of, it is difficult to understand because of the specific lexis that the church has acquired over time. Churches speak most things from the Bible and the teachings are all from that one book. If someone has never read the Bible or knows nothing about it, they wont understand what the pastor is speaking of. Christianity has many different dialects. Another form of communication through the church and the Bible is through parables. Jesus spoke a magnitude of parables, while he walked this earth, to the people on this planet as well as to his disciples. Parables are messages that are given through another message. For example, Jesus would speak a story to people that had a second meaning or message behind it. His reasoning for doing so was to allow for people to think and have faith. If they truly believed, they would understand what He was saying to them and if they did not understand, they did not have enough faith.

Through my research of this community, I was able to better understand the purpose of the church, the purpose of this specific discourse community. I was able to comprehend why Christians attend church and become apart of a small group. In order to become a member of such a community, all one must do is attend the church on Sundays. Many people feel that becoming a member of a church requires so much, yet all you have to do is attend the church on a Sunday and fill out a membership form. Once again, the church feels that anyone and everyone should attend its service to learn more about who Christ is and was as well as how to develop that relationship with Him, which can change someones life. The church is put in place not only to spread the word of God to the people of God, but is there to develop a community for individuals who need someone to be there for them. Churches want to show their love to those in need of it.