Term Paper on "Visiting Lakewood Church the Place of Worship"

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[EXCERPT] . . . .

Visiting Lakewood Church

The place of worship that I visited was Lakewood Church. Lakewood Church is located at 3700 Southwest Freeway in Houston, Texas. Lakewood Church is a non-denominational Christian church. It is a megachurch, which means that it is a huge church. Its regular sermons are widely broadcast throughout the United States, and it is the largest of the megachurches in the United States. Lakewood holds three English-language services each weekend. The visit occurred at 5:30 PM on Saturday, November 3, 2007, and lasted through a self-guided tour of the facility, the service, and the compass service afterwards.

Its services are held in a tremendously large building; it used to be a venue for NBA basketball games and large rock concerts. From the outside, the building does not look like a stadium, but more like a large office building. It is well-kept and well-landscaped, and even seems a little out-of-place in its immediate neighborhood, which includes some very rundown office buildings. The Lakewood building is clearly identified as a church, but without any of the traditional trappings that one associates with a Christian church.

Despite the immense size of the church, it managed to convey unexpected warmth to its visitors. First, parking was available in a private garage, which was located immediately next to the facility, which made accessing the building simple and easy. Other worshippers walking into the building were very friendly as I approached, though they did not seem to know their fellow church-goers, which was not surprising given that Lakewood is a megachurch. I was greeted at one of the sets of doors by a young man who welcome

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d me to Lakewood and asked if I needed any assistance. I did not need assistance, but I noticed that the greeters arranged for assistance to those people who needed it when entering. Immediately inside the church reminded me of a sports arena. There were large directional signs, which would have been out-of-place in a smaller venue. The church offices and smaller ministries, like the children's ministry, were located outside of the main worship hall. The main worship hall was cavernous. The pulpit was at the front of the hall, and large projection screens revealed what was featured on the stage of the pulpit. There was a large golden spinning globe on the pulpit. The room was decorated in shades of blue, and the seats were neither traditional pews nor traditional stadium seating, but closer in comfort-level to movie-theater seating.

Lakewood advertises that everyone is welcome at their church, and my observations of the worshippers entering the building seemed to prove that invitation. I saw people from every ethnic group that I can visually identify enter the building. The majority of people were Caucasian, but there were large numbers of Hispanics and African-Americans worshipping as well. Lakewood also seemed to appeal to all socio-economic classes. The majority of people appeared to be upper middle-class, and they were dressed and coifed to reflect that status. However, I spotted a few people who were clearly upper-middle class. There were also people worshipping in jeans… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Visiting Lakewood Church the Place of Worship" Assignment:

“

This is a paper about a place of worship.

paper is based on 3 forms of religious expression

It is also assumed that this report is to be based on first hand observation deliberately avoiding the use of secondary sources so notes and bibliography are not needed. however ,in some cases you may need to get a little background through prior reading or through material available at the religious site, to understand better what you see. interviews may also be helpful as well as perusing the website for the group, if available.

HERE IS THE OUTLINE:

1) FIELD INFORMATION: Give the full name, exact address, and religious affiliation of the group(dont just say buddhist temple, be sure to specify the school or denomination, and the national background); give the exact date and time of the visit; give the nameand type of service(if any) attended.

2)PRELIMINARY PLACING INFORMATION: Describe the outside and inside appearance of the building, the way visitors are greeted, and the sort of people in this group, that is, their apparent social class, lifestyle, ethnic background, gender, average age, number present, an dso forth.

2) DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY OR SYMBOLISM: If you attend a service or formal presentation of the religion, describe what happened from the beginning to end. Try to give some sense of the emotional tone and subjective spiritual meaning of the scenario, for example, was the opening dramatic or casual, is congregational participation emotional or reserved, is much of the service spontaneous or ritualized?

If you did not attend a regular service, discuss in detail the significance of the art, architecture, and symbolism in and around the site.

4) ANALYSIS: Analyze the topic in terms of the three forms of religious expression: theoretical(teaching), practical(worship), sociological. At least one third of the paper should cover these topics.

a) THEORETICAL: What, essentially, does this religion teach? As far as you can tell from this one experience, what is the main message this religion gives through its sermons, practices, symbols, and so on?

b) PRACTICAL: What is the basic nature of the worship? Formal or informal? Ancient or modern? Structured or spontaneous? What message about how this group conceives of the role of religion does the nature of the worship communicate?

c) SOCIOLOGICAL: What kind of group is it? Close-knit or diffused? Does it consist mostly of people drawn to the religion by family or ethnic ties, or are they mostly commited converts of different backgrounds? What role does the priestor leader play? What message about religious experience and meaning is communicated by the nature of the leadership and the group?

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