Ebenezer Baptist Church Service

I had an amazing experience at church this morning. It started when the congregation walked around and greeted each other and us. Everyone seemed so genuinely welcoming and kind and I liked that it was such a positive environment. I also really liked the pastor and enjoyed his sermon. He spoke about the importance of being a generous person, not just attending church every week and praising God. He talked about the idea that, in the eyes of God, it's not about what religion you practice but what you do for others. I was expecting the service to be fun with all the music and probably inspiring, but I was not expecting to be able to relate to the sermon so well.

I also really liked the pastor questioned his own faith and put himself in the shoes of the congregation or other visitors. He recognized that sometimes people who study religion don't do a good job of translating their faith into action. He also admitted to wondering if his faith was always right, which showed me that his faith was even more powerful, because he could question it and still trust it. I think that the history of the church contributed to my great experience because there was such a strong sense of community and trust in their ability as a whole to overcome anything. I saw how it passed between generations, from the older folks who greeted us in the beginning to the children younger than us who spoke and held up signs calling for justice, during a song. Their belief in their community, their church, their God was so infectious, even for someone who is not religious, that I felt welcome and loved and inspired. This experience also helped me to understand the importance of churches during the civil rights movement because they united the whole community in a common belief in doing what's right.

Julia Bainum, Baltimore City College