My Fieldtrip

My Visit to Muirs chapel service On February 28, 2010, I went on a field of operationstrip to a Methodist church twist called Muirs Chapel United Methodist Church (UMC). The church was founded in 1822 when Jeremiah Dodson, a local preacher from the west, held avails under brush arbors and the shade of oak trees on the grounds. The church grounds were located behind where the current building is located at 314 Muirs Chapel channel Greensboro, NC 27410. After his servings and charge began, the charge was organized and passed on to the Reverend Thacker Muir.Reverend Muir cut the first pound for the first structure known as the lumber clashing House. In Reverend Muirs awarding the name was changed to Muirs Chapel. After the deterioration of the log structure, it was replaced in 1875 by a wiz-room weatherboard building. weather side is the cladding or siding of a house consisting of long thin timber boards that overlap ane many other, either vertically or horizontally on th e popside of the wall, thus making the building waterproof.This building was eventually moved across the street to the cemetery when the indue sanctuary was constructed in 1903. During the years of 1929 thru 1932 the Log Meeting House was enlarged, remodeled and brick-veneered, along with the first landscaping of the grounds. There is a replica of the Log Meeting House remaining on the grounds today. In the honor of Reverend Thacker Muir, the current building is so far known as Muirs Chapel. In 1940, the first educational building, called the Smoak expression, was built and the following year the church get its first full-time pastor, W.Kenneth Goodson. There were annual Camp meetings at harvest time held in the Smoak Building until they were replaced by revivals, which were replaced at the turn of the century by Pre-Easter services. In the fifties, The Smoak Building was attached to the church, although it was and then and beforehand long unruffled considered the education al wing of the church, it still carries the name The Smoak Building, which now houses the church offices. Year 1960, thither was another addition added to the church called the Boren Building.This building was also dedicated to Reverend Thacker Muir in 1960. Since 1960 the Church has been rebuilt and remodeled several times, with the present sanctuary being completed in 1980. The latest addition to Muirs Chapel is the Kale Christian Center which houses the Playschool, classrooms, and the contemporary worship auditorium. After doing careful research, I am still which I not sure when this addition began and when it was completed.Now that my readers have distinguished a bittie history of the church I ensureed for my field trip, I am now going to talk a little about what I experient at Muirs Chapel, which was a with child(p) experience I might add. As I was on the behavior to the church I made sure I did not have any pre-conceptions of my trim to this church. I wished to be open -minded so that I could take in my experience and learn from it no matter if was good or bad. When I pulled into the parking lot I noticed there were not many luxury cars.In my opinion, this was the first sign of the members being non-materialistic. Then the church itself looked to be grey with quite a few new additions, yet it is really appealing on the outside. But, when I got out of my car there was a white lady walking through the walk means across the lawn that without delay stopped and asked me how I was doing, and if I needed help. I immediately felt welcomed and I had only met one of the members of this church. She told me how to get to the sanctuary for the Traditional Service which started at 845 A. M.Once in the sanctuary and session down, a senior gentleman who looked to be around fifty or sixty years of age, as most of the congregation seemed to be, tapped on my shoulder and said it is good to have you here this morning, and if you do not already have a church home p lease come covering here with us. As readers can see this was the beginning of a very warming experience for me. The service began a little different from what I am used to. For starters there were only about 25 mess at this service and they were all Caucasian, as I am used to an all African-American congregation.Nevertheless, the service began with the take of the congregation and congregational concerns as I had never seen this in a Sunday morning service before. At my church I am used to laudation and worship team singing meters of praise to open the service. There were no concerns, so immediately they went into song. The consort director stood in the pulpit enjoin the congregation to sing, not an actual choir, but the congregation. Still, I could not believe the choir director was directional from the pulpit. Later I was told congregation is the choir as there is no choir for this service.As I listened to the song and tried to take part in the singing of the song, I found it difficult to follow as it was sung like an opera song very high-pitched. But once the preacher began to preach, by the way he preached on the strength to forgive, which by the way was the title of his message. Everyone became extremely quiet and sat still as possible. Me being Black, I was definitely not used to this. I am used people talking back to the preacher, saying for example You better preach preacher, tell them what the word says At Muirs Chapel it was a quiet as could be. Needless to say I did not say anything back to the preacher while he was preaching. In case some of my readers are wondering how I managed to film this church being African-American and this church being predominately white, I was invited by my classmate Lisa Tanico who is one of the ministers of this great church. Anyway, once the service was over I met with Lisa and she began to take me on a tour of Muirs Chapel. What I saw was amazing.Lisa and I had to pass through the fellowship hall where there were refreshments offered such as coffee, juice, and biscuits with a side of bacon or sausage. This very rarely happens at my church unless it is a special occasion of some sort. I was astonished to find out there were several different refreshments served after each service. Lisa then took on a quick tour of the rest of the church as she needed to readily easy to the members if one needed to talk or maybe ask for prayer. So we scurried on to the Contemporary service that was going on in one of the newer parts of the church.I was in this service for only about 15 minutes as this service started at 900 A. M. , and the Traditional service I attended started at 845 A. M. What little I saw was interesting. There was an actual choir at this service, and the choir had a Pop sound, which is closer to what I am used to hearing. At the end of this service Lisa had to date to attend to some of the members of the church and I had to go to a dedication at my church. But before my departure, L isa did tell me that Muirs Chapel was very involved in the community.This church is part of the Urban Ministry, inviting unsettled and the less fortunate to come in and eat on certain days of the week. Muirs Chapel also has several educational, sporting and biblical programs for the community, or just any one who may want to take part in participating. I am not sure which days, but either way just to know this church extends its arms out to the community in such away as this, if for no other reason at all makes me feel welcomed and privileged to have had the chance to visit this great Methodist church known as Muirs Chapel.