Examining the Way of Salvation in My Church Setting

Write a reflection on the way of salvation suitable for the congregation or the context in which you've identified and serve. Your writing sample might be a prayer used in a worship service or retreat setting, a devotional, a newsletter article (such as a Pastor's page, Minister's musings, etc), slides you develop for a sermon, or even poetry and lyrics of your own original work.

How do I explain how the congregation I am a part of understands salvation except by examining the very things that make up the body of the church? In other words, one will answer how they understand salvation by looking at what the church consistently does. 

As we’ve already begun to discuss, many share their testimony of salvation as a single moment in their life. Examining the process of salvation has made me question why we don’t have holiness testimonies just as much as individuals talking about that one moment they went down and accepted Christ at an altar. Or it could have been in their own home, maybe a restaurant, a retreat, whatever it may have been. As important as that is, salvation is better understood not only as that one awakening experience but all of the revelations that followed as a result of that conversion experience as well. 

Getting back to salvation in the context of where I currently serve… We just had a gathering last night that is called “Prayer and Praise.” It’s an evening dedicated to just that, and it’s focused on worship, praying for the church, and for the community and ministries we’re involved in. The source scripture that is used more as the vision guiding the church is Acts 2:42, which reads, “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

‭‭Though last night was dedicated primarily to prayer and fellowship, the other Wednesday nights are used to meet in devoted groups and dive into the word further to grow in the community. From what we have at church, I can say that in the developing definition of my understanding of salvation, we can take into account a moment, moments that have happened, moments that will happen, and the resulting character as a consequence of these encounters which impact who we are in Christ and the love we express to God and others. As my understanding continues to grow, shape, and mold from what it has been, I’m excited to dive deeper into how we can recover what true discipleship and salvation means in the life of a church.