Archival Materials

Some of the archival materials that I plan to use for my project are:
 *Old bulletins
 *Pictures of our church throughout the years
 *News paper articles about the church and how it has grown
 *Pictures that reflect the way our worship services have changed over the years. For example: Changing from song books to a projector screen, or from the sermons notes being on paper to being on powerpoint.
 * Im hoping to find some different things that we have done over the years on the internet or on our website also so that I can use those things as archival materials, as well.

Lives on the Boundary

Lives on the Boundary was a very interesting book for me to read. I felt like the boundaries discussed in this book were so common with things that people actually struggle with in real life. I enjoyed the way that book discussing the barrier of language. I think that language has become an extremely large barrier in the United States. It is something that I have become more aware of since I started college, because now I have more contact with people from other countries. In talking to some of my friends from other countries I find it interesting the things that they can't really understand about english. It really puts into perspective how difficult it must be to come to a country that you are not familiar with and attempt to communicate in a world of people who can be very judgmental and harsh about that fact that one is not familiar with the language.
I think that the book was enjoyable to read in the sense that it made a lot of good points. I like the idea of physical, as well as, emotional and educational boundaries. I think it was interesting that the author was able to pull together all these different levels of boundaries and make them into a story. The fact that it was a story, and based on something that actually happened made the book seem more real and more interesting to read.

Reflective Memo about the Online Space

Because I chose a single place I could not find specific online memos about my Church, but I was able to find several blog type websites that discuss different activities that other Churches of Christ participate in. The study of these online spaces helped me to realize how many alternate activities there are to participate in, as well as how many things we participate in that other churches do also. For example, I learned that many churches here in the community of Nashville have days where they help out with disaster relief. I knew a few other organizations that participated in helping with the disaster relief, but I did not realize how many churches were actually involved in this process. I also learned new things that are church may could begin helping with that we do not participate in. We could collect snack items for the waiting rooms at hospitals and collect the tabs on coke cans for the Ronald McDonald foundation. Those were two activities I noticed other churches being involved in that our church is not. Looking into these blogs also helped me to realize how many people want to discuss their ideas and beliefs. I would not think that many people would want to discuss this, especially online with people they do not know, but it gave me some insight to how willing people are to evangelize even through typing simple words on the internet.

Cultural Terminology

Within the church that I am doing my project over there is not a whole lot of specific words that one would need to know. I mean occassionally my preacher will make up a word, like disciple-lessness, but those words remain self explanatory, for example that means without disciples. If you get into the teenager classrooms, there you may need to learn some acronyms or just learn the teen lingo. For example, if they say lol, it means laugh out loud, or nbd stands for no big deal. These are common things that you will hear said when spending time with that ages group, but the lingo becomes second nature and most of the time one would already have an understanding of the words. Our youth group is OHYG, which simply stands for Old Hickory youth group, and our church is OHCOC, which simplys stands for Old Hickory Church of Christ. However, other than those few terms, there is not any certain terminology that I think would need to be told of ahead of time.

Letter to a friend

Kassie,
  I was writing you to tell you a little bit about my ethnographic project for my third year writing class hoping you could give me some feedback and different ideas about what to do to make my project strong and look complete. I am doing my project over how I feel God is moving through the people at Old Hickory Church of Christ, and how that movement is going to allow his love and his word to be spread to others. Since you have been attending this church with me for so many years I figured you would have some good ideas on what to do in order to make the project look more complete. Who should I talk to? What events do you think are the main ones that help  the people of Old Hickory Church of Christ grow spiritually? I know that you have gone on some of the mission trips and I would like to talk to you about your experience and how the trip made you feel, as well as the expressing what gratitude you saw from the families in Mexico that we helped. My plan with the project is to focus on two themes: 1) How is God moving through the members of the church? 2) How is God moving through the community of people that the church reaches out to? If you have any other suggestions please let me know. Remember this is an ethnographic project so I have to have lots of information about the culture of our church.
  Thanks
    Kelsi

Interview Response

To start, I have changed the topic of my project to God is Moving. My project is going to be focused on the things that my church does to try and reach out into the community to spread God's word, and then the reactions of the people who are on the receiving end of the activities the church holds.
The interview that I did was with one of the members of our youth group at Old Hickory Church of Christ. I chose to interview one of the youth members because I think that they have a very unique view on the way that God is moving in their lives.
From our interview I was able to learn more about the things that the youth members of our church do to serve others in the communities and ways they grow spiritually. Abby, the girl I interviewed, is a freshman in high school this year and has been attending our church for about five years now. She is a really loving person. I learned  how much the church means to her and how much she feels like she has grown spiritually thanks to our youth minister. The interview allowed me to hear perspectives from some of the youth and I learned that as a whole the way they feel they grow the most spiritually is by singing, as opposed to just listening. The youth is also involved in Christian conferences and outreach programs. They rake leaves and mow for the older people in the neighborhood and other things to try and help others. I learned a lot the youth. It was a really enjoyable experience.