Baptism

Baptism

In some religions, such as Islam and Christianity, group praying is an inseparable part of the religion. As a result, some places are built by the followers of these religions which belong to communal worship and prayer. The place of worship in Christianity is called the Church. Christianity has different branches and the followers of each branch often build and arrange their churches differently from other branches. Churches belonging to different branches of Christianity might look alike from outside, while their inside could be very different. The way that people from a specific branch practice their religion, the symbols that they have in their churches, services and time lines, occasions being celebrated, and restrictions of various kinds can also be quite different among various branches of Christianity. The church that I chose to visit was a Baptist church.

The beautiful church I visited is a part of a huge construction which is located at the intersection of the Old-Peachtree road, and Buford Highway. The building stands in a geographic location that is close to I-85, I-985 and 316 highways, which makes it easy for the people who are living in other cities to get there. The parking lot around the building is so large that it can easily accommodate about three hundred cars. The whole construction is composed of three buildings that are connected together by corridors. The first building is the Church, and the second is the building that contains about fifteen class rooms. Bible classes and some other religious classes usually take place in this building. The third building, which is smaller than the others, is a fitness center. The three buildings all have the same look from outside, but their interiors are quite different.

The Church building is a huge atrium that has a half-circle shape. About six hundred seats are installed on circular parallel lines in a way that everybody can see the center. At the center of the room there is a big stage on which musical instruments are installed. On the wall there is a white pad. On the day I visited the church, the white pads were used for showing some video picture by video projectors. Behind the stage there is a small pool that, according to what Jadah (who guided me during my visit), is used for the act of baptizing Christian disciples; which is one of the events that take place in the church building. Baptismal remission or regeneration teaches that a person is regenerated, born again - saved by the act of water baptism (www.nettally.com.). According