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Naesza Fewell
Mrs. Laura Knudson
UWRT 028
October 23, 2016
Mount Zion Baptist Church
Over a sequence of Sundays this month and last month I have evaluated my church back
at home in Greensboro, NC called Mount Zion Baptist Church. I usually attend just the 7am
service but to better give a successfully analysis of the entire church services as a whole I went to
both the 7am and 10am service. As an entire body of Christ believers over main purpose for
church services is to come together and give praise to the most high for what he have done
throughout our entire life. But within each service that is offered on Sundays there are two
different crowds. Majority of the 7am crowd is full of the seasonal saints. We call them seasonal
saints because they are older and more mature of the word of God. The 10am crowd is more of
the young adult ages 18-35, which accounts for over 2000 members during this service. Rather
you attend 7am or 10am we stand by our mission statement that says Mount Zion Baptist
Church has a mission, To Reconcile the world to God through Jesus Christ. We are a church that
operates in the fullness of God guided by the Holy Spirit (MTZBC). Upholding the guidelines
of our mission statement is how we effectively bring people to Christ. Our mission is driven by
God and we follow the procedures in order to be successful at Mount Zion.
To fully understand what Mount Zion is about you have to know a little bit about the
history of the church that plays an important role into what goes on now. Before Mount Zion
build a sanctuary that seats 3000 people it all started in a smaller church. At the time the Bishop
held over 5 services a day to accommodate the people. But his heart grew heavy once he noticed

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that people was standing outside in subzero weather to hear the word of God. He felt so bad that
he went to purchase some land from a racist white guy. The man did not want to sell the property
so instead he sprayed it with geese poop. But we still purchased the land and built one of the
biggest sanctuaries in Greensboro, NC.
Bishop Brooks was led by God to build a sanctuary for his people. He knew it wasnt the
will of God to see Gods people standing outside to hear his word. Even with all the hiccups that
came with building the new church he was still able to build it, because it was ordained by God.
Nobody was going to be able to stop Gods mission but himself. So now, no member will ever
have to worry about standing outside. No member will ever have to worry about not having
anywhere to sit because we now have over 3000 seats in the sanctuary and chapel put together.
The legacy of Bishop Brooks will always be remembered because of the great work he
contributed to Mount Zion. Even in his retirement the church is steady emerging and moving
forth because of his splendid leadership.
The bishop retired three years ago and now we are under the leadership of Pastor Bryan J.
Pierce. The switch meant a lot because the dynamics of the church was changing. The crowd was
starting to get younger and younger and to bring in a younger preacher, thats transparent is very
important to keep the church at a successful level. With the passing of the mantle the church
have become even more successfully. We now have a total member count of over 4000
members. Each year its successfully bringing over 200 lives back to Jesus Christ. Its community
reach have provide a 1000 of cars with free gas during Easter week. We have provided 1000s of
students with back to school supplies. Thats some of the major things we have done as an entire
church that connects back to our theme statement of reconcile the world through Jesus Christ.
Bringing the church to the world and help building our communities are an importance to us.

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If one would ever come to the 7am service they would notice numerous of different
things that isnt similar to the 10am service. The first service starts at 7am until 9am, which is a
lot shorter and quicker than the 10am service. With a mature crowd and older people that usually
cooks on Sundays are the ones that come early. This crowd is more conservative than the 10am
crowd. There isnt a lot of singing, shouting, and entertainment. When I say entertainment I
mean things like the arts and drama like miming and different plays. Coming into the service you
will not be in a long line of cars and you also will find a seat rather quickly. Usually everyone
seats in the front of the church because its only about 400 members that attend this service. The
start of the service is opened with a group prayer where you gather around individuals and pray
together. Leading out of group prayer you have church announcements that are visible on the
church screens. After the announcements there are two songs that are sung by the praise team.
The first song is usually an upbeat song that gets everyone happy and upbeat. The next song is
rather slower and its to set the atmosphere for the pastor to preach. People hold normally call the
second song worship because you are entering into the word of God.
Following the praise and worship the pastor will get up and usually sing a song too,
because he used to travel the world and sing with a group called Men of Standard. There is a
major difference when he is preaching during this service than the 10am service. Typically he
have a stand and his iPad where he read the bible off of during the 7am service. His tone and
approach to the crowd in the 7am service is more so teaching and relaxed preaching. This can be
successfully because majority of the people in this service have been in church for a very long
time and they probably already know the word so he teaches and explains to make it go more in
depth. So with him teaching a lot you will not hear the organ being played a lot nor will you see
a lot of shouting. This service is timed because it cannot run into the 10am service. So the

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preaching is short and sweet. Pastor always give the scriptures and three important subtitles to go
under the main message. For example one topic was When God throw Shade. The scriptures
came from Psalms 121:3-8 and the subtitles are listed as followed: He watches over you when
you slip, he watches over you when I sleep, and he watches over you with his shade. Everything
thats done have structure to it. Every service is very organized and detailed when it comes to the
message. After he is done preaching thats when he do altar call for people to be baptized,
reconnect with God, or to become a member. Then thats when everybody standup and proceed
to give their offerings in a basket then you exit the church.
Following the 7am service we have our 10am service. This service is bound to pack out
every seat in the sanctuary. Majority of the people that attend this service are young adults and
parents. This service is easier for parents because we offer a service called Kingdom Hall for
smaller children. Parents can drop their children off in kingdom hall before making their way to
the sanctuary for service. Also grade students are able to attend a service called Youth Blaze
which is held in the Chapel side of our campus. This gives grade students a more partial
approach to the word of God and they are able to connect with fellow church members pertaining
to their own experiences in life and school.
Entering into the 10am service you will notice more people standing outside the doors to
enter into the church. Just like 7am service it opens up with a main prayer from a deacon or
minister. Then you are asked to form a prayer circle with individuals around you. Within the
circle you are to say you name and say what you asking God for or to just give thanks. The unit
circle allows you to come together and meet someone you may never interact with and share
your experience with God to them. Following the prayer the choir or praise team opens the
church service with a song. Usually the song is high praise which means its something thats

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motivational or inspiring. Its important to make sure members and guest come in giving thanks
to the most high. Following the section from the choir or praise team there is an arts and drama
act. This Sunday we had mime dancing from the young adult ministry. Its a group of people
that dresses in all white and paint their face in white paint. Once the music start playing they
begin to act out what the words in the song is saying. This puts the song into a visual aspect for
members. It builds a lot of emotional and expression and makes the music come alive and well.
Then to praise team comes back and do about three more songs before opening up for the pastor.
Just like the 7am service he teaches and then gives the benediction. After the benediction its
offering time but instead you dont get up the ushers pass the baskets to each row. If everybody
got up like the 7am service it would honestly take an hour. So this makes it more efficient and
quicker to get the offering money. After that service is over
No matter what the formality of the service is we still are focus around our mission
statement and thats to Reconcile the world to God through Jesus Christ. We are a church that
operates in the fullness of God guided by the Holy Spirit. We want to bring the church to the
world. If we have to leave the traditional church format to reach the world thats what we are
doing. Changing the format of each service to accommodate to each group of people is important
to our vision. Our church history is what made of who we are today. Overcoming many adversity
situations that we were we still made progression and fought for what we wanted. Operating in
the fullness of God is having everything we do guided by the Holy Spirit. Meaning if God do not
say it we do not move. He is the trailblazer and guider of our church. Each message thats being
brought forth from our pastor comes from the voice of God. The formality of the church service
and different events we have within the service is operated by the voice of God. It is through him

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that we are guided by our vision and mission statement and thats what makes us Mount Zion
Baptist Church.

Work Cited
"Mount Zion Baptist Church of Greensboro." Mount Zion Baptist Church of Greensboro. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.