Freedom Worship Center

For my site visit, I attended a service at the Freedom Worship Center in West Boylston. I chose this house of worship because I want to explore a non-mainstream church for this project, one not affiliated with a major denomination. It is affiliated with the Living Rock Church in Killingworth, Connecticut.

The Freedom Worship Center describes itself as "a Christ-centered charismatic church full of people who are in love with God." Its services are very music-oriented. Their services are designed to encourage much interaction with the congregation. At the service that I observed, there was an interesting combination of styles in the sermon: there was what I would describe as a “call to arms” mentality yet it was presented with much humor and received with attentive laughter.

As a Christian house of worship, the scripture in use was the Holy Bible (I was not able to determine which translation, however as a non-denominational church, I will infer that it would not be considered crucial). While it was frequently read from, predominantly the Old Testament, the passages were usually brief. The focus of the sermon was interpretation and application to the modern world.

Contrary to my previous experiences with church services, mostly Roman Catholic, the service was intended to be kept very informal and interactive. The crowd would talk back to the pastor sometimes and laugh and testify throughout the service. Architecturally, it is a very simple two-story building. The interior is of simple design adorned with multiple crosses.

The doctrine of the Freedom Worship Center is similar to that of many other forms of Christianity. They believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They believe in the inerrant nature of the Holy Bible. They believe that the fall of man has made us so flawed that we cannot redeem ourselves on our own. It is only Christ who can save us. This implies that persons who do not accept Him as their Lord and Savior cannot save themselves through other means. There is also strong emphasis on baptism as an absolute necessity.Their beliefs regarding the nature of God appear to be a combination of Unitarian and Trinitarian in that He is one single being. They describe Him as the “Eternal Godhead.” They also describe God as “existing in three persons.” These three persons being of course, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Overall, I found my visit to the Freedom Worship Center very enlightening. It showed me a side of Christianity I had never seen before.