For my western encounter project, I decided to attend an Assembly of God church because I had heard that the Pentecostal service was very liberal and miraculous. I found four churches in the Northern Virginia and finally I decided to go Fairfax Assembly of God church after visiting their website. It was very well-organized and seemed that it was a fairly large church, so I thought I would experience many things. 

On Sunday, October 12th in the morning I attended the 10:45 AM service with my friend, David. I was a little nervous and excited because of visiting new place. We arrived ten minutes earlier, so I looked around. On the back of the church, there was the forest, so the church looked peaceful and quiet. As we opened the door, we were welcomed by many greeters until we had the seats, and they were very friendly. One man handed a magazine "Pentecostal" and a bulletin. All of these nice people made me feel comfortable and accepted. 

This church had a sanctuary on the second floor and several rooms for classrooms on the first floor. We entered sanctuary directly. The size of the interior of the sanctuary was not too big, only about 40 rows of pews on the red carpets. It looked neat and warm. There were not many people in the sanctuary yet, so my friend and I took a seat in the back area and pretended to be comfortable. I sat quietly and looked around and thought that everything was very informal. I saw people that came in with casual clothes, which was something new to me. In my church, most people dressed up when they came to church. There was 3-layer platform in the front, and there were several musical instruments. In front of those, there was small table which had a big open Bible.

The service began when a worship team came to the front, and they began the service with Praise and worship. When music started, people stood up all and started singing, clapping, dancing and lifting their arms all over. The music was played by various musical instruments, such as the drum, the guitar, the bongo and so on. It was wonderful and surprising to listen to the sounds of those music instruments in the Sunday morning service because it was impossible in my Presbyterian church. To see the female music pastor was also unusual. The service was very informal. The songs continued for fifteen minutes and one woman ascended into the platform and gave us her testimony about how God was faithful with her story about money. After that, the Rev., Stephen E. Brimmer, came up to the platform and commented about it. He also showed us the video presentation about their missionaries and explained how the offering would be used to support them. Then, two people came up to the front and passed round the gold-color baskets for the offering. 

After that, the Rev. prayed for it and called one family up to the platform because they dedicated their newborn sin. Everybody started praying their family and some people stretched their arms toward them while praying. We sang several songs more after that, and most of the service up to this point had been in the form of song or music. It took about thirty minutes until this point, and it was now the pastor's turn. Every worship team member sat down and he started preaching. The title was "Tell Me Why You Believe Jesus is God," and he told us four reasons to support his sermon. I thought the content was really helpful to me as a religious student and to my friend, physician. What the interesting was that we did not have to have the Bible because we did not read the specific verse of Bible for the sermon. It was another big difference from my church. Almost thirty minutes later, he finished and I was exhausted a little bit.

Next, he said that Holy Spirit was doing spectacular things all around the world. He added that God still performed miracles today for us to reveal himself and to call all people to salvation. He invited people who had problems in their lives or difficult relationships with God to come to the front. Some people were already stood in the front, and I thought they were pastors and deacons or elders in this church to pray for others. After people stepped to the front, they started talking about their problem to the pastors shortly and they prayed together. Pastors imposed hands on them in prayer, and some people cried when praying. It took about five to minutes. The service ended as it had began, with two songs. We came out hurryingly, and there was a Rev. near the outside door to see off the people. He smiled, held out his hand to shake hands and said, "God bless you." It was very warm. 

When we left the church, my friend and I talked about how the sermon was. The pastor provided the historical and prophetical data, so it was credible. I was really satisfied with this visiting and I felt uplifted. I learned a lot of things that I had never experienced before. The service was very new and liberal to me, so I thought the young people in the USA would like this kind of worship style. In addition, I learned that Pentecostal church emphasized the Holy Spirit and the almighty of God. They sought the presence of God in the service all the time and even their lives and also they expected the miraculous such as healing. I decided to visit that church again later.

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