What can your local church do to better communicate God’s love to your community?
Perception is reality. Working as a police officer in a busy metropolitan, this thought is always in the back of my mind. Perception about how I carry myself and how I act in a professional manner can make or break our trust with the community. If I start to affect an arrest on a drug dealer and he begins to fight, I have been trained to yell "Quit resisting" "Quit fighting with me" because perception is reality. One person may see me as just "beating up" on someone but the ones who see and hear me know that this is not true. The problem with this is that perception is reality. That one person will spread the word and make my department look fraudulent because I was trying to arrest a know drug dealer with narcotics in his possession. The perception of just one individual may scar my department forever and the community will see their police department as a brutal enforcer. The community's reality has shifted. Perception has now become reality.
Just as perception is reality with a police department, it is the same with the church. The media has blasted the church with a hail of negative imagines based on the acts of few. The society has responded to these negative imagines and refuses to take part in what churches have to offer. Towns states on page 97 that the Barna Poll suggests that most people today want to know God, but wish to do so outside the established church.
The church must act with a "counter-strike" of positive influences to communicate God’s love in a better way. One way to accomplish this is by introducing community involved programs such as Young life into churches. Young life is a program in which it concentrates on the younger generation. Introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith.
In my community the church is not involved what so ever with the citizens. It is a very conservative an intimidating atmosphere just attending the church. My perception of this church makes me not want to attend church. This church needs to reach out and change its imagine by getting more involved with citizens such as myself and prove to the community that it is not at all what I had previously perceived it as.
The church also needs unity. Churches cannot communicate God’s love if they cannot stop fighting and arguing over what they believe is a perfect church. Towns emphasizes this fact by stating Matthew 18:20 "for where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am in the midst of them." A church is just a gathering of people to worship the Lord. Without people, the churches we attend would just be a building. The churches need to quit fighting over whether to use rock bands or organs to sing hymns.
We can be under a bridge, just as they do at the Church Under the Bridge in Waco, TX. These Christians meet every Sunday underneath a busy Interstate Highway and praise God together. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, black or white, the Church Under the Bridge attempts to avoid denominational, cultural, economic, or racial distinctions. As stated on their website "We are a multi-cultural church committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the unity of His Spirit." We need more churches like these in society to communicate the Lord’s love in a positive outlook.
How do the arguments for the existence of God influence your view of the supernatural?
The argument for the existence of God has influenced my view of the supernatural in a more positive outlook. The Bible does not directly define supernatural. Supernatural define by Merriam – Webster as “of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe; especially: of or relating to God or a god, demigod, spirit, or devil” and also as “departing from what is usual or normal especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature.” There are many instances of supernatural events in the Bible. The Bible leaves evidence of these supernatural happenings in forms of prophecies when God spoke to humans, and when Jesus descended to human form in the Incarnation. Another great piece of supernatural evidence that occurred is when Jesus rose from the dead. The events are completely and utterly unexplainable by human laws and reason. The evidence of angels is the best example for me. The Bible states that in Daniel 3:28 that Angels are here to protect God’s people. People cannot see angels but God stated that they are here protecting us. The supernatural does not scare or frighten me because I know that God created the supernatural. I believe that God’s power and control of supernatural events are far from human understanding and that I must let Him take control of what needs to happen at that time. There are things on this Earth that cannot and will never be understood. Supernatural events, miracles, and “freak accidents” are the Lord’s way of intervening.
Looking through everything that I have learned in Theology, I have a clearer understanding of how and why things happen. I have also answered some questions that I had asked myself from the beginning of class. Supernatural events are everyday occurrences where God intervenes with humans. Jesus did claim divinity throughout many statements in the Bible. I have also come up with some ideas about how my church can better communicate with our community.
