Wall # 1 – People Need Answers
After 9/11 everyone was asking the
same question, “How could God allow this to happen?” While
our congress men and women gathered on the capital steps to
sing “God bless America” it is obvious that not too many
really believed what they were singing. As people flocked to
the church after the disaster, I don’t believe that we did a
good job answering the questions that people had.
What type of questions are people
asking?
Sometimes as Christians, we have all
the answers. We can recite exactly what the Bible says about
a particular issue. But the problem then becomes, what if
someone doesn’t believe in the Bible? We’ve accepted God’s
Word as absolute truth but we live in a society where many
believe that there isn’t any such thing as absolute truth.
How else can you explain the need for
salvation to someone who doesn’t believe the Bible?
Wall # 2 – People Need Community
As we become more and more connected
technologically, we also become more and more isolated from
one another. A cell phone call or an email allows us to keep
in contact with other people or share important information,
but it does not pass on a sense of community.
If people are going to feel welcome in
our church they must feel like they belong there. This is a
two edged sword. You will naturally embrace people who are
most like you. Each and every church will have its own
identity and that is something that is hard to change. If
you are an old, traditional church, it is very difficult to
become a young, contemporary church. People are naturally
going to gather together where they feel the most
comfortable.
Regardless of what the church is like,
we should make every effort to make every person who walks
through our doors feel comfortable and that they understand
the most important thing to us is the worship of our Lord
and Savior.
