Basilica Catholic Church Community focuses on multiple Christianity activities that help in disseminating the canonical gospel among both converts and non-converts. We integrate modern cultures, trends as well as the values of Christians’ lives by ensuring that the challenges preventing individuals within the community to understand the bible and follow Jesus teachings are resolved. We achieve this by providing solutions to the issues influencing both followers and non-followers when learning biblical teachings. We address challenges such as biblical illiteracy, criticism by other church dominions and lack of resources.
Solutions
Addressing Biblical Illiteracy
Basilica Catholic Church Community is purposed to ensure members of the society are bible literates. The goals and objectives to educate the public are facilitated by the use of prophets as well as donating bibles to ensure that every family has a bible. The church has partnered with various non-governmental organizations in spreading the gospel and ensuring that the public is conversant with the scriptures in the bible. Prophets play critical roles in interpreting scriptures and giving prophecies based on the biblical teachings (Stegeman, 2014, p. 38). We also organize seminars and conferences whereby the congregation gets the opportunity to read the Bible in a single room and receive an interpretation from the church leaders (Stegeman, 2014, p. 47). Our primary aim is to ensure that the majority of the members of the society are conversant with the scripture and are able to read the Bible on their own.
Biblical research indicates that people who read bible often generate a better understanding of the scriptures. In this case, Basilica Catholic Church Community has been actively participating in seminars and campaigns that hosts individuals from other dominions with different cultures such as that of women should not take priesthood career. Church Community also educates members of the society on how to read the bible. The study has indicated that the way individuals read the Bibles influence their biblical literacy. We have been helping members to understand that bible is not a storybook and should be read more fruitfully and faithfully. We achieve this by use of various approaches such as the drama of scriptures as well as educating members to view the Bible as one continuing story of God and His followers (Hutchison, 2017, p. 833). The community also provides church leadership that ensures that the believers are encouraged to live according to the scripture, which makes them grow their understanding of the bible.
Dealing with Criticism from other Church Dominions
The Basilica Church Community has put various initiatives to remedy the incidences of criticism from other religious dominions. We have been actively participating in conferences that involve different church members to ensure that they understand our norms and church traditions. Interacting with members of the community through the provision of services such as poverty eradication campaigns and healthcare services has enabled The Basilica Church Community to reach individuals from other church dominions that often criticize our culture and norms to and make them understand our practices better (Toon, 2018, p. 39). The initiatives have played a critical role in increasing the number of converts from other church dominions and making others understand the word of God, which has significantly increased endorsement of the church in various communities.
Rather than finding a critic or blaming others for the critic, Church Community use appropriate approaches to deal with the criticism. One of the strategies used is considering the source and identifying the influence that the criticism has towards the mission of the church (Ritchie, 2014, p. 82). The time invested to respond to the criticism depends on its source and the church is always ready to listen to everyone. However, the church may not respond to anyone in the same way, but all responses are done with respects to ensure all concerns are addressed. An analysis of the validity of the criticism is also carried out, and no concern is dismissed before the church identifies what is true and what is not true. The church community also looks for the common themes after receiving the criticism assess whether there is any problem within it and provide a relevant solution (Ritchie, 2014, p. 117). Answers are usually provided, especially if the criticism is based on a question or request for clarification.
Dealing with Lack of Resources
The Basilica Church may not have enough resources to facilitate its projects based on the primary mission of spreading the gospel. In such cases, the church gets sponsorship from well-wishers such as non-governmental organizations to fund the projects (Casanova, 2018, p. 121). For instance, the church partners with the well-wishers to establish foundations such as rehabilitation centers for individuals with various special needs such as recover from a mental disorder and drug addiction. The initiative aims at enabling the society to value the biblical culture because the members of the community impact knowledge to their colleagues and family members. To ensure proper utilization of the available resources the church has been partnering with rehabilitation centers to assist members with issues such as drug addiction (Casanova, 2018, p. 127). When performing such communal duties, the church seeks financial assistance from the government and other private organization to spread the gospel as well as improving the quality of life among the members of society.
The Basilica Church also holds charity events and campaigns that enable it to raise funds to uplift the standards of the church. The money received is used to finance church projects such as the establishment of new centers and providing services to the members of the society. The contributions from church members are also important in financing projects (Sugimura, 2017, p. 61). The church holds fundraising events for particular projects and invites guests from other church dominions. Proper management of resources is fundamental for the sustainability of the available resources used in church projects. The church leadership is obligated to oversee the church projects to prevent misuse of scarce resources.
References
Casanova, J., 2018. Globalizing Catholicism and the return to a “universal” church. In Transnational religion and fading states (pp. 121-143). Routledge.
Hutchison, B., 2017. Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Biblical Exegesis. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 60(4), pp.833-835.
Ritchie, D.G., 2014. Natural rights: a criticism of some political and ethical conceptions. Routledge.
Stegeman, J., 2014. Decolonizing Jeremiah:: identity, narratives and power in religious tradition.
Sugimura, T.K., 2017. Equipping Members of New Life Church in Woodland Hills, California to Counsel Biblically.
Toon, P., 2018. The development of doctrine in the church. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
