The Message of God to the Feelings of the Congregation

In the Introduction section of the book, The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Israel Galindo states that a congregation is a “corporate relationship organization” (3) and is not an organization. He points out that the hidden life of a congregation would depict the “nature” of a congregation. This further identifies the relationships and faith of the congregation. According to him, the universal principles are followed by the congregations so that “systemic relationships” can work. The leaders learn the roles that they have within the people who are the congregation. The journal will focus on Dr. Fowler’s question “what is the purpose of this gathering we call the church?”

When deciding whether form ‘enables authors to communicate meaning more effectively’ it is important to first discover what the author is trying to express through their literature. Whilst motifs and themes may be apparent to an audience, upon reading a novel or watching a play. However, is not necessarily truthful to the authors intended meaning if the meaning itself is within within symbolism or dialogue.

The Second Great Awakening swept across the United States, lasting from the 1790s to the 1870s. Between the 1820s and 1840s, the Christian revival was at its peak. The revivalism quickly went to reform, however. The northern part of the Great Awakening, inspired a great movement to social reform. Many converts of the Second Great Awakening were quite determined to win as many people as they could to Christ.

2. Leaders of several different denominations participated in the evangelizing efforts that drove the revival—Presbyterians, Methodism, and Baptists.

In the early 18th century, there was an increased movement away from the church due to the encouragement to value logic and reason over faith in the church. This caused the faith in the church to become incredibly low. Going to church started to be a chore, and individuals would only go to receive the sermon, if at all. Upon seeing the overall state of religious faith, preachers began taking their sermons to the people by preaching in central areas and going from church to church throughout the colonies. This became known as the first Great Awakening. At the forefront of the Great Awakening were preachers that came from England who would use evangelism to bring their word to the religiously complacent population of the colonies. The most prominent of these preachers were Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. In other words, the first Great Awakening was an explosion in evangelical activity in the colonies.

The Great Awaking convinced many that God wanted to spread his word of the gospel by awakening them righteously and spiritualty which would convince people that the world would have peace on earth, but at the same time another cultural movement that imported from Europe which was called romanticism inspired many to strive for self-perfection.

Poor people read the Bible and found out the church lied to them a lot about how they can go to heaven. They were now able to read the Bible for themselves and they didn’t have to depend on the church to tell them what it said. Scientific texts were spreading faster and that made what

Over time people felt that religion was dying, and not many people really had one or practiced one, people felt that they needed to revive religion and this was known as the Great Awakening. This Great Awakening started with the fundamentals of religion, and tried to bring people back to christianity. John Edwards was like the leader, he was the head preacher and explained that good salvation game from God and not from doing good. During this Great Awakening, there was another preacher who soon came along, his name was George Whitefield. George Whitefield brought emotion out of people, he was a great speaker, but

Every author has a different writing style in comparison. They convey their messages in multiple ways; using different tones to evoke certain moods on their readers. Some authors use a few different ways to catch their audiences attention; persuading them using logic, ethics and emotion.

The readers will feel a certain way due to the usage of the author's words and how its rearranged in the sentence. This also includes punctuation, so if there is an exclamation point at the end of every sentence, the readers will feel uncomfortable. Word choice also constructs feeling and sympathy in the reader's mind. When Zusak explained that the workers “just finished a tiring shift” and that they “don't have enough energy,” the readers will feel bad for the men because of all the shifts they had to cover and all the work they had to do.(Zasuk

The most famous preacher leading the revivals was George Whitefield, whose primary message was that people were saved through God’s grace. He traveled and preached to thousands of people who eventually became “saved” by God’s grace.

I went to an AA meeting at the First Congregational Church in New London, Connecticut on Monday February 22, at 7 pm. It was located in a larger room in the basement of the church. There were around fifteen members that attended. The individual’s came from an array of different ages and ethnicities, both men and woman. There was no one race or ethnicity that dominated another in the meeting, it was a very warm, accepting atmosphere. I noticed right away that there was more young adults around the age of thirty than elderly members. There was also around the same number of males and females in attendance.

Once during a passionate sermon at church, my pastor had made a vivid statement about incorporation of sin in law. Pastor Smith stated, “the world has developed loopholes to maintain its dignity by incorporating sin into the law, and as long as we are operating under the law, our actions are perceived as being justified”(Smith). Reflecting on his theory has brought me to the realization that the United Stated has established a profitable industry, governed by the creation and the manipulation of laws. Although, it’s ideal to believe that the standards of laws were truly orchestrated with the foundation of equality, justice, and freedom. It is imperative to be informed of historical events that has transpired through the history of the black race each operating under the ordinance of law. Beginning with the development of slavery, to the alarming rate of black men behind bars. I am compelled to present the clause of injustice that has labeled the United States as the home of 25% of the world 's prisoners ().

Over the past years of my life I have seen many changes, some for the good and others not as good. Change can be demanding and also crucial. The early believers would encounter this. One can see that significant change happened, when reading through the gospels and the book of acts it is obvious to the reader that the believers who followed Jesus would never be the same again.

The similarities from the First Century Church and the Churches of today are that we suppose to give up the world and follow Jesus. When we focus on Jesus we can love people and take the message of the Gospel to the people by making friends and making disciples. The differences of the First Century Churches and the Churches of today are the availabilities. In the First Century Church the message was only able to be delivered to the people that were in ear shad of Jesus and the Disciples. In today’s Church we have social media, computers, and radios to assist with delivering the message of Jesus. We do not have to walk everywhere we go we have the availability to go in Cars, Motorcycles, and planes. Which allows us a greater opportunity to spread the