When you cut or bruise yourself, your body performs a million different functions to heal itself. Yet when certain circumstances lead to traumatic experiences, there is no magic wand to wave and let the healing begin. Or is there?
The Founder and Lead Pastor of New York's V1 Church Mike Signorelli believes that there is, and it's a remedy which is as old as time - faith.
Many psychologists believe that people are more resilient to trauma if they have a spiritual outlook on life. Pastor Mike agrees. He explains that when people are in pain they feel the need to make sense of the world around them. An acknowledgment that there's a bigger picture in place, that the recognition of a higher power can help you put your world back together.
Pastor Mike is no stranger to the school of hard knocks. The Indiana native dropped out in the 10th Grade to support his four siblings and bedridden mother. Yet this didn't stop the determined young man from graduating from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science degree in just a few years after dropping out of High School.
As a young pastor in Indiana, Mike had an epiphany, and that led to the decision of eventually moving to New York and realizing his long-held dream of setting up a church in the city. He describes it as "the day God came calling." The 36-year-old packed everything he owned and relocated to Queens with his wife Julie, and his two young daughters, Bella and Everly.
In New York City metro, Pastor Mike founded V1 Church, in an area where less than five percent of the population attended a place of worship. In just two years, it became a rapidly growing church in the region, frequently getting visited by young entrepreneurs, millennials, and what Mike describes as the "de-churched", and formerly
"church-hurt".
The V1 Church is no regular 'House of God'. It was created specifically for agnostics, atheists, truth-seekers, and anyone else seeking something more in life. Pastor Mike believes even when people are not looking for organized religion they are still desperately searching for meaning in their personal and professional life. In an increasingly chaotic and cruel world, we are longing for the comfort of the metaphysical when the going gets tough. Pastor Mike is a firm advocate of the solace of spirituality and believes that having faith gives us the strength to survive through hard times.
Pastor Mike believes that V1 Church has proved so popular in New York because the city acts as a gigantic melting pot for people from all walks of life. One of the most striking things they have in common is an instinctive need to believe in something which will benefit their emotional and mental well-being, and give purpose and meaning to all facets of their lives.
Keeping the faith led Pastor Mike and his family to set up V1 Church, and in turn, he has seen how other people's faith has led them to overcome past trauma and become happier human beings.
As Saint Augustine once said, "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."
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