At our second Town Hall on February 2nd we spent time discussing what we believe to be the purpose of church. Reverend Liz led us in thinking about and discussing the following:
"The purpose of the church in general, is the purpose of every church. However, what is the purpose of the church? There are many answers and the ones we chose, and the priorities we place on them demonstrate our understanding of God, the church and our parish. Our first order of business is to determine what, at this time and in this place, is the purpose of the Christian Church."
After taking turns reading alond scripture and statements provided by Reverend Liz we shared our views on these two questions in our small groups...
Why does the church exist?
What is it’s point and purpose?
Our small groups each wrote a short statement that defined what we believed is the Purpose of the Church. Reverend Liz gathered all of our thoughts and found the common elements in each. In the end we agreed on a purpose statement:
The purpose of the church is to learn and teach about God in Christ, through Scripture; loving God with all our hearts, souls, mind and strength and loving our neighbours as ourselves.