Have you ever wondered why Jesus created the community called Church? What is our calling as this community?
At our first Church Life on Wednesday last week, Divya Judge and Kathy Thurston helped us see why understanding this question is important, and took us through an exercise of discerning from the bible an answer to why the church exists.
The Why Statements
Based on what the bible says in Matthew 5:13-20, Acts 2:42-47, Ephesians 4:1-6 and Ephesians 4:12-16, each table came up with a statement of why the church exists. The statements each table came up with have been collated, in the attached document, with a colour code given to similar ideas that repeatedly came up.
These statements have been summarised as the following:
The Lord Jesus created the community called church
To: Together live lives worthy of his calling
The Why Workshop – Church Life April 2021
So That: God is glorified, and people are added to the kingdom.
At the staff off-site this year, the team went through the same process, and came up with a substantially similar statement:
To: Live such different lives, together, devoted to God
Staff Offsite – January 2021
So That: God and his purposes are known and glorified.
What do you think?
Thank you to everyone who was able to come along and make this night great. I look forward to Church Life Term 3!