The Great Ends of the Church
Grace and peace to you in the name of God, the one we know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
As we look ahead, knowing that new variants and other things might throw some roadblocks in our way, it’s good for us to reflect a bit on who we’re called to be in our church.
You know that I talk a lot about what it means to be the church. Each January I preach on four expressions of the church: fellowship, worship, discipleship and mission. Our own denominational tradition has another way of talking about this—we call in The Great Ends of the Church.
Over the next few months I’ll pick one of these and talk about it in my Midweek letter. For now, here they are:
The Great Ends of the Church
The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind
The shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God
The maintenance of divine worship
The preservation of the truth
The promotion of social righteousness
The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world
Notice how the whole person is represented here. Of course we focus on social justice and basic human needs, but we never forget the spiritual transformation offered in the gospel. All of that is reflected in these six statements.
All of that will be reflected in the work we do together over the coming year.
That’s exciting, right? We’ll share the gospel message as we work for justice and provide what we can to the community around us. As we do all of that, we’ll be a scale model of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was Jesus’ favorite topic during his earthly ministry.
Keep these with you. Whether you’re in leadership or not, you have a part to play in helping us all live into this roadmap for service and witness. I’m looking forward to seeing how this unfolds in our life and work together. Stay tuned!
Blessings to you,
Pastor John
Here are the guidelines for reopening for public worship:
· Only vaccinated people will attend church in person.
· The sanctuary is open at about 50% capacity (about 100 people).
· Reservations will not be taken at first, but may be needed eventually.
· All people will enter through the Courtyard.
· All people will wear masks properly when indoors.
· We will continue to require distances between households of at least 3 feet.
· We will not be singing.
· We cannot allow hugging or other physical contact on church grounds.
· We will not be serving food or drinks until advised differently.
A few comments here. First, if you’re not feeling well, please stay home. Second, if these guidelines feel too restrictive to you, please address your personal liberty concerns to me or to a member of session, and NOT one of the ushers on Sunday morning. Finally, remember that this is good news! We’ve waited a long time to be together again, and we’re going to do it with caution and care and joy.
For those of you who will be watching from home, we’re changing from the Zoom program to our own page on a program called YouTube. An email will be sent out each Friday with the bulletin and a link where you can tune in on Sunday morning to watch the service. I would recommend clicking the link a little early, just to make sure you can see what you’re supposed to be seeing. If something happens to the live link, the service will be recorded and available in the early afternoon on our regular YouTube page. For now there will be a time of Zoom fellowship for livestream viewers immediately following the service. Instructions for all of this will be in the Friday email.