[Alen]

Over the course of the next 12 weeks or so my Pastor will be leading our church membership class which is held once every so often. Since I joined after the last class I had to wait for this one to start. Though the class is on a basic level it is still quite challenging and I felt compelled to share some of the material with you all. (I was also prompted by someone to post it here as well which actually gave me the determination to do it as well :) )

To really summarize what we have been taught over the last 2 weeks I will cap it into the main points my Pastor brought out which I feel would be good to share.

Essentially every church congregation has 2 verses by which it is to derive its fivefold purpose:

Matthew 22:37-40 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The 5 purposes derived from these verses are:

• Worship
  
• Workmanship
  
• Leadership
  
• Fellowship
  
• Relationship

Our purpose statement at church which seeks to summarize these 5 purposes is: To glorify God as a loving fellowship of Christ-like disciple makers.

This is a very summarized version and there is more Scripture to go along with this as well but it would take me a while to type it all up :) My Pastor also presented 2 very convicted statements during the course of our lessons that I want to share with you:

• Activity does not always mean purpose; It is not enough just to run; it is not enough to just have activity; we must know why we are running where we are running! (In reference to 2 Samuel 18:19-33)
  
• Activity without worship is legalism.

Lastly the diagram of 5 atypical unbalanced churches and then what a balanced church looks like in comparison.



Hope it is a blessing!

[Jason]

Wow. That graph is really great. Thanks for sharing this material.