Why Church?
Why Believe? Why Belong? Why Bother?
When little positive is being said about the church, when membership and attendance declined steadily, when most seem to be in a state of reassessment about their lives and beliefs, maybe it’s time to ask: why believe, why belong, why bother? What are the gifts that we, as church, offer to ourselves, our community and God’s broken world? How do we practice being a church that matters?
In the coming weeks, Fairfield United will wrestle with these questions in an open-hearted, non-defensive way so that we can listen to the concerns from within and beyond our community.
Fairfield United has built a foundation for our community on some fundamental beliefs about what it means to be a practising church:
Provide a safe space for people to explore their spiritual life and needs
Engage the stories of the Bible that have sustained people for generations - a story that gives us our identity and can help us to know who we are in the larger story
Help people develop a relationship with God, who knows us by name, and calls us beloved
Discover the way to an abundant and blessed life through discipleship
Create a place /space to experience wonder
Build a community where we learn to recognize our authentic selves and discover our gifts
Develop a culture where we can ask hard questions and seek answers together to make meaning of our life, where we share our greatest joys and deepest sorrows
Serve God’s world through actions of love, peace and justice
Are these still the identifying marks of our community? Are there others? How are we doing in each of these areas?
