Purpose Statement
We (the people of Emmanuel) are called to be:
Welcoming, Growing, Relating, Serving, and Worshiping.
- Welcoming -- Walking into worship each Sunday expecting to make room for the stranger and for one another. It also means having our entire being attuned to the needs of others over ourselves.
- Growing -- Being open to physical, psychological and spiritual growth; to discovering new ideas and being stretched in our minds and spirits. It is the belief that all of us can learn something new and that anyone may be able to reveal something to us that we previously had not discovered.
- Serving -- Developing a kneeling theology, as Jesus knelt to wash his followers' dirty feet. We are here to serve not only one another, but anyone who enters into our area of life.
- Relating -- One of the greatest illusions most church goers have is that they believe they aren’t like “those people” they won’t associate with in their lives. When we face the truth that we are here only through the grace of God then we can begin to relate to people with whom we thought we had no common grounds for a relationship.
- Worshiping -- This includes, but is not exclusively about, coming to a worship service to sing to and to give thanks to God. Worship NEVER ends; instead we carry with us a sense of worship (constant gratitude and praise to God) in our daily lives.
-- Adapted from from the Pastor's Message
in the Voice of Emmanuel monthly
newsletter, January 2012