Church, on purpose

St. Paul’s develops purpose statement to focus ministry and encourage mission.

On the morning of Saturday, October 11th, members of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church gathered together to develop a purpose statement for St. Paul’s. The workshop was led by Rev. Nancy Nyland, Director of Evangelical Mission in the Indiana-Kentucky Synod.

With doughnuts and a lot of coffee, members delved into Scripture and discussed what it calls us to be as a church, and ways in which we have witnessed that Living Word working through St. Paul’s ministry in the past.

By the end of the morning, those sturdy souls had developed the following purpose statement for St. Paul’s:

“To Listen, care, go, & connect,

to God, one another, and the world.”

At its next meeting, the council discussed & affirmed this purpose statement.  It will be brought forward to the congregation for affirmation at the Annual Meeting (on December 7th), but we also want to encourage conversation about the purpose statement now.

What do you think:

• What in this statement resonates with your experience of God working in and through St. Paul’s?
• How do you imagine the ministry of St. Paul’s being reshaped by this purpose?
• What does this statement call St. Paul’s to let go of?
• What new things does this statement call St. Paul’s to begin?