The Purposes of Church

The next thing we will be exploring are the purposes of the church. While there are many, most fall under these four categories. 

*Worship

*Education

*Fellowship
*Outreach

We will be exploring each one individually in future posts, but keep in mind that there is much overlap in these categories, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive concepts. For example, one of the ways we learn and expand our knowledge of God is through one another. So fellowship and education are ultimately tied to together on this point. 

Yet, the Hebrew tradition that the Christian creed emerges from does make one surprising distinction where the present day church does not. It can be found in the words temple and synagogue. I’m sure you’ve come across them from time to time, and perhaps assumed they were used interchangeably. That is not the case though. Temples are for worship, and synagogues are for eduction. This detail raises an obvious question. Should the present day church lump worship and education together into a single convenient entity by including a sermon in our services? Or should all education be done more interactively via small groups. It’s certainly something we would do well to think about, and hopefully as we define and explore these ideas the answer will become more clear to us.

Two houses for one God