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What is a church and what is its purpose?
The word "Church" is often used to refer to a building where Christian worship takes place.  However, this is not quite what the word means.  The Church is actually the community of people gathered together for prayer, worship, fellowship, and ministry.  This happens on Sunday mornings in a building designed specifically for Christian worship, but it can happen at any time in any place. In fact, one of the purposes of Sunday morning worship is to empower the entire community for ministry and service in the world.

The primary purpose of the Church is to make God's love known in the world.  We strive to do this by emulating Jesus' ministry and working to bring God's loving-kindness, healing, reconciliation, compassion, and care into a world that is plagued by oppression, violence, poverty, and suffering.

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Church of the Good Shepherd

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August 28, 2008