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"You shall Love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. " -- Mark 12:30
Spirituality
Spirituality for Christians exists in the relationship with God the Creator, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is a multi-faceted relationship of response to our Creator. Just as the wholeness of our humanity requires development of the mind, heart, body and soul so spirituality requires the same development. We develop the mind of faith by learning about God, the Bible, the church, the practices of faith and our history. But knowledge is not sufficient. Our hearts, souls and feelings must be engaged through relationship with God if our living is to give evidence of our faith. Our hearts and souls are engaged and the relationship built by the Holy Spirit as we actively engage in study, worship, meditation, intentional listening, reflection, community, confession, silence, the examen and more. Our body of strength is engaged as we serve Christ in the church and the world.
Spiritual Formation
This ministry is no longer called Christian Education because it is much broader than gaining knowledge. It is a life-long process of relationship with God in the person of Jesus marked by the work of the Hoy Spirit, shaped by scripture and grown by intentional Christian practice.
Spiritual Modes
Most of us have a comfortable or natural way of engaging God. These can be understood as thinking, doing, feeling and being ways of relationship. No one way is better than another. Each has practices that fit naturally with that way. For instance, a thinker loves bible study. A doer loves service. A feeling person loves moving worship. A contemplative person loves being quiet and still before God. We encourage the members of the LOPC community to enter into the relationship as seems most natural to them but to explore all ways of relationship and different practices to develop a whole spirituality.
Vision
By the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we envision a church that is passionate about being in relationship with God so that all we are and all we do flows out of the relationship and points toward the One whose purposes we serve in the church and in the world. We envision a church that trusts so deeply in God's active presence in their life together and in their individual lives, that risks are taken as we are formed into disciples, follow new paths and move into new ministries as God seems to call.
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