The church has a mission, a purpose, a reason. This purpose is embodied in two great statements: The Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

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1 1 of 8 The word church creates a host of diverse images. To some a church is a building. To some, church is an institutional organization. To others, church is equivalent to a one-hour worship assembly. Some people have happy memories of church ; some have tragic memories; while many have no idea what church does or should look like. The church is essentially a community of believers. The church is a group of dedicated individuals, from all places, and all times, who live out their joys and struggles together in the name of God. Some have very strong beliefs about who God is and what God does for people. Others struggle with their beliefs, they believe that there is something out there that is greater than anything here on earth, but what that really looks like, they are not sure. There are many denominations. Some are very firm in their beliefs and how they read the Bible. Others are more focused on helping those in need, and creating a community within their church walls so they can send people out to tell the world how much God loves them.

2 2 of 8 One description of the church is found in Acts 2. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2: 42-47) This is a wonderful and inspiring description of the church. It speaks of worship and devotion. It reflects selfless mission and compassion. It tells about spiritual growth and training. It describes internal harmony as well as external reputation resulting in growth and expansion. This passage does not define the church, but it does describe its activities. If we were to define the church, we might employ something simple and straightforward, such as: The Church is a spiritual community organized to do God s will.

3 3 of 8 The word church is a Greek word that simply means called out ones (ecclesia). It is a people; a community; a gathering. We are welcomed into this community through our baptism. Then together we discern what God s will is and how we can live that out as the church. At its core, the church is a spiritual community, not a country club. It is a spiritual community that is free to join. It is a spiritual community that welcomes everyone, no matter who you are, what you have done or what you have failed to do. It is a welcoming community because God is a welcoming God. As described in our reading from 1 Corinthians today. The church is made up of individuals and those individuals are often described as a body, a living community. As an organized community, the church does have structure. It requires leadership. It has a mission. It initiates plans. It gathers to meet for worship and education, fellowship, prayer and more.

4 4 of 8 The church has a mission, a purpose, a reason. This purpose is embodied in two great statements: The Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:34-40). Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

5 5 of 8 It may surprise you that there are around 15 churches in the city of Gardner. Each church has their own mission and each are called to do certain things not only to give thanks and praise to God but also to connect us with one another. We are the body of Christ and to live into that image we have to work with one another to function correctly. To say that every person in every church is going to agree with one another is crazy. There is diversity in the church. We as individuals are never going to completely agree with one another so we can t expect the church too. Now we as Lutherans in Gardner have had quite a history. The first established Lutheran Church in Gardner was in The Lutheran Society in Gardner. Eventually that group changed their name when they became official to The Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Then in 1929 they were known as First Lutheran Church. The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church began in 1893 under the leadership of Pastor John K Kampi. This church was housed at a number of locations but settled on West street in 1930 and in 1954 became known as Bethel Lutheran Church.

6 6 of 8 If that wasn t enough in 1894 the immigrants from Finland who spoke Swedish decided to build their own church. They obtained lands at the corner of Leamy and Church streets in West Gardner and built a church and later became known as The Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel Church of Gardner. You would think that our journey would end there but in 1974 the member of Immanuel and Bethel came together to worship together as a united church. They eventually bought this space. They transformed the former Bo-Rich Lounge and on Christmas Eve of 1982 they held their first worship service and were known as Covenant Lutheran Church. Faith Lutheran Church was established in 2006 with Covenant Lutheran Church and First Lutheran Church coming together to form Faith Lutheran Church. This is our story, but our past does not define our future. One of the things that I have learned over the last 18 months as your pastor is that we can be the community that we choose to be.

7 7 of 8 God gives us everything we need to be a successful, thriving community dedicated to being the hands and feet of God in the world. So over the next 5 weeks we are going to explore what it means to be Faith Lutheran Church in the community of Gardner MA. The basis that I am going to use for describing is to bring forward the work done by this congregation last October and the work that the Forward Leadership and Accountability teams have done this year. Last year we described our purpose which is to respond to and share God s love with all people. We said we will do this through worship, prayer, service, education and welcoming. So for the next five weeks I will ask - What is Worship? What is Prayer? What is Service? What is Education? What is Welcoming? I will also talk about all the things we have done as a church community the last 18 months. How has the work that the Forward Leadership and Accountability teams changed us as a church? What does it look like moving forward?

8 8 of 8 All of this will come together on Reformation Sunday as we will have a celebration. We have had a varied and interesting past. We have had many. many people come and go. We have experienced extreme joys and pain. But the one constant we have had since the first church was built here in Gardner is Jesus Christ. God through Jesus has called leaders to over see the church, has called members to step up when necessary and has carried this church through thick and thin. Now we are responding to and sharing the love, grace and forgiveness that we have experienced and we are proclaiming that to the ends of the earth. Thank you for being the church, thank you for being faithful. I can t wait to see what is in our future - together as the body of Christ as the church.