What is Our Purpose?

Purpose has become quite vogue in the church of the twenty-first century. This is a good thing. Rick Warren from the great Saddleback Church in southern California has impacted the body of Christ in a powerful way with his book The Purpose Driven Life. I truly believe that this book is a word from the Lord for the church of Christ in these days. This book did for the people in the church what his previous book (The Purpose Driven Church) did for the church as a whole. For too long too many wandered aimlessly through life with no real sense of purpose. This “purpose driven” emphasis has greatly energized those who have embraced it. The purpose of Connecting Points can be summed up in two words. Those words are communion and community. This is God’s purpose for the church. Communion has to do with connecting with God and community is connecting with each other. This principle was illustrated beautifully by Christ in Luke 10:27. When asked about the most important commandment, Jesus responded with a two-fold answer. “Love the Lord with all that is within you and love your neighbor as yourself.” In many respects all the law is summed up in these two expectations. Life is certainly more complex than just this one concept, but when it comes to the church we can focus on these words of Christ as our purpose. What are we to be doing? We are connecting people with God and with each other. The work of the church is connecting, connecting with God (communion) and connecting with each other (community).