Mission
We have a mission at Good Shepherd. Here it is:
To welcome all on a spiritual journey based on
LOVE,
a deeper understanding of the
BIBLE,
and a new passion for
CREATION.
This mission expresses the key values and beliefs we hold, i.e. that we:
- affirm, welcome and include all people; this is a good, safe place for everyone and where everyone has their place (“Welcome all”)
- understand spirituality as a process that is universal to all, a life-long path, and yet individual and personal to each (“to a spiritual journey”)
- believe God is love and therefore love is the truth and source of all things, including ourselves, and that, being love, God honours our freedom to respond and grow in that love (“based on LOVE”)
- proclaim our Swedenborgian teachings that reveal God’s wisdom – the wisdom of love – hidden within the literal sense of the Word for guiding our journeys (“a deeper understanding of the BIBLE”)
- seek to become of use – our commitment to give our whole self, heart and soul, to the healing, celebrating and building of a new world (“and a new passion for all CREATION.”)
We have intentionally capitalized the key words LOVE, BIBLE and CREATION. These are the three pillars on which our church stands. As Swedenborgians, we are free to love (because God is love), Bible-based (guided by the deeper wisdom of God’s Word) and Creation-centred (of use as channels of God’s Spirit, loving the world into a whole, new Creation).
Or, to make it as “short and sweet” as possible (!), we also say this about what is means for us to follow Jesus on this path:
“Learning to give the first place to Love.”
Learning to give the first place to Love, in thought, word and deed, is what the life of “regeneration”, of being re-born in the Spirit, is all about.
But to really understand all this, find out more about Emanuel Swedenborg and Our Beliefs.
Our Mission Swedenborg “Awaken to Love” A Credo
116 Queen Street North. Kitchener, Ontario N2H 2H7. 519-743-3845.
