A Better Future
There are all kinds of churches, hundreds of different denominations. If you tried to catalogue every kind of church and every subtle difference that exists in the practice of the Christian faith, you'd probably lose whatever faith you started with.
Two Types of Churches: But when you boil it all down, there are really just two kinds of churches. One type of church believes strongly that the world is broken, and that this is the way it is supposed to be—that it is through this brokenness that we are intended to find God. These churches would agree that it is a good idea to help people who are hurting. But from their perspective, helping people with their physical needs is like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. From this perspective, the only answer to our problems is heaven.
At St. Andrew's, we understand why Christians would end up with this sort of attitude; but we disagree. From our perspective, the whole point of the Biblical story is that God is in the process of reforming and restoring the world he created. We're the other type of church. We agree that the world is broken. But we don't think that this is the way it is supposed to be.
The Apostle Paul, one of Jesus' first followers, said that the whole point of the life of faith is to be a part of the "ministry of reconciliation" (II Cor 5:18). This is Paul's way of saying that our job, as Christians, is to join with Jesus in the monumental task of restoring a broken world. If there's a point to the Christian life, we would say that it is to find wholeness in your own life and to help others find that wholeness, too.
At St. Andrew's Christian Church, we gather together because we have hope that God will make wrong things right; we gather together because we believe that the life of faith is a life of service to our God and to our fellow human beings.
At St. Andrew's, we gather together because we believe that God's creation is worth saving.