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Community Building

At St. John the Beloved, Community Building is a primary focus. The following quote from the Synod of Charleston expresses our philosophy well.
"From a theological perspective, the deepest source of the community we seek to live out in the Church is the communion that we share in the mystery of Christ. In the sacraments of initiation, we are plunged into a mystery of community as profound as the Godhead itself."
--Synod of Charleston, Pg.91
The document goes on to say that our success at building this deep and profound community in a human sense will be directly proportional to our ability to establish a sense of ownership, of a need to be personally involved. This is the crux of our efforts.
In oher words, we believe that a person can never really find their fullest spiritual experience in a faith community until they feel that they really Belong.
At St. John the Beloved, we strive to go beyond a superficial imitation of belonging, and work to engage our new members at multiple levels. One aspect of belonging to a community, is understanding something about the history of the community. Please take a moment, and learn about the fascinating story that makes up the
History of St. John the Beloved Parish.
The main approach we use for community building in this parish is essentially one of inviting. We invest a good deal of effort on informing people of the wide variety of
Ministries
which are active here, identifying the interests and passions of individuals, and empowering each individual to express that passion through the application of their God-given talents in the service of the parish community.
We encourage people to find a niche for themselves in one or more of our parish ministries. Each of these ministries exists as a small sub-set of the larger community. Becoming involved in one or more ministries is the fastest way to begin to feel "at home" in the parish.
This is not only imporant to our mission of building community, it is also a critical aspect of
evangelizing ourselves.
Ultimately, our goal is to become a parish family, sharing in the joys and struggles of life. One goal of this website is to allow us to get to know each other. One of the ways we do this is to rejoice together over parish celebrations such as
recent weddings
and recent baptisms.
In addition to that, we host a variety of activities throughout the year which are purely social in nature. It is important that we have opportunities to communicate and share with each other in casual settings outside the context of Liturgy. There are several groups who work to plan, promote, and host these community building opportunities. Each of these presents yet another type of ministry opportunity. , Among them are the
Event Team Ministry,
Hospitality Ministry,
Stewardship Ministry
and the
Coffee and doughnuts ministry.
Please take some time to explore the many ministries we have available in the parish, and check out the
Parish Events page
to read about upcoming parish events, as well as events we have celebrated in the past.
St. John the Beloved Catholic is a warm and joy-filled community, and we invite you to plug in and become a part of all that is happening here. Nobody is more important to our success at community building than YOU.
May God bless you as you discern your talents and gifts.
If you have any questions about our programs designed to build community, please call Tom at the
Church Office.
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