Our Purpose

 
 

A church for the 21st century. The historic United Methodist Church on the village green of Canfield, Ohio.
 

Our Mission
 

That all may come to know God through Jesus Christ, be discipled and sent into the world as witnesses of the gospel.

                                                                           Matthew 28: 19-20
 

Our Vision
 

By God's grace, and through  the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we will build up people in Jesus Christ, so they may share the love of Jesus Christ in our community and around the world.
 
 
 

Rationale for Our Mission Statement
to the Congregation

  
     
 

The only mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the good news of God's grace and thus seeking the fulfillment of God's reign and realm in the world. Jesus' words in Matthew 28: 19-20 provide the Church with our mission, "Go therefore 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."

  
     
 

The Process for Carrying Out Our Mission

  
     
 

We make disciples as we:

  • proclaim the gospel; seek, welcome, and gather persons into the body of Christ

  • lead persons to commit their lives to God through Jesus Christ

  • nurture persons in Christian living through worship, baptism, communion, Bible and other studies, prayer, and other means of grace

  • send persons into the world to live lovingly and justly as followers of Christ by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring for the stranger, freeing the oppressed, and working to have social structures consistent with the gospel

  • continue the mission of seeking, welcoming, and gathering persons into the community of the body of Christ.

 

  

United Methodism

Our church is one of over 41,000 congregations of United Methodism in the world. We hold to the basic teachings of Christianity, and consider ourselves part of the whole church of Jesus Christ, made up of many denominations.

We are followers of Jesus Christ; but the founder of our family of Christians, John Wesley, gave emphasis to certain Christian truths:

  1. Everyone can know God's love through Christ and be changed. This is God's "amazing grace."
  2. This grace fills us with an assurance that we are God's beloved children, and gives us courage to live our lives with strength, integrity, love and compassion.
  3. God wants us, both as individuals and as communities, to be better than we are. So we are active in applying God's truth to our own lives, and to the larger communities of which we are a part.
  4. While we are bound together by these truths, we celebrate a wide diversity in opinions about many matters. John Wesley said that Methodists are not defined by their opinions, but by how much they love God and "shed God's love abroad in the world."

Return to Home