Nurturing Vertical and Horizontal Spirituality
When we seek vertical spirituality, we reach upward to a higher power. We come inside our church to worship our creator God who is outside and above the human condition. To facilitate this worship experience we sing songs and hymns of praise, recite our creeds or beliefs, offer up prayers of thanksgiving and requests, participate in the Lord’s Supper of Communion, participate in growing our spiritual character through study and discussion and listen to the Word of God as written in the Christian Bible. We welcome the light of God into our presence.
When we have attained a level of understanding about what God is expecting of us regarding our spiritual growth, we begin to also seek a horizontal spirituality. We begin to understand that God also moves among us and relates to us by way of studying the example of His Son. We see what Jesus would do in our world today and we begin to reach outward. We focus on our common community of man, the people of God. We nurture a compassion for our fellow citizens and reach out to help the young, aging, widowed, lost, sick, poor, dispossessed and unchurched. As a congregation of believers we exhibit a spirit of warmth and hospitality. We work with groups in the local community. We promote respect for human life and support one another in our faith journey. We take the light of God out into the community.
We accomplish all of this through our presence, our gifts of our precious time and our giving back of a portion of the blessings God has given to us. We ask and become the vessels of clay that God uses to pour out His blessings into the world. And as we continue to reach upward and outward we continue to grow the light of God within.
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