St Francis Catholic Church, 1025 S Union St, Traverse City, MI 49684, US

Redeemer Presbyterian Church is self-consciously founded on the principles of the historic Christian faith. Among these principles is an emphasis on the importance of the local church in the life of the believer. It has been said at different times throughout Christian history, If God is your Father then the Church is your Mother. Whether exactly true or not, the statement drives home the point that faith in Christ involves a deep appreciation and commitment to the Church for which He gave His life. Our understanding of the importance and purpose of the local church can be summarized under three general headings: Worship Jesus commissioned the local church to administer grace to His people through word, sacrament, and prayer. The members of the local church regularly assemble together in the name of the Triune God, where the word is rightly preached, the sacraments ( baptism and communion ) are rightly administered, and all things are lifted up in prayer. When this occurs, believers assuredly receive true spiritual food for the nourishment, strengthening, and perseverance of their souls. Nurture Being richly nourished by God's grace through worship, the church is also a community where believers are naturally, though intentionally, engaged in the fellowship, nurture, and care ( both physical and spiritual ) of fellow Christians within the congregation, including our children. Through family worship, hospitality, mentoring, Bible study, discipleship, prayer, benevolence, and a general overall care and concern for one another, God's children are encouraged to bear fruit and to stand firm in a world that can be quite hostile to Jesus Christ and His followers. Outreach/Witness As the members of Christ's Body ( the Church ) are fed by the Lord through rightly ordered worship and are being encouraged by their participation in a fruitful, nurturing church community, they naturally--or perhaps supernaturally--become witnesses to the Gospel. The actions and words of those whose hearts are changed by the love and grace of Christ effectively proclaim the good news of Christ. God gave the simple but powerful means mentioned above in order to reach unbelievers, bring them to saving faith, and sustain them in it. We know there is tremendous pressure on the church today to compromise and to be attractive to unbelievers in a worldly sense in order to achieve numerical success. But we are convinced that what you win them with is what you win them to. Therefore it is our sincere desire to be a faithful worshipping, nurturing, and witnessing community of believers who, in the words of the apostle Paul, have counted all things to be loss...in order that [ we ] may gain Christ ( Phil. 3: 8 ).