Hepburn Mennonite Brethren Church is a member of the Saskatchewan, Canadian and General Conference of MB Churches and as such follows the Confession of Faith of the General Conference of MB Churches.
Our purpose as a church is to love God and express that love to all people. How do we do this?
We make relationship a priority. We tell ourselves that we are unsatisfied with knowing people in shallow ways. And so we listen. We host. We bless. We help make life flavorable. We engage in fun, laughter, recreation, and even work together where possible. Volunteer together. Share life. Make plays dates with our kids. We lend. We borrow. We cry, hug, and give all the time it takes. We stand together. And we do all this and become all this because God has transformed our hearts with an overflowing love that has no way of holding itself back!
We make discipleship a priority. We follow Jesus. And then we turn to those around us, young and old, rich and poor, cool and not cool, educated and uneducated, believer and unbeliever, and invite them to follow Jesus too. Recognizing that everyone is on a journey, we walk with each other taking that next step of what it means to follow Jesus. It might mean learning to forgive, learning to love, learning to be patient or kind, or learning to serve. It might mean repenting, confessing sin, leaving old patterns, habits and routines behind. It might mean baptism or engaging the church family on a new level. Not everyone needs the same next step, and you will know this because of your relationship.
We make serving a priority. It is good to serve, we need more people with servant hearts, but we also need those who are willing to sacrifice and create opportunities for others to serve. Sent out to invite and usher people into acts of service, whatever those might be. Taking a look around, we have fantastic examples of serving right in our church family: our children’s ministry leaders, our college and career leaders, our youth pastor, and our board of worship just to name a few. Serving is born out of a dream of what could be, and then a conviction of what should be. We ought to be a community that welcomes, even fosters, serving to happen, in order to spur each other on to serve “according to the grace given to each of us” (Rom 12:6).
When we pour ourselves into authentic relationship, committed discipleship, and sacrificial service, it will be said of us that the church cannot be a building, for a building cannot love as these people love.
