"For me, church is not so much a place, as the people who make up the church family - not a country club or a clique but a real mix of all sorts of individuals (ages, backgrounds, personalities and circumstances) who choose to rub along together seeking to live out faith in Jesus Christ in authentic ways , frequently failing but always regrouping because of God's kindness, His challenge and His reason to have hope.
 
Christianity doesn't work as a solo, me centred, individualistic activity. Jesus gathered a bunch of ordinary men and women round Him, taught them about who God is, how He feels about them and demonstrated God's way of going about things. I go to church because it is Jesus' idea and I want to follow His way of going about life. When He is at the centre, it's like nothing else I have ever experienced.
 
It's a time to be refreshed, regain perspective and priorities for the week ahead: sometimes it's a time to celebrate or get things straight; an opportunity to learn, to give, to reflect, to have some space; to listen and ask questions, to work things out: sometimes it's a time to laugh and cry, encourage one another, be honest, share worries and good news, bear with one another and build each other up.
 
At its best, I go to church to be part of a community that "walks the talk" in terms of living out it's faith as followers of Jesus Christ
- putting God first in worship
- watching out for each other through all that real life throws up
- being a practical and consistent blessing to the commmunity in which the church is placed and to which it connects."