New Church Foundation

Heaven is a kingdom of uses, not a retirement home. A church congregation should find ways of serving the surrounding community. Each congregation, or part of the congregation, will do this in its own way. And the things done by the church will vary from time to time as well as from place to place.

Readings

Everything good is good according to its usefulness. Its form reflects what is true because the true is the form of the good. This is why everything in the whole world and in the world of nature that is in the divine design goes back to what is good and what is true. (Heaven and Hell 107)

Being useful is the essential delight of life for everyone [in heaven]. We can see from this that the Lord’s kingdom is an organized structure of functions. (Heaven and Hell 219)

On the basis of an opinion formed in the world, some spirits have believed that heavenly happiness consisted of a life of leisure, being waited on by others; but they were informed that there is never any happiness in idling around in order to be content. This would mean wanting the happiness of others for oneself, in which case no one would have any at all. This kind of life would be idle, not active, a life that would lead to atrophy. They might in fact have known that apart from an active life, a life has no happiness, and that idleness serves that life only for refreshment, in order to return them to the active life with more energy. Then they were shown in many ways that angelic life consists of worthwhile, thoughtful actions, actions that are useful to others, and that all the happiness angels have is found in service, derives from service, and is proportional to service. (Heaven and Hell 403)

Article: Volunteering

The Writings talk about how heaven is a kingdom of uses. Heaven is a place where each person is doing what she or he loves best. Heaven is a place where you discover what your deepest gifts and talents are and have the opportunity to use them to serve others. Look at this model and think about how we can be looking towards that heavenly ideal here on earth. As a church community we have an opportunity to operate in a way that is looking towards heavenly ideals and principles.

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