Authenticity and Acceptance
We believe God loves us just as we are and therefore we will strive to live lives of integrity; that is, lives of honesty about how we feel, what we think, and who we are.
Because God has shown us such lavish acceptance, we in turn will strive to accept others by extending grace and compassion. We encourage participation from people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, socio-economic situations, and worldview.
A culture of Listening (prayer), Learning (study), and Questioning
Listening
A truly loving stance is a listening stance. When we listen we lay down our agendas in order to hear what God has to say about our lives and mission. We also strive to listen in community and to the community. Only when we humble ourselves enough to listen, will we truly respect, understand and have a chance to love others.
Learning
As a learning community we take seriously the call to become like Jesus. Learning is more than acquiring information it is about changing our lives to more fully reflect what we are created to be God’s image-bearers. Therefore we value the Bible as Gods revelation to humanity–useful for anchoring us in his redemptive story and for teaching us how to experience the fullness of life God intends a life like Jesus.
Questioning
As an authentic and accepting culture, we recognize that learning means making room for questions. It is our conviction that the life of faith is not a journey toward memorizing theological propositions it is about a journey toward the truth. We acknowledge that the journey toward truth is often messy and we are okay with that. After all, we are all on the journey together!
Integrated Life Together
Gathering for Worship
We gather weekly to worship our creator. We gather to love and support one another. We gather to be reminded of our part in Gods story through the reading of Scripture, shared testimony and song. We gather to pray for each other, our community and the world. We gather to commune mysteriously with Jesus through participation in Holy Communion.
Partners in Life and Service
We do not have church members, we are partners. Membership implies entitlement while partnership communicates participation. We believe that God created us for relationships which is why we encourage each other to gather with smaller groups of friends outside of Sunday mornings for spiritual growth, service to others, mutual encouragement, and sharing the joys and sorrows of life. Because we live in a specific context we will strive to be a blessing to our local community as we engage people together with love, and hope.
Vocation as Mission
We hold fast to the belief that because Jesus emptied himself and became human there is no place in the world that is not in some way infused with his holiness. As a result, we believe a person’s participation in the marketplace, in places of education, in the home, or in times of leisure may be every bit as holy as life in the church. Therefore, we strive to integrate our faith and life not by doing more work in the church but by intentionally being the church as we work and live every day.