OUR VISION of Christ's community is one of salvation that transcends national, ethnic, and family boundaries.
Although we come together as
a "company of strangers," Jesus' lifeblood — poured out to establish
the new covenant — flows through our veins, making us one body in
Christ.
WE COME TOGETHER as:
- independent women like Mary and Martha,
- men discovering alternative power structures like the ruler Nicodemus,
- children blessed like those who came to Jesus,
- sexual outcasts discovering scriptural truths like the Ethiopian eunuch,
- people with physical and mental illnesses like the "unclean" whom Jesus desired to touch,
- collaborators with nationally and economically oppressive structures who are learning to repent and live justly like Zaccheus,
- maritally suspect yet bold evangelists like the Samaritan woman,
- rural like those who heard the sermon on the mount, and
- urban like the crowds who shouted, "Hosanna!"
CHRIST LOVES US in our "strangeness" and welcomes us into one body. We value:
- safe and open space to offer praises,
- seek healing,
- nurture spiritual growth,
- and learn to be disciples.
In response, we desire to offer hospitality to each other, our neighborhood, our co-workers, and other "strangers."
TOGETHER,
we want to grow in the experience of God's love and grace. As we learn
to accept God's love and to give and receive love in return, we find
ourselves "no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens with members of
the household of God." (Ephesians 2:19)
WE SEEK to
experience the full richness of Christ's body by welcoming into our full
life and ministry all who freely desire to join us in our Christian
walk; inclusive of the diversity of age, education, ethnicity, gender,
economic or social class, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental
conditition, or residence.
— Adopted 1998