Revised Mission Commitment

This revised version of our Mission Commitment was unanimously approved at our congregational meeting on Jan 31st at 10 AM.

Values & practices

We practice an open table of communion and a non-credal posture of Christian faith so that all are welcome to the table of grace regardless of their doctrinal beliefs or where they might be on their journey of faith.
We practice the inclusion and empowerment of all who have been historically excluded and disempowered in church communities, including women, people of color, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ persons; we affirm and celebrate the sacrament of marriage for all loving couples, regardless of gender, sexuality, or identity.
We practice congregational governance so members have a voice in the decisions and direction of our church through congregational input, a representative elder board, and a supportive staff.

We practice gathering regularly as a community to pray, sing, worship, remember, learn, lament, and celebrate, both in-person and online.
We practice the reading and interpretation of scripture together in community because we believe the dialogue of scripture reveals the relational character of God, especially in the person of Christ.
We practice co-equal relationships among the three bodies of our church — congregants, elders, and staff — in order to lead together in a way that is transparent, accountable, and effective; likewise, we have chosen to be in a co-equal relationship of accountability with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Regional and National offices.

We practice serving the needs of the poor and humbly advocating for social policies that support the common good in order to address the root causes of poverty, inequality, bigotry, and ecological destruction.
We practice collaborative relationships with interfaith communities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, local schools, and businesses in order to pursue our calling as Christians to co-create flourishing communities of peace.
We practice an organizing model of activism because the process of shared advocacy creates social justice along the way by building relationships of respect, solidarity, and empowerment for the marginalized in our communities.

Pursue anti-racism, racial justice and racial healing that result in deeper and more invested relationships.
Become a more empowering community for women, people of color, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ persons.
Grow opportunities for deeper relationships and spiritual growth beyond our Sunday Gathering.
Learn to empower youth in their Christ-inspired spirituality so we are generationally birthing new expressions of faith.
Learn to generate new expressions of inclusive, inspiring, and impactful Christian spirituality wherever it is needed.

Changes to Values & Practices: Lots of changes were made to values and practices based on the feedback. Specific language was added to be more broadly and intentionally inclusive of marginalized groups; women, persons of color, disabled persons, etc. We were able to incorprated most of the suggested language changes. We made changes to attempt to clarify what is meant by a "dialogical approach to scripture" and reworded this in a way that is hopefully less jargony. The practice referring to "collaborative teams of equals without hierarchy" has been removed; the feedback on that item very helpfully pointed out that this was more an ideal than an actual practice (and perhaps something to reflect on for our next Mission revision in 2023) Finally, many of these practices as they were written reflected significant overlap or redundant themes, so several have been combined and the whole list has been simplified down from fifteen practices to nine.

Changes to Vision: We changed the word "refreshing" to "collective" per feedback to better reflect our value for a spirituality pursued in community. It seemed better to incoprorate the suggestion to add, "personal lives, our communities, and our world" into the mission statement, which already used a similar construction.

Changes to Mission: Lots of good feedback on the mission statement. We made small changes add an emphasis on personal transformation as well as social. We've also incorprated language to be more inclsuive of people who are single and that this work is done together in community. We also changed the language to be more expansive of our reach to "the world."

Changes to Priorities: We changed the order of the priorities. We added language to be more inclusive of a broader set of marginalized groups, as with the practices above.

Minor Changes 1/25/21: Per feedback, made some edits in "Values & Practices" and in "Priorities" to clarify, fix a few typos, smooth out some awkard sentences. Also changed the order of the priorities to reflect a flow that moves from internal work to external generativity.

Final Changes 1/31/21: During the congregational meeting we adopted a few final changes before approval:
- A "+" sign has been added to all references to LGBTQ communities to reflecte the ongoing development of self-understanding in that community.
- The word "humbly" has been added to the first practice of Priority #3 to reflect our commitment to advocate for justice from a posture of humility rather than self-righteousness.
- The first priority has been re-worded as: "Pursue anti-racism, racial justice and racial healing that result in deeper and more invested relationships" to address concerns about the use of the term "reconciliation" in a social problem for which the problem runs deeper; the group unanimously agreed that "racial justice" and "racial healing" were better terms to use.