WELCOME

Whether this is your first time at this church, first time in any church, or you consider yourself a regular with this group, we are glad you are here.

Please feel free to relax. We are just normal people. We’ve got some ideas about faith and a lot of questions. We hope some of these ideas and questions might be helpful to you and can’t wait to discover what you’ll teach us.

WHO ARE WE?

WHERE FORMAL & INFORMAL MEET

This Gathering is a collaboration of both formal and informal church styles working together. Our liturgical (formal) roots give us a connection to the historical church that has come before us and provides us a steady rhythm when things in life feel chaotic. Our informal roots provide us with openness and expectation of fresh ideas and keep us from taking ourselves too seriously or becoming too stuffy.

We don't probably ever get the balance between the two exactly right. But we try to make room for everyone who comes from different traditions so they can find something of what feels familiar in their connection with God and others.

Whether you prefer formal or informal we pray our little blended family blesses you.

  • Forgiveness and reconciliation flow from what God has made us to be in Jesus Christ and what God is doing with us in the world. As a people of God, we embody forgiveness in speech, action and relationships, and our ministry in reconciliation is foundational.

  • Each person is created in God's image. We respect this God-given right to dignity and, inspired by the life of Jesus, show love and compassion for all people. Through proclamation of the gospel, through worship and as servants of God working for healing and justice in the world, we uphold and seek to protect the dignity and human rights of all people.

  • We value the richness of God's creation and offer a radical welcome to all people, appreciating our common humanity and our differences. We are a church that does not view diversity as a barrier to unity. We recognize and will challenge dynamics of power and privilege that create barriers to participation and equity in this church and society – for women, people of color, minority ethnic groups, people with disabilities, people who are marginalized or living in poverty, and the LGBTQ community.

  • Because we trust in God's promise and understand faith to be a living, daring confidence in God's grace, we are emboldened to embrace learning and change in our spiritual and institutional journey as church. This means we are open to new ways and willing to take risks to discover meaningful ways of sharing God’s love with our community.

  • Faithful stewardship is about holding to God's purpose and ensuring the responsibilities and resources that God has entrusted to us are used with great care and with accountability to God, to each other and those served by this church.

*Values adapted from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

WHAT TO EXPECT

A CASUAL STYLE W/ SOME TRADITIONAL ELEMENTS

People from different church traditions bring their meaningful and preferred styles to the shared gathering. Some come from a historically very traditional expression and others from very casual experiences. Like any blended family, we try to honor each person in the family by engaging in things that are meaningful to them.

Overall, our style is much more casual than formal. But we have found beauty in some of the more formal liturgical elements and include some of them as well.

We know that a singular gathering can’t meet every individual’s personal preferences but we think that’s a feature not a bug. THE GATHERING becomes a laboratory for humility, kindness, respect, mutual appreciation and love. We gather not just to worship Jesus but to practice loving one another.

  • Feel free to sing along if you know the song or it’s okay to just listen to the music instead.

  • Someone will get up and say “hello” and explain any instructions for today’s gathering. We’ll also take a quick moment to say “hello” to those near us.

  • Someone will probably read part of the Bible and share some thoughts on how it might apply to our lives today. And you can TEXT in any of your own thoughts or questions.

  • The bread & cup are symbols of the love of God and we take them each week as a reminder that we are loved and as a commitment to try to live sacrificially like Jesus. It’s totally voluntary so don’t feel pressure if you aren’t ready to participate. We just want you to know that everyone is invited.

  • We take a moment to pray together for things that matter universally to us all, but also for individual things. You are welcome to share something you’d like us to pray about. Itanother voluntary thing, we just want you to know that you aren’t alone in whatever you face.

  • And someone will give us a few announcements about what is coming up this next week.

*We usually get started a few minutes late and the whole thing generally lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes.

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