About Us

These three are central to our relationship with God and our identity as well; living into them is a calling that, more and more, defines us as congregation.  These three emphases of the Christian life keep bubbling up  - in everything we do and want to do, in what we love, how we experience God’s presence, how we care for others, how we live out our own gifting and delights.  As a community, we’ve begun to deepen our understanding and practice of Worship and of Hospitality and Sabbath in different ways.

 Being church is about much more than Sunday morning worship services.  We have begun a schedule of worship that reflects that.

1st & 3rd Weekends - Sunday "Gathering of Worship & Celebration"

          9 am Education for all ages, 10:30 Worship Service

2nd & 4th Weekends - Saturday Evening "Gathering of Reflection & Renewal"

         Reflecting on God's faithfulness in the week and setting aside Sunday as Day of Rest.

5th Weekends - Sunday Evening "Gathering of Sharing & Community"

        Shared meal and leading worship with the children at St. Joseph's Home for Children.

Worship, Hospitality and Sabbath are an ever-deepening identity, a way of encountering God in intentional rhythms of praise, place-sharing and peace. 

Worship 

In worship we come together to be encountered by God, and to this we all bring our very selves - our joys and doubts and questions and struggles.  We are empowered to respond by lifting up the needs of the world in prayer, and allowing our lives to be shaped by God's Spirit as we are sent to share in God's love for the world.

We desire to explore the word of God and open ourselves to God's leading in creative and varied ways that challenge and feed us. 

 “We do not gather ourselves in worship; God invites us in. We are brought by the Holy Spirit into a worship already taking place in the life of God. This is where we learn to be guests and hosts in God’s Kingdom. (Elizabeth Newman, “Untamed Hospitality”)

 Hospitality 

 “Hospitality establishes a truly interdependent and reciprocal relationship that requires disciples, whether they are hosts or guests, to view the stranger as a valuable child of God.”   (Christine Pohl, “Building a place for hospitality”).

Hospitality is about living in the abundant welcome of God, and welcoming others in authenticity and mutuality.

The congregation seeks to "be a beacon of hope and a place of sanctuary," and "to reach out to the needs of neighbors, sharing ourselves and our resources," (from the "Revision" process, 2007).   We are finding new ways to be radically open and welcoming to God and others, including through ArtSpace, and the hosting of local artist exhibits, our artist-in-residence whose studio is in our building, as well as the use of our building for performance space and gatherings, and space where a neighborhood job networking group and many other local community groups gather.  A landscaping project is underway to open the grounds for peaceful meditation and gathering outdoors. Our Advent and Lenten meditation series open space for encounters of sight, sound, and touch, and the growing congregational practice of holding people in prayer is shaping us as as people. All of these and more are part of the adventure, as we seek to open up space for others within our very selves and our community, (and in our physical building and grounds as well).

Sabbath 

 In a culture that has almost completely “lost the rhythm between work and rest”, what would it look like for a church community to reclaim, cultivate, intentionally practice God’s commandment to keep the Sabbath?

Sabbath time can be a revolutionary challenge to the violence of overwork, mindless accumulation, and the endless multiplication of desires, responsibilities, and accomplishments.  Sabbath is a way of being in time where we remember who we are, remember what we know, and taste the gifts of spirit and eternity.

Like a path through the forest, Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves so, if we are lost, we can find our way back to our center.  ‘Remember the Sabbath’ means ‘Remember that everything you have received is a blessing. Remember to delight in your life, in the fruits of your labor.  Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of it. (Muller, Sabbath).

Not only is sabbath rest vital to each of us as individuals, it opens rich gifts to us as a congregation and offers a desperately needed ministry to the world around us. 

Sabbath rest means community, renewal, celebration, reflection, creativity and gratitude. It is time set aside - sacred time - time where ends and beginnings meet, where experiences are gathered and shared.  By honoring time spent in being, rather than doing, we move into a way of facing the world and our lives with eyes open and spirits ready.

 “Sabbath rest is God’s distinctive mark, a deep symbol of Israel’s intimate relationship with one who frees rather than enslaves, who offers lavish blessing rather than endless toil.“ (Lowry, “Sabbath, A Little Jubilee”).

 As we seek to know and faithfully follow Jesus Christ, and to live honestly and joyfully we desire that Worship, Sabbath and Hospitality would be woven profoundly into the very fabric of our lives—both individually and as a community.  May these things call us deeper into a life of authentic encounter – with God, with others, and with the world around us!