Our Guiding Principles
Love – The highest order, the greatest commandment and supreme among the only things that will remain. It is not a means to an end; it is the beginning and the end.
Mystery - The God of the universe is not limited to our ideas of God. God is bigger than any book, theology or tradition and chooses to reveal Himself in countless ways outside of Christianity. Seeing God as immensely creative and more mysterious than what we could understand or contrive keeps us from worshiping nothing more than our own ability to understand the divine.
Dialog - We strive for respectful, honest and transparent communication, not shying away from difficult conversations but, always approaching them with humility knowing that your perspective is limited and our understanding partial. We seek to really listen to each other through full presence and reflection and only after that to speak with respect and humility.
Embrace – We respect and support one another on the exhilarating and arduous journey of life. Regardless of our religious or political background, our sexual orientation or our race, or any category that would seek to divide us, we choose rather to offer each other complete acceptance and freedom to be our authentic selves.
Unity - Each faith tradition, including Christianity, has its own complicated history, deep values, significant blemishes, wonderful strengths and dysfunctional weaknesses. We seek to affirm and celebrate all that is good in each faith tradition and to build intentional relationships of mutual sharing and respectful collaboration with people of all faith traditions, so that all of our faiths can keep growing and contributing to God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.
Mutuality – We come together cognizant of our unique individual forms of brokenness and waywardness with an hopefulness that together we can be transformed each day more and more into the best God has for each of us.
Vulnerability – We have a deep desire to bring our real and authentic selves to each gathering. We seek to be fully present and courageously honest about the log that is within ourselves.
Without Judgment – Our hope is to provide a space where no one ever has to experience shame. It is appropriate for us to judge ourselves, but not our role to judge each other.
Service – God calls us to serve His creation as His hands and feet in this world. We see it as our mission to bring love, comfort, resources, help and encouragement to those in need so they might experience the Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.
Ownership – Everyone has gifts to bring to the community through talent, time and money and each of us commits to bring our best and fair share of each.
Open Theology – Theology is merely our study of God, our attempt to know who God is and what He wants from us. We will have an embracing demeanor about our beliefs, keeping an open mind and heart towards other ideas, interpretations and experiences. We can be and will be passionate about our beliefs, but never in a way that makes others feel like our beliefs are superior, right and absolute.