Ancient Practices for a Modern Faith

As the church continues adapting to new realities, we hold fast to Christian practices that form us to grow up into the fullness of Jesus while finding fresh ways to express them.

While the pandemic disrupted and challenged how churches function, it also clarified how important embodied worship is for our healing, health, and wholeness. From the beginning, Christian spiritual practices were for integration: uniting the body, mind, heart, and spirit. And this integration within ourselves is part of a larger work of integration: weaving the whole creation back together into harmony and wholeness; all parts working together in mutuality. 

We gather together on Sunday mornings not because it’s what we’ve always done, but because the pandemic taught us that our embodied worship matters. We were grieved and traumatized when we were apart, because we were created to be together. Our worship services are sacred times and spaces where we deepen our life with God together. 

Each week, we gather together to be with God, listen to God, and eat with God. We affirm that God is a God of presence, and we seek to be with God where God has promised to be: in the midst of his gathered people, among the traumatized, and with the poor. We create a hospitable, open space where we can draw near to God, with our whole selves, together. 

When we gather, we do so expecting God to speak to us. We practice presence and deep listening to the words of Scripture and the diverse voices of God’s body. We believe that listening is a full-bodied experience, not simply an intellectual exercise. We want to take God’s speech deeply into ourselves. And we want to respond with our whole bodies: in speaking, singing, lifting our hands to heaven, and embracing one another as we have been embraced. 

And with one another, we come to the sacrament of the bread and cup each week. Following Jesus’ invitation, we draw near to God at the table that Jesus set before his disciples. With the gifts of the bread and the cup, we celebrate that God nourishes us with his grace. We eat and drink together, opening every part of ourselves to God’s always-available presence. 

You are warmly welcomed to join us as we gather together in the presence of God.