For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received. (1 Corinthians 15:3)

We are grateful to travel down the well-worn path of faith laid down by the saints who have gone before us. Reaching all the way back to the original disciples, Christians across the centuries have wrestled with what it means to follow Christ, carefully articulating the beliefs that unite us in faith and passing down wisely ordered rhythms for worship that shape our life with God and one another. This is why we hold to the Nicene Creed as our statement of faith and follow the Church Year, celebrating, along with the worldwide church, the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Our Sunday service follows the traditional shape of Christian worship. Week by week we gather before God, hear the Scriptures read and proclaimed, take Communion, and are sent out with God’s blessing to live as Christ’s people in the world.

I believe; help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)

Though we follow the well-trodden way of tradition, we recognize that we will face doubts and challenges unique to our time and place. What we believe always lives in conversation with our unbelief in such a way that faith grows best in an environment that fosters honesty and curiosity—where questions are welcomed, not feared. Rather than avoid difficult topics, we try to approach them with patience, humility, and a willingness to learn from one another. In our community, we bring topics like same-sex marriage, hell, and other complex matters of faith into honest conversation with the Christian tradition, Scripture and the lived experience of our contemporary context. We see questions not as the absence of faith, but as the very means by which faith is deepened, trusting in the Spirit to meet us in our searching.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Every community of faith has as its guide a central story to which it returns again and again. For us Christians, that story is found in the written witness of the Bible. We do not approach Scripture rigidly or treat it as a static text. Rather, we engage it with an openness to the varied voices with which it speaks, relying on the Spirit to guide us. In this way, Scripture becomes living and active, speaking afresh into our present moment in creative and even surprising ways. Interpreting Scripture then, is more art than science. It isn’t so much, “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.” Rather we come as a community ready to listen and respond, letting its living voice shape us as participants in the story God is still telling today.

But in humility regard others as better than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3-4)

The journey of faith is one that has gone on long before us and will continue long after us, inviting us to walk slowly and listen attentively as we humbly play our part in the story God is telling across generations. This road that we travel is a long obedience in the same direction and what sustains us along the way is humility. Our task is not to make everything come out right, but to trust that God will, leaning on his guidance and the wisdom found in the community of faith. Letting go of the compulsion to prove ourselves frees us to approach one another with gentleness. Unburdened by the need to have all the answers, we welcome correction and remain open to learning from those whose experiences and perspectives differ from our own. By embracing a posture of humility, we leave room for God to lead, for the Spirit to surprise us, and for the journey itself to shape our hearts and minds in ways we could not anticipate.