Continually drawn by God’s love, filled by God’s Spirit, shaped by God’s Word, and attentive to God’s presence, we worship the living God with our hearts, minds, souls, and strength above all else and in all else. This includes practicing praise, prayer, obedience, sacraments, Sabbath, study, service, singing, silence, confession, celebration, fasting, feasting, forgiving, thanksgiving, and seeking God’s presence, power, and purposes in every aspect of our lives.

Most of God’s promises are made not to individuals but to the collective Christian community—the Church—and apply to all who belong to her. Though we come from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, we are united in Christ’s body by a love that calls us to confront, confess, comfort, counsel, and celebrate one another in His name. This unity enables us to grow in Christlikeness and reflect Him to a world longing to see His presence among them. We cannot love God, follow Christ, or fully proclaim the Gospel without loving one another—including our enemies. Christian community is the primary context for both spiritual growth and Gospel witness. Through shared laughter, tears, prayers, and experiences, we create relationships where dignity is upheld, truth is spoken, and forgiveness is given and received. In this, we pursue repentance and reconciliation, standing in solidarity to protect each other’s souls against the power of sin and death.

We continue God’s work of creation and redemption of all creation in our worship, our work, and our relationships as we engage the world as servants of Christ, empowered, energized, and equipped even to suffer for the Gospel so that God’s will “will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” and in order to hasten the day when “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the Glory of God the Father.” As the body of Christ, we want God to do through our body the very kinds of things He did through Christ’s body as we imitate our Lord’s passion for the least, the lost, and the left out and the lonely. We have been created and called by God, and we want to use “whatever gifts we have received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” We pray for and invite those who are estranged from our Savior and His Church to experience His Spirit alive in our community. Seeing our love for them and one another that transcends our differences and sins, they will get to taste of our Lord’s own love, and long to enter into community, initially with us and ultimately with God Himself.