Core Values
Our Vision Statement
As Everybody's Church we commit ourselves to serving Christ by cultivating mission, inclusion and community.
Our Inclusion Statement
As Everybody’s Church, we strive to be a faithful, open and inclusive community. We welcome the participation of all people of any ability, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other life circumstance.
Our First Core Value: Jesus Christ
Our first core value centers on the person and work of Jesus the Christ. Our vision statement makes it clear that all that we do is to serve Christ. We do this because in Jesus of Nazareth; the one who was, and is and is to come we discover who God is toward us (love) and who we are to be (those who love God and neighbor).
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Our Second Core Value: Reaching Out
The second core value which we as First Presbyterian Church proclaim is that we commit to "reaching out." We see this core value as emerging from mission and community. We are to reach out in love to the world in order to build God's world-wide community.
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Our Third Core Value: Welcoming
Our third core value of welcoming is lived out when we "cultivate inclusion." Our inclusion statement says: "we welcome the participation of all people of any ability, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other life circumstance."
Our Fourth Core Value: Celebrating
Celebration is our fourth core value. Though we do not use this exact word in our vision statement it sums up the essence of two of our most important activities: worship and music. We believe that it is in worship and through music that we orient ourselves to Christ in order that we can cultivate mission, inclusion and community.
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Our Fifth Core Value: Connecting
Connecting is our fifth core value. Our vision statement helps us to connect by cultivating community. From the very beginning of the church men, women and children bonded together as brothers and sisters in Christ. They were connected in community by the work of the Spirit.
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Our Sixth Core Value: Growing
The sixth of our core values is that of growth; through deepening our knowledge and love of God. This core value is captured by the word "cultivate." Mission, inclusion and community only become possble as we grow in our knowledge of and relationship with Christ.
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Our Seventh Core Value: Serving
Our seventh and final core value is serving. Our vision statement makes clear that mission is at the heart of our community. It is a reminder that First Church has a long history of being involved in serving the community and world around us.
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In both our Focus and Inclusion policy statements we make clear our belief that everyone is welcome in the midst of our family of faith. Our statements put it this way: Inclusion statement: "We welcome the participation of all people regardless of race, ethnic origin, worldly condition, or any other circumstance not related to profession of faith (see our First Core Value)." Our Focus statement makes a point to expand on this idea by mentioning those individuals with special needs. We believe that this emphasis on welcome is at the heart of being followers of Christ. Throughout Jesus' ministry the twelve disciples were constantly trying to decide who was in (themselves) and who was out (women, children and foreigners, to name a few). In the minds of the disciples this practice of exclusion made sense. Their identity as Jews, as God's people, was under attack from the onslaught of the Greco-Roman culture. Without some boundaries they would be assimilated into a culture which would bring an end, or so they thought, to their faith. By maintaining clear boundaries of who was in (holy, acceptable) and who was not (unclean, unacceptable) they believed they were protecting their God and their faith. Jesus however had other ideas. Jesus' vision was one of God's kingdom that was large and not small; growing and not retreating; welcoming and not rejecting. God's kingdom did not need walls to keep people out; it needed a welcoming community to invite people in because by so doing God's kingdom would assimilate the world, rather than be assimilated by it. We see this in Jesus' welcoming children, speaking with foreigners (Samaritans and Greeks), healing the unclean, eating with sinners and tax collectors, and in the conversation with the woman at the well, doing all of the above. Jesus' teachings and actions demonstrated a welcome that was unheard of during his lifetime. The early church took this welcoming vision to heart and grew rapidly because of it. The church welcomed Jews and Gentiles, men and women, young and old, slave and free, Romans and pagans. Each person was intentionally welcomed into the community as a brother or sister with no distinctions for wealth or rank…and when such distinctions were made (see the Book of James) the leaders of the church upbraided those who treated persons differently or excluded some based on worldly condition or position. People flocked to the church because in the welcome of Christ they found out that they were valued and loved by God. The PCUSA Book of Order puts it this way: "The church is called…to a new openness to its own membership, by affirming itself as a community of diversity, becoming in fact as well as in faith a community of women and men of all ages, races, and conditions, and by providing for inclusiveness as a visible sign of the new humanity." (G-3.0401.b) The challenge for us at First Presbyterian is to continue to make welcome more than a vision. We have made an excellent beginning, now we need to continue to explore God's calling to open our doors and our hearts to all.
