At FCC Lansing, we read the Bible together, but no single Disciple feels comfortable speaking for all the rest. It's amazing how many different ideas we have between all of us, and yet we recognize each other as fellow Christians.
FCC is a crossroads, a place where people meet from all walks of life, with different challenges and hopes. We try to get along, even if we disagree, and even if it's awkward. We're all Christians for some reason or another, and now we've come to see if we can mix and worship and get along with other Christians. We want to do positive work together.
You'll find surprises of all kinds, people who will welcome you, take an interest in you, agree with you, or not agree with you, but respect you either way.
We believe that's what Jesus wanted. In God's kingdom, everyone is welcome, so we accept all people. We erect no barriers at the Lord's table. Social division has no place in the church. Judgment belongs to God alone.
People from many faith traditions have become members here. The gifts of God for ministry belong to all people, so people from other Christian traditions are welcomed here, and their beliefs are respected. We benefit from their insights.
Each week, we share our lives openly. We pray for each other in our challenges, and we study Scripture together. God is never finished with us, and we are never finished searching together.
If we weren't, how would we learn what is really going on with each other? We're like a family. We keep up with the changes in each other's lives. We support each other through our challenges.
We like to worship together, and eat together, and laugh when we can, and cry when we need to. We are honest with each other about what we're really going through.
We have no creed but Christ. Because Jesus loves all of us, we try to do that, too.
We believe that God wants us to meet, to spend time together, to get to know each other, to come to understand each other, and to look out for each other.
It's a small world. Members of Disciples churches worldwide keep in touch with each other, and share their friends, maintaining a supportive network. Wherever they go, they've got a church family to rely upon.
For us, we become Christians not through trances and visions, but through Bible study and through hands-on caring.
The Disciples' quest for the last 200 years has been to get beyond all the human interventions and additions and get back to the unity of belief found in the early church. It has led us to welcome members of many denominations and faiths. It has led us to serious Bible study from all sorts of perspectives. It has led us to offer communion each week to anyone who wants to be part of the family of God, regardless of religious background.
In essentials, unity. In opinions, liberty. In all things, love.
We have no dress code. Some people dress up for church, and others dress as they do during the week. All are accepted, because we all come for the worship and for the fellowship.
Some 200-300 individuals attend worship with us or participate in our programs every year. Average Sunday morning attendance is 50-100. Each member and visitor is one of a kind, and becomes an asset to our great diversity. Many backgrounds and spiritual experiences are represented here and they are cherished.
We welcome people from all backgrounds and faith traditions. Visitors interested in a deeper relationship with the congregation can talk and pray with the elders and pastor after each service. Those who wish to join the church are invited to come forward during an invitation moment at Sunday morning service.
We believe that the Bible is sufficient to teach us what we need to know for our salvation. We believe that the Bible teaches things that are not available anywhere else. You will find Disciples on any side of any line that is drawn along the liberal-conservative continuum, and you will find us crossing over all such lines to be friends. In any event, we are here for God an not for human-made divisions. We support everyone in their faith journey. We are united in our love of God. What people think matters less to us than how they think, and how they treat everybody, be they similar or different, as a fellow child of God.
Our dream is that Church can be a place where we see good in each other, even when other people draw lines between us. We're all a mix of clear and unclear, light and murk, and only God is good. The freedom that one person has to have a certain opinion is the same freedom that allows another person to have a different idea.