OPEN-HANDED CONVICTION

To us, a conviction is different than a belief. A belief is something that tends to just stay up in our head, but a conviction is something that gets into your bones. A conviction doesn’t simply alter the way you think; it drives the way you live. A conviction isn’t something you can ignore or rationalize your way out of; it calls you out on all of that. A conviction haunts you. You could say it like this, “We don’t have our convictions; our convictions have us.” 

Convictions are absolutely necessary because they are what lead us to live life with direction and intentionality. The best way to live and the most life giving choices are often counter-intuitive and certainly counter-cultural. Doing whatever we want whenever we want doesn’t lead us toward freedom, or joy, but instead it leads us toward slavery and despair. 

We long to be a people of conviction—a people who live life on purpose. 

Our convictions matter, but so does the way in which we hold them. 

Our community takes its name from an encounter with the resurrected Jesus that is found in Luke 24. Two followers of Jesus were walking on a road to a town called Emmaus, when Jesus approached them, and here’s the fascinating part—the text seems to suggest that Jesus kept them from recognizing who he was. Jesus introduced a sense of ambiguity, a sense of not-knowing, into their lives.

If you’re anything like me than you have probably (hopefully) changed your mind about some really important stuff over the last 5-10-15 years. In light of this, do you think there are some things you will think differently about 5-10-15 years from now? I sure hope so, because that’s what living things do. They grow. They change.  

So yes, having convictions is absolutely necessary, but perhaps just as important as the convictions that we have is the way in which we hold them. We are convinced the best way to hold our convictions is with an open hand. With a posture of humility that is open to being wrong, that is open to seeing more clearly, that is open to letting things go. 

This helps to explain why we are a community that is more than ok with questions, and we are passionate about creating room for people to breath. We are not afraid of uncertainty or ambiguity, but we welcome it because we have found that God meets us there in this really powerful way…just like Jesus met the two on the road to Emmaus.   

With that being said, here are some of our convictions.  

*Subject to change

We are not alone

We are convinced that there is more to reality than what we can explain, understand, study in our labs, or contain in our doctrines. There is a transcendent, deeply personal God that is for us, with us, and ahead of us. This God is responsible for our existence, incessantly drawing us closer, bringing us together, and pulling us forward.  

The Gospel is good news

God is most clearly seen and experienced through the person and work of Jesus Christ, and this is really, I mean REALLY good news.  

Jesus shows us who God is. Richard Rohr once said, "Jesus did not come to change God’s mind about us, but instead Jesus came to change our mind about God.” The God revealed to us in Jesus is way better, and at the same time way more unsettling, than anything we could have come up with ourselves.  

Jesus also shows us who we are meant to be and what life looks like when it is lived to the fullest. We are convinced that the way of Jesus is the most beautiful way to live. It is definitely not easy, but it certainly is good.  

The events of the first Easter (the death and resurrection of Jesus) have set us free from sin and death and brought about the beginning of God’s new creation right here in the middle of this one. When we embrace the saving love of God for ourselves and identify with Christ’s sacrificial death we begin to wake up to who we truly are and experience life in all of its fullness.  

But wait, there’s more! We have also been given the Holy Spirit, which is the unique abiding presence of God that makes the truth of the gospel real in our lives and empowers us to play a part in the healing and restoration of the world.  

Life is a gift

In the creation poem found at the beginning of the scriptures, God uses a word over and over again to describe what is created—the word is good. In the original language of the scriptures, the word for good isn't referring to creation’s usefulness or moral quality—this word is referring to how jaw-droppingly beautiful it all is. We like to think it’s God saying, “Wow!”  

We are convinced that life is best lived with a sprit of wonder and a practice of gratitude. At the same time, how we treat the gift says an awful lot about our heart towards the Giver. A proper response to this big fat gift that we call our lives is a commitment to stewardship and generosity.   

Everyone belongs 

We live in a world that loves to draw lines and pick sides. We aren’t a big fan of all that because one of the things we have recognized, in both the scriptures and in our own experience, is that God’s grace loves to jump over all of our lines and extend itself to the people we least expect it to. Sin separates—Jesus reconciles. In light of this, we are convinced that one of the best ways we can witness to the Gospel is to be a place where everyone—EVERYONE belongs. 

This conviction leads us to be a community that advocates for both diversity and equality. Jesus calls us to stand for and with those who are on the fringes of society and to fight for everyone to have a seat at the table. 

*In regards to the issue of human sexuality, we recognize that in our day and age this conversation is a complicated one. We want to be a community where we are free to disagree on the specifics, but where we all agree that everyone is FULLY invited to participate in the life of the church. 

Justice matters   

We believe that when God called the world good, God meant it and so we believe that this world and the people in it are worth fighting for. The hope we have in Jesus is not to escape this world and leave it behind, but to be a part of seeing it set it right.