Future Church: God’s Love Made Real

We want to know what it is to be the church God is calling us to be. But we need YOU. Join us as we seek to discern God’s Spirit and work to become the church God is calling us to be. This is Future Church; This is God’s Love Made Real.

STORIES

WHY NOW?

As part of our own calling as followers, Jesus also invites us to “love God and love our neighbors as ourselves” (Matthew 22:36-40) and to “go and make disciples of all nations(Matthew 28:18-20).

Scripture, our theological tradition, and our liturgy drive us outside of ourselves, outside our comfort zones, and outside our doors to serve and to witness to Jesus, to participate in the healing, saving work that God is doing in the world. Our purpose – “to activate each of us so that more people know the way of Jesus and discover community, justice, and love” – is an expression of our calling as followers of Jesus and our longing as the people of God for others to know the love of God in Christ Jesus.

A Welcoming Church:
Engaging new, younger and more diverse people

“Your young…shall see visions, and your old…shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17

We believe that each of us is made in the image of God, redeemed by Jesus on the cross, and filled with the Holy Spirit. We are especially focused on reaching young and diverse people, not because they are more highly valued but because they are disproportionately missing from our pews and gatherings. We are challenging one another to be a welcoming, inviting church that reflects and embraces the diversity of our communities and the opportunities that diversity brings.

A Thriving Church: Rooted in tradition and radically relevant

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?…You are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:13-14

Past, present and future, we share a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Liberated by our faith, we wholly embrace people of all ages—questions, complexities and all. We are all called to do God’s work—to be salt and light—in Christ’s name for the life of the world.

A Connected, Sustainable Church: Raising the bar together

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
We are a church that walks by faith, trusting God’s promise in the gospel and knowing that we exist by and for the proclamation of this gospel word. Apart from him we can do nothing.

God gives the Holy Spirit who uses gospel proclamation – in preaching and sacraments, in forgiveness and in healing conversations – to create and sustain this faith.

RESOURCES

Explore the ELCA

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“God’s Love Made Real”

PROJECT INFORMATION

Prayer Guide

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ELCA Resources

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