We live in a highly divided and increasingly polarized world. Unfortunately, some of the same issues that have divided so many in the political arena have also begun to divide people within the faith community.
People often hold strong opinions and sometimes struggle to accept those with differing viewpoints.
We had become a divided church that was unable to resolve some of the theological differences that had come between our church members. Church wide meetings seemed only to exacerbate our differences.
At a time when we began to suspect that we would never be able to reach consensus about these issues, we believe we had a direct leading from God. We believe God was telling us that our only way forward was to love one another, regardless of where people might stand on these polarizing issues.
The more we prayed and sought God’s leading about his prompting, the more we came to believe that God was calling us to become a “love-first” church in all matters. That we were to love each other as much as Jesus loved each one of us. That we were to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. And that we were even to love our enemies. All of these commands are clearly based on Bible teachings, but we were convicted by how easily and often we fail to live up to them—or even try to follow them.
Ever since then, we have made it our primary goal to put love first in everything—in our relationship with God, with each other, and with our neighbors who live all around us.
Recently, we believe God has given us a second prompting or leading to follow up on the first one. We believe God is saying to us that it is not enough to aspire to be a more loving church. What is of even greater importance is that we begin now to put our love into action and to show people how much we love them.
So, if you want to understand who we are and what we are trying to become, at the heart of everything we do is our desire to love God, love each other, and love our neighbors as authentically as possible in a very real and meaningful way.