God calls us to be followers of Jesus Christ and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to grow as communities of grace, joy and peace, so that God’s healing and hope flow through us to the world (Mennonite Church USA Statement of Healing and Hope).
As a Mennonite church, we are guided in faith and practice by the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. We commit to unreserved love and sharing, honesty and mutual responsibility in relationships, speech that honors one another, the renunciation of coercion and violence, and active outreach to the world in service and witness.
As an act of faith, we publicly declare by this confession of faith and covenant with God and each other our intention to live out this vision and grow and mature together.
- We covenant together to seek first the kingdom of God and join with others in the costly discipleship of following Jesus. By God’s grace we replace materialism, indifference, self-centeredness, and individualism with simplicity, sharing, servanthood, and mutual accountability. We will seek to encourage one another by positive expressions of love and forgiveness, to partake of the Lord’s supper together, and to share responsibility in receiving and giving correction according to the teachings of scripture.
- We recognize in Jesus Christ the way of love and reconciliation and affirm that this is God’s will for all believers. As disciples of Jesus in the pacifist tradition of the church, we seek to be peacemakers in all areas of life: loving our enemies and refusing to use violence, working for alternatives to violent resolution of conflict on personal and national levels, serving the poor and needy, and practicing justice and mercy. We acknowledge and affirm an allegiance to God that transcends our social and political allegiances. We will encourage and support each other in our personal and corporate peace witness.
- We recognize that each person is created in the image of God and we will seek equity, justice, freedom, and human rights for all peoples. By the fellowship of love which bridges the divides of class, race, gender-identity, sexual-identity, ethnicity, dis/ability, ideology, and culture we will demonstrate the oneness of the body of Christ with the diversity of its parts.
- We acknowledge with gratitude God as the giver of all resources which are entrusted to us for the furtherance of God’s kingdom. By exercising compassionate and responsible stewardship of our time, talents, natural resources, and money we seek to assist one another in the fellowship and to minister to a needy world.
- We seek to grow spiritually through times of personal encounter with God, opening ourselves to God’s love and truth by means of prayer, reflection, meditation on scripture, and fasting. We confess the need for daily forgiveness and renewing grace which will enable us to glorify God in Christ.
- We acknowledge that by making Christ and his kingdom our primary loyalty, the church becomes our family. We name the wholeness and hope in our church family for those single and those married, seeking to foster healthy relationships. We affirm the children among us as a gift of God and we commit ourselves to taking seriously their development by providing nurture and involvement that will assist them in making decisions.
- We recognize that a primary mission of the church is to share God’s grace with others in the community through word and deed. We commit ourselves to share the love and faith of Christ, through individual and corporate witness, in our daily lives.
We agree to renew our commitment to God through this group each year and to re-evaluate this document from time to time.
This covenant statement was approved by the RMC congregation at a Church Life Meeting on June 9, 2019.
