A Different Kind of Church For Different Times
We are a simple “organic” church. We grow people’s faith doing ministry in the world, not on church committees and at spectator worship events. Our steeples are built up in lives and communities.
We are seeking to create a community of many small “micro churches” where our time, energy, and resources can make a big difference, instead of becoming one “mega-church.”
We call it The Living Room Church not because we meet in living rooms and homes, but because we are more concerned with how people are meeting God and growing spiritually in their homes and lives than in what they do at some place called church. And when we do come together in our meetingspace for our many different times together, it is for the main purpose of making relationships and being inspired to go out into the world with hope and love and joy and service. A kind of God's Living Room. We have tended in our culture to separate everything in secular space and sacred space. Our churches should be more like living rooms and our living rooms should be more like churches.
We are a Community Church because we believe our faith calls us to work for a better world where we are, with people in the community regardless of race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, education or income level, political opinions or any other way that people are labeled.
We are a non-creedal free, liberal, progressive, inclusive Christian church in the historic Unitarian and Universalist traditions. Jesus’s story and spirit of love for all is at the center of our church life but we are free to explore other spiritual paths and welcome others to explore with us and work with us to make better lives and a better world.
We don’t all have the same ideas about God, Jesus, the Bible, Eternity. That is not only all right, but it is good. However, we all respect the freedom of others’ conscience, we all are responsible for our behavior, we covenant together to respond to the needs of others, and we are willing to take risks to be missionaries of God’s love for all, and as Ghandi said, “to be the change we seek to see in the world.”
At our first site in Turley, Ok, we are involved in LetTurleyBloom!, a beautification and gardening project; Saving Pets of Turley, an animal welfare project; The Living Room Coffeehouse free music venue; a library; a mower ministry; a bath ministry; providing hospitality; Free Giveaway Days; fundraising for community groups and Cherokee School; coordinating Turley Trash Off Day, Community Christmas Caroling, holiday parties, trips and times out together, and working with other community groups. With more to come.
We have “Reel Spirituality” gatherings on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. to watch and discuss films with spiritual themes. We have monthly “game nights” on certain Fridays. We have a “Random Acts of Kindness” event each Third Saturday that begins with common breakfast at 9 a.m. and a service project from 10 a.m. to noon. These are all Open to all.
We gather on Sunday evenings beginning at 4:30 p.m. for a common meal where people bring whatever they can for others and it always turns out to be a feast (first time visitors welcome to attend without bringing anything to add). And then we have a time of study, or service, or time of personal sharing, or worship celebration. Children also have class time together during this time learning and exploring in their own ways about some of the same topics the adults are, so families can share later and continue the learning at home.
We house the national offices of the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship, founded in 1945. www.uuchristian.org. |
