VALUES + BELIEFS
Wayside Friends Church is a faith community intentionally formed in 2017 as open and affirming, Christ-following and Quaker. We recognize that all persons are equal before God, and called to worship, serve, and grow together. Therefore, we strive to establish an atmosphere and traditions that encourage anyone who wants to encounter God’s love to seek to do so in our midst.
CORE VALUES
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Creator God is the source of life
All life is sacred, having its origin in the creative and loving work of God. Life is our greatest gift, sustained by God’s active and loving presence. Recognizing that all persons have equal value and are created in the image of God, we treat others with respect and dignity, regardless of human measures of merit or value. Recognizing that all of life belongs to and is a gift of God, we treat all of Creation with respect and dignity.
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Jesus Christ is present
Jesus Christ is always present with us as Teacher, Healer, Redeemer, and Friend. Jesus revealed the full measure of God's love to humanity by becoming fully human, experiencing birth, life, joy, suffering, disgrace, and death. Jesus's resurrection in his body carries the promise that we too will live again. Jesus Christ is the Word of God speaking within every human, and his life, death, and resurrection draw us all into a loving relationship with God. Individually and collectively, we seek to follow Jesus Christ, the Light within, as we live in the world justly, with mercy, compassion, and love.
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Holy Spirit transforms + empowers
Holy Spirit enlightens our paths, transforms our lives, and is our Comforter, Counselor, and Guide. As we accept the invitation to yield our lives to God and become immersed in the life of the Spirit, the gifts and fruits of the Spirit proliferate. We gain freedom to live into our true selves. Hatred gives way to love, selfishness to generosity, fear to courage, shame to acceptance, and self-centeredness to humility.
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Our community is invited to live out love as represented by our triune God
The essence of God is defined as a loving mutual three-in-oneness relationship. This loving community within God models the paradox, challenges, and gifts of life in community. We hold oneness (unity) in tension with three-ness (uniqueness) as we seek to live out of loving unity while honoring our unique distinctions as individuals. As humans endowed with God’s image, we are invited to participate in reflecting this relational love throughout all our relationships—with God, with each other in community, with other creatures, and with creation.
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The bible as the church’s scriptures
The Bible is a record of God’s self-revealing presence, action, and love, particularly among the Hebrew people and in the early Christian community. God guided the gathering and conveying of scripture, and God continues to guide the community of faith in understanding and applying its teaching to our lives today. As the Spirit continues to teach the listening community, our shared knowledge of the Bible deepens both spoken ministry and inward listening, and it is a welcome touchstone against which to test our leadings.
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Jesus calls us to be agents of God’s kingdom in the midst of brokenness
Whether situations of conflict and confusion are personal, national, or global— within the church or beyond it—God calls us to act justly towards all, to love and give mercy to others, and to be humble in our relationships with others and with God. As receivers of God’s grace, we are invited to give to others, to all creatures, and all creation as we have so generously received. Through our actions, which are made possible by the indwelling Holy Spirit, we shine light into darkness, bring love into places of brokenness, and invite all to know and respond to that of Christ within.
CORPORATE VISION
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Affirming + Valuing All
Creating safe places for growth and discipleship as we honor the values of inclusion, grace, and God’s deep pursuing love for all.
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Centering on Jesus Christ
Being intentional as we listen, pursue, and follow the Living and Present Christ.
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Living Life Together
Letting God shape our community as we worship, play, grow, celebrate, grieve, and serve together. Invite others to join in this life.
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Discerning Together
Letting God shape our community as we practice discerning individually and corporately the leadings of the Spirit through scripture and experience.
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Responding to the Spirit
Partnering with the Spirit in the transformation process as we live out our callings within our local and global community and seek to see God’s kingdom come.
WE ARE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST JESUS
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We are a community of seekers, journeying together to follow the commandments of Jesus, named by him as the two greatest commandments upon which the entire law and prophets are based:
- Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
- Love your neighbor as yourself.We affirm the dignity of every human being as created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). We do not hinder the little children in their approach to Jesus. We encourage all to discover, cultivate, and use their God-given gifts for the benefit of the Kingdom of Heaven.
As members of his body, we strive to consider others above ourselves (Philippians 2:2–8); to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15); to serve one another in humility (Matthew 20:26–28); and to honor and steward God’s good creation (Genesis 1:28). As one body, if one member suffers, all suffer (1 Corinthians 12:26); if one weeps, the body laments with them (Romans 12:15); even creation groans in bondage to decay (Romans 8:19-23).
Pastors, Elders, Sunday School teachers, and other leaders are people who seek Christ’s leading in their lives, and whose lives are characterized by humility (Matthew 20:26–28), selflessness (Philippians 2:3-5), and righteousness. Everyone with these qualities is eligible. We do not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of our activities or operations. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients.
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We listen to Christ’s teaching together. We call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding (Proverbs 2). As members together in the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9), we encourage all persons who feel the Spirit’s urging to share what they have heard from God with the wider community, either during open worship or from the pulpit.
Christ’s teachings and God’s will for our lives are revealed to us through the “three-legged stool” of Quaker discernment: direct listening to God, Scripture, and the faith community all working together to listen.
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We seek to become people who embody the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
We are called to faithfully steward those things entrusted to us: wealth (Proverbs 3), sexuality, people, and privilege. We decry as sinful any situation in which we use an imbalance of power to our own benefit, whether personal or systemic. We work to change systems of oppression, recognizing that those of us with the most privilege must do the most work. We ask the Holy Spirit to change our hearts.
We confess that we have, too often, failed in calling out injustice, in loving and knowing our neighbors, and in properly stewarding God’s creation. We pray for genuine conviction to undo the harm we have caused. In the midst of real suffering within our community, we humbly seek not only to love our neighbor but to know our neighbor (Luke 10:29), through our conversations, classroom discussions, and times of prayer. We hope to embody a community in which walls of hostility are broken down (Ephesians 2:14) and where love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).
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Our communal life is not limited to our worship times together. We do not wish to be isolated from our neighbors, but instead we reach out to them as servants and friends. (Hebrews 13:2). We seek to meet others where they are and help them meet their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. We wish to be a community that draws all people to the feet of Christ, who alone can meet all their needs.
We support all kinds of families, believing that the mutual submission of equals in the covenantal relationship of marriage teaches us about Christ’s servant-leadership (1 Peter 3:7). We believe every Christian must discern whether they are called to committed monogamous relationships (Hebrews 13:4) or to lives of celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:7-8). We commit to supporting each other in our endeavors to faithfully follow our different calls.
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In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.