Guiding Principles
Giving further definition to our Mission & Vision
These are the 8 principles we seek to live into.
1. Jesus-Like Welcome
Welcome is the expression of our belief that everyone is a beloved child of God. Jesus spends his entire ministry erasing barriers and inviting people in. Thus, our welcome is fundamental, genuine, unconditional, and far-reaching. We strive to love people as they are, with the most open arms we can muster. We seek to show all people that they are fundamentally welcome at Advent, they have value, dignity, are loved by God, and they are enough. Welcome is not a passive action but a vital, conscious, and responsive one, where we strive to share God’s Love in every interaction and choice. We guide, teach, and empower people to live Jesus-like welcome and invitation as a way of being, at Advent and throughout their lives.
2. Diversity
We believe people of every age, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, primary language, education level, religion, and any other identity classification are all God’s creation, all loved by God for exactly who they are, and all called to come together and be God’s church. We recognize the complex and beautiful interconnected diversity of creation as a reflection of God’s commitment to and honoring of diversity. A diverse congregation shows us who God is, and who God is calling the Church to be.
We strive to honor diversity in all forms by worshiping, learning, and building relationships in ways that value each other’s authenticity and uniqueness, create understanding and healing, and care for each other through accompaniment and advocacy. We are all rooted together in God’s love, gathered together for God’s ministry, and make each other the complete Body of Christ.
3. Building Relationships
Relationships are the building blocks of our community and ministry. Relationships are spaces to love and be loved, learn about God, grow in faith, and really practice loving our neighbors. They build strong connections inside our church and help us create authentic connections of welcome, invitation, accompaniment, and advocacy reaching out into our community. At Advent, every relationship starts with God, and God’s love. People can connect over a shared need, joy, experience, tapping into our shared humanity and primary identity as beloved children of God. Relationship building can start small, but Advent’s goal is to build relationships that continually grow and change over time. Similarly, we open ourselves to our relationship with God growing over time.
4. Accompaniment
Accompaniment is relationship step 2. It’s not just listening to others’ stories and sympathizing, but walking with them and empathizing. It’s being present, and genuinely caring what their life is like. It’s love that stays. Accompaniment shows people “you are not alone.” We are with you, and most importantly, God is with you. We accompany others in both service and faith formation. Accompaniment can be lived out with our neighbor at worship, in a ministry or group, at Community Lunch, and can go beyond our church, with our neighbors in our community, city, country, and our sister churches in Tanzania and El Salvador. Accompaniment is grounded in the “Theology of the Cross,” our understanding of God through the lens of the crucified Christ that God is often found in the place you least expect God to be: in the suffering, the struggle, in the shadow of the cross.
5. Advocacy
Advocacy is standing with each other. It is showing up, speaking up, and sticking up for the lives of others where and when it counts. Advocacy can sometimes take a political tilt, but at Advent our advocacy is rooted in God’s call and God’s teaching to love our neighbor.
6. A Culture of Practice-not-Perfect
There’s a reason they call it “practicing your faith.” Faith can’t ever be perfected, love can’t ever be perfected. Loving your neighbor is a growable mindset we can learn and practice with others. At Advent, we guide, teach, and empower people to practice living out God’s love through Jesus-like welcome, building relationships, accompaniment, and advocacy. We support each other in practicing our faith in action, and when we inevitably mess up, there’s Grace: the truth that God loves us 100%, no more, no less, no matter what. If we are not worried about earning God’s love, it frees us to risk and an authentic practice of loving and being loved.
7. Discipleship as a Lifelong Journey of Faith Formation
Discipleship is the practice of following and devoting yourself to your teacher or rabbi, not the practice of arriving. Faith is something we practice and grow throughout our lives. At Advent, we are people who are 4, 14, or 84, lifelong Lutherans, new to Christianity, from many denominations, church dropouts returning, seekers, questioners, faithful disciples, and people in search of purpose. We meet people where they are with God’s love, and walk alongside them in their lifelong journey of faith formation. We guide, teach, and empower people to practice our faith in action beyond Advent, throughout their daily lives.
8. Transformation
We believe that by actively loving our neighbor and practicing living out our faith, we open ourselves to God transforming our lives, our faith, and the world. Change can be thorough or dramatic without being huge. It’s the butterfly effect—spreading the Gospel and God’s Love person by person--that through us, God is transforming lives and the world toward love, justice, joy, and peace.