The People of The Park: Who Are We?

Park Avenue Christian Church is affectionately known as “The Park” by church members and friends. The Park is part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

“We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.”

Ours is a love story, which began long ago with the God who lived as a human being in order to embrace human hearts, to teach us how to live with and for one another, and to renew creation with a message of unwavering commitment to unity, action and hope. We follow in the way of Jesus Christ, a servant leader who stood for justice, welcomed all into his movement, and announced a new “kingdom of God” that focused on freeing and delivering human beings from all types of oppression and bondage. This “following the way of Jesus” means that we center our lives around promoting and expressing the love, mercy and grace of God. It means we are working for the justice, equality and peace that is expressed throughout the Bible as the point of the long, complex love story between God and humankind.

“As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.”

The family at The Park is spiritually and socially diverse, open-hearted and open-minded. We seek to grow together in faith and bear witness to the loving character of God through the person of Jesus Christ. We invite ALL people to to be a part of this story, as we work together to overcome barriers in a world fragmented by prejudice, indifference, and political and ideological divisions. The importance of unity is expressed each Sunday by our open invitation to all present at the worship service to join in Communion (also called the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist) with us.

As Disciples, we uphold that Jesus is the Christ, sent by God to Earth, and that his life revealed the character and purpose of God. Therefore, “if someone tells us that God helps those who help themselves, we point to Christ’s unconditional love and say, ‘God is like that.’ If someone tells us that God demands vengeance, we point to the cross and say, ‘God is like that.’” At The Park, we affirm our faith in God and the great potential of humanity by going right to the heart of the matter: the “joyful proclamation that the one God, creator of heaven and earth, is known to us in the person of Jesus Christ. For this reason, we can say with confidence, ‘God is like this.’ Because of this, we can say whose we are.”

At The Park, we are called to unity in the knowledge that we are loved, and that we exist to show that love to the world.

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[Quotes taken from “We Are Disciples: A New Identity Statement and Twelve Principles for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)” by Michael Kinnamon].