About Second Church

• We’re multi-generational.  In so many areas of life today generations are separated or even pitted against each other.  We follow the Biblical model of church, with each generation blessing and learning from others.  We include children in worship from birth and make worship accessible to people in their 90s – because every generation matters to us and to God.

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• We don’t have it all figured out.  Simple solutions are illusions.  The questions facing us as a society require sophisticated thinking.  We may not have all the answers.  Humility is called for.  Curiosity is required.  Two phrases you’ll hear a lot in our Bible studies:  “I don’t know,” and “I may be wrong.” 

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• We welcome everyone. Really.  Gay and lesbian people are welcome in every part of our life together.  So are people who’ve come out of prison. And people who have doubts about God.   And people who have been divorced.  And people with physical or intellectual disabilities.  However God made you, you’re welcome in our family.  

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• We value science.  God created this amazing world and we have been called to care for with all our heart, soul, and minds.  Scientific study is one way we discover and appreciate the gift of God’s creation.  We encourage our children to become leaders in scientific research and application.

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• We don’t have to be like each other to like each other.  We actively pursue relationships with congregations and faith communities that are quite different from our own Second Family.  Some of our closest relationships are with the local Bosnian Muslim community and a Christian African-American congregation in the Pentecostal tradition.  We grow in our Christian faith by learning from other communities and cultures.

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• We care about the most pressing issues of our time:  Poverty, racism, immigration, and the climate are the focus of many of our mission efforts.  Instead of taking up arms in the culture wars we seek to engage our community in solving the issues that surely grieve Jesus’ heart.    

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•  We are a “teaching” church.  We are a congregation that supports young people in discovering and pursuing their God-given callings.  We’ve trained seminarians, provided stipends to young musicians, and scholarship grants to kids in college.

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• We have fun.  We take our faith seriously, but ourselves, not so much.  We laugh in worship, we enjoy “family” meals, and don’t sweat the small stuff.