First Church in Wenham
Vision for the Journey Ahead
First Church Vision is Connection
We seek to deepen our faith through connecting with God, to strengthen our community through connecting with each other, and to expand our outreach through connecting with the world.
Who We Are
We are committed to loving each other as God loves us, freely and unconditionally. We are seekers and stalwarts, knitters and activists, pray-ers and meditators. We are musicians and artists, elders and teens, families and single people. We have a wide range of personal beliefs, and we come together to follow Jesus’ great commandment to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We welcome people of all gender identities and sexual orientations, races and ethnicities, mental and physical abilities, marital and socio-economic status into the full life, ministry, and leadership of our faith community. We cherish our children and youth, we value the wisdom and heritage of our elder members, and we offer many opportunities to connect with each other. We gather to celebrate the living God and welcome people at any point of their faith journey.
As a congregational church, we believe that, by listening to the mix of human voices in a prayerful way, we may discern God’s voice. We highly value our community as it is, even as we strive to continue to grow into the congregation God is calling us to be. We are alive and ready to go deeper in our connections!
Faith: Connecting with God
We are a Christian community seeking God and aspiring to better follow Jesus. We gather and worship to foster our relationship with God through music, praise, and prayer. We support one another in developing faith practices that feed the soul. We meet each other as we are with love; encouraging each other to grow in individual and collective faith journeys.
Community: Connecting with each other
The connections between us are rooted in faith and are the heart of this congregation. We offer a wide-open welcome and find opportunities for friendship and fellowship through worship, small groups, and outreach programs. Our community facilitates cooperation and when differences arise, we strive to foster healthy communication. We seek to show up and support one another in good times and bad and hope to know one another well enough to do so. We know that God is calling us to open our hearts, deepen our relationships, and welcome new friends.
Outreach: Connecting with our world
We seek to do God's work in our broader local community through concrete mission opportunities that call for many different gifts and levels of commitment. Even as we sit in a place of much privilege, we are committed to justice; dedicating time, resources, and attention to works near and far. We challenge ourselves to seek new opportunities to build relationships with those in need. We explore types of service that bring different groups within the church together with the wider community. Just as Jesus included those who might not have been welcomed elsewhere, we look for the spaces that have been blind spots - the needs that have been overlooked.