This Is How We Walk Together…
At Nexus, we are exploring these collective practices as the local, concrete and actualized ways we walk the Christian Path together in community.
Spiritual Growth & Character Development
We are going to ask each other to grow and develop.
The path we travel is designed to help us grow and develop into fully flourishing human beings who love God and others. As such, at Nexus we are interested in nurturing the spiritual growth and character development of everyone who chooses to journey with us. We are endlessly fascinated with exploring and pursuing what it means to become the kind of people we were designed and created to be and we are committed to using whatever tools or practices will help us achieve this end.
Caring Company
We are going to ask each other to treat everyone with respect and dignity.
We desire to see each individual treated with fairness and compassion, regardless of who they are or the life they live. We believe there is a place of love and respect for everyone on this path and as such, we seek to provide a caring space for everyone where the value and dignity of all people is recognized and affirmed regardless of economic power, gender, mental health, physical ability, race, sexual orientation, age or ethnicity. We understand all people to be made in the image of God and as such, we will work to affirm the worth and dignity of everyone. We strive to be a church community that practices welcoming, accepting and serving all people without qualification.
Invitation, Trust & Vulnerability
We are going to ask each other to invite community into our lives, give others our trust and be willing to be vulnerable
We seek to practice the path collectively understanding that it is travelled best with company. We choose to not walk alone and invite others into our own personal journeys recognizing that growth and development can only come through the wisdom and guidance of others. We acknowledge the tremendous risk and potential for harm this creates, so our collective practice is that for others to speak meaningfully into our lives it must be done by invitation alone. We will encourage each other to extend this invitation, to give others our trust and risk being vulnerable in order to help us grow and develop. To grow, to walk the path, we must invite others in.
Creativity
We are going to ask each other to engage our imagination.
We believe that the human imagination and capacity to create is not incidental to what it means to be human. As such, we seek to walk the path imaginatively and become co-creators with God by employing our creative selves in the courageous work of pointing to the hope our path offers amidst the overwhelming beauty and aching ugliness of our world. To travel well, we believe we need imagination, stories, songs, poetry and art for the journey.
Generosity
We are going to ask each other to live generously.
We want to practice receiving all of life as a gift, believing all good things to be gifts from God. As such, we seek to walk the path lightly and generously. We practice travelling the path with open hearts and hands, ready to receive, but also ready to generously give to others from what we have been given, whether it is our time, money, energy, resources or capabilities.
Presence & Place
We are going to ask each other to show up wherever we are.
We want to walk the Christian path together fully alert, awake and aware. We want to travel the path expectantly and with eyes wide open, anticipating encountering divine moments wherever the path might take us. We want to be fully present and available to whoever is with us and wherever we find ourselves (at home, in our neighborhoods, at our places of work and play and within the Nexus community). And so we want to commit to giving ourselves fully to the moments, people and places in front of us. To travel well, we believe we must be fully present and so at Nexus we are going to ask you to show up wherever you are.
Forgiveness
We are going to ask each other to travel lightly through the giving and receiving of forgiveness.
We want to practice travelling the Christian path unencumbered by the many wounds, pains, disappointments, scars and hurts we accumulate in our lives. Our most primal human instinct is to lash out at those who have hurt us and we are always at risk of becoming jaded, cynical and bitter. But at Nexus we believe the Christian path calls us to the never-ending practice of forgiveness. It is a practice that calls us to absorb and bury the pain and disappointment life and people throw at us, transform those hurts inside of us and resurrect them by giving back love, joy and peace. To travel the Christian path well means continually practicing the giving and receiving of forgiveness.