A Community Church is an inclusive, interdenominational congregation that grows out of the hopes, needs, and aspirations of the community. It is neither planted nor transplanted from the outside but a native product of the life of the community. A Community Church serves all the community and claims the whole of the community as its parish. It welcomes all who love Jesus Christ into its fellowship and membership, regardless of sect or denomination or race, and urges "Let all who love the Lord come" join us in Holy Communion regardless of other affiliations. A Community Church is self-determining in governance, relying on the Holy Spirit working through its structures, and assuming at the local level of responsibility for its life and work. In all of its life together a Community Church seeks to employ the wisdom that says, "In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity." A Community Church does not live to itself, but, recognizing that it is part of "The Church," is in fellowship with all other churches of Christ. It yearns for the unity of Christendom and labors earnestly for that end. In worship and service it practices ecumenicity, believing that Christians ought to worship and serve God together and find inspiration rather than division in diversity of theological opinion and biblical interpretation.
