Church of the Beloved is a small, funny, growing group of friends who gather together

to welcome strangers,

to tell stories of God’s grace,

to trust the healing love of Jesus,

and dream about where the Spirit is sending us next to be a gift to our neighborhood and world.

We also like to BBQ, create art, speak up for the marginalized, throw parties, and pray.

We each come from a hodgepodge of different backgrounds and we each bring different gifts from these Christian traditions as we come together in a “creatively Lutheran” community that is inextricably linked to the Love of God, whose name is Jesus.

We are infants and grandparents, teens and young professionals, singles and families, artists and teachers, counselors and cafe baristas, independents, social conservatives and progressive liberals, Asian, Hispanic and Anglo, gay and straight, male and female…

We agree on lots of things, differ on lots of things, but we are all drawn together by one thing -                 we are Church because Christ has called us his Beloved.

So there is definitely room for you here.

• curious

  Why does Church of the Beloved believe in creating art?

• Ryan

  Mostly cause we like it.  We mostly like it cause God is constantly creating.  So, seems like a good idea to me.  Why do you create art?

• Ryan

  Very astute! They're not all Christian traditions... but each of these represent histories that people from Beloved come out of and the risen Christ is working to redeem each of our pasts in light of the Cross and Resurrection. Could you imagine what God is doing to not waste, but to even work for good in someone's genuine agnostic quest to know "Is there a God?" ...how might that reveal the idols of God that we make to serve us? For some people, asking, "Where was God at work in your life to bring you to the grace of Jesus in your (for instance) Baptist background" is just as offensive as asking the same question about someone's wiccan background. What's true is that God is always at work in every situation to draw us to the grace of Jesus. The thing that makes us Christian are not these differences, rather it's the work that Jesus is doing to make us one family. Great question and thanks for asking "Name"!

• Name

  How are agnosticism and wicca Christian traditions?