Core Values

What is The Gathering all about?  What drives us?  What is different about us?

We focus on 3 main aspects of church life at The Gathering:

Experiential Worship– worship is not a performance, it’s not a show with smoke machines and bands that you’d rather listen to than sing along with.  When you walk in the doors you can expect to be engaged in worship with the Triune God.  One Sunday you might be writing down a name or a goal on a piece of paper, other Sundays you might be breaking tiles and making mosaic crosses, or serving communion.  This also means that Pastor Rachel has a team of gifted people in the congregation that help her preach and teach on Sundays and for special services.  Everyone is invited to participate in worship, because the more engaged we are, the more we can experience God.

Authentic Accountability– We’ve never met a perfect Christian.  Scripture tells us that we have all missed the mark when it comes to a perfect love of God and others so at The Gathering we encourage everyone to plug into a Life Group, small group or Accountability Group.  When we focus on studying God’s work and the Christian life with others who are struggling like us, we can take off our masks and be authentic.  It also means that others can pray for us and encourage us to be accountable to the spiritual goals we have set in our own lives.

Incarnational Missions– There are people in our community and throughout the world who need help.  They are in pain and are suffering and the church is called to reach out to them.  Some churches throw money at these problems and hope they go away, at The Gathering we roll up our sleeves and let God lead us to be a part of the reconciliation and healing process.  What does this look like?  We serve food at the Seton Youth Shelter family-style at one table, eating together as a family.  It’s why we started a preschool so that families struggling to afford a quality Christian education could come and receive help from us.  It means that we package up rice, beans, and vitamins with our own hands that are sent to Latin America, that we take mission trips to Sofia, Bulgaria and Brooklyn, New York.  It’s why we put together care packages for the homeless and for our servicemen and women overseas to let them know they are not forgotten or invisible to us.

We also have four guiding principles for how we accomplish these goals for church life, and they show us how THIS church thing really works.  It has to be

 T ransformational – if lives aren’t being changed and people aren’t growing closer to Christ, we need to do church differently.

H ospitable – EVERYONE is welcome at The Gathering.  This is a no-judgment zone where you don’t have to worry about where you come from, what you’ve done, what color your skin is, who you are sleeping with, or how much money is in your bank account: you are loved and welcome to join our church home!

I ntentional– We don’t do things just because they are cool or everyone else is doing them.  Events, Worship, small groups, and outreach events are intentionally planned out and have meaning and purpose.

S imple– one social event a month, one mission event a month, one fundraising type event a month, worship every Sunday and small groups sprinkled throughout the week.  We try to combine events when possible and limit events so that you don’t feel like you have to choose between being active in church and tucking your child in to bed or heading out to be with friends.  You don’t have to live in church to be the church- every day when you wake up you have a chance to show your faith to others and let God use you to transform the world.  So go, and know that we’re on this journey with you!!