Vision Prayer and Covenant
Vision Prayer
Through your grace, O God, form us into a community
called to follow Jesus,
known and loved by you,
nourished throughout our lives by worship,
relationships and the biblical story,
open to new voices and new dreams,
committed to one another
in times of celebration and difficulty,
responsive to human need
with justice and compassion.
May your Spirit draw us together into your new creation.
Covenant
As members of Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster, we proclaim our faith in God as revealed in Scripture and the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. We have symbolically and publicly proclaimed this faith, and our commitment to follow Christ in life, by our baptism and confession of faith.
We believe we are called as a church to demonstrate and proclaim God’s intentions for creation, the reconciliation of humans to God and of human beings to each other.
We commit ourselves to face our diverse understandings of the meaning of Christ’s lordship with a spirit of openness and love for each other. We affirm the authority of the Bible, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and the consciences and counsel of our Christian brothers and sisters in all of our interaction with each other.
We commit ourselves to the following goals:
- Participate regularly in Sunday morning worship/Christian education and congregational meetings.
- Maintain close relationships within the congregation for personal support, nurture and accountability. The church recommends small group participation as a means of achieving this goal.
- Support, confront and forgive each other.
- Incorporate children of all ages in our worship, education and recreation.
- Discern and respond to spiritual, emotional and physical needs of those within and outside of our congregation.
- Cultivate the “inward journey” through prayer, Bible study, reading, meditation, silence and testing ideas/beliefs with each other.
- Exercise compassionate stewardship of our environment, money, time and talents.
- Practice peacemaking and nonviolence in all areas of our lives.
- Welcome with love and respect all visitors and interested persons, giving them the freedom to search and make decisions with integrity.
- Give and receive counsel outside our congregation with other Mennonite churches and the larger Christian church.
- Be an expression of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ and minister to a broken world locally and beyond.
- Renew our covenant annually as a congregation.