• participation in a small group, congregational meetings, and Sunday morning worship
• giving and receiving counsel in the larger Mennonite and Christian Church
• welcoming others and granting them the freedom necessary for real searching and integrity in decision
• compassionate stewardship of time, talents, and money
• supporting healthy marriage, family and other rlationships among members
• reconciling situations of brokenness and oppression

ASSEMBLY COVENANT

As a community of God's people, we receive with joy God's gracious love.
In response, we join in worship and praise and make this covenant with God and each other.

We affirm our faith in God, the source of life and love, and Sovereign of the world.
We commit ourselves to follow Jesus Christ, who redeems, reconciles, and reveals God to us.
We invite God's Spirit to transform, empower, and guide us, as together we discern and follow God's word.

We pledge to nurture and care for each other and call out the gifts of each person.
We repent of sin, both private and social, and join God's plan for healing the earth and bringing peace and justice to its people.
We accept God's call to share the good news of redeeming love, and invite others to faith in Christ and membership in his church.

We encourage and pray for each other as we live out this covenant in hope for the time when God brings all of creation to its fullness in Christ.

March 28, 1993

ASSEMBLY UNDERSTANDINGS

We believe that accepting Christ as Lord and guide in all the decisions and activities of life in this time and context involves the following:

1. Active participation in a small group, in members meetings, and in the larger Sunday morning assembly.
2. Recognition of our need to give and receive counsel with other congregations and believers in the Mennonite Church and in the larger Christian Church.
3. Welcoming with love and respect visitors and interested persons who attend regularly. We want to grant them the freedom necessary for real searching and integrity in decision.
4. Exercising compassionate stewardship in the use of our resources--money, time, and talents. We will give systematically and proportionately, and will review the use of our resources annually with other sisters and brothers. We will use the tithe as a guideline in determining our giving. Recognition of our indebtedness to the exploited people of the world. We will contribute 1% of our gross annual income for grassroots needs and development overseas and 1% for local needs.
5. Expressing Christian love and faithfulness in our family and other primary relationships. We affirm both the goodness of singleness and the goodness of marriage. We support the sanctity of the marriage covenant, and understand that sexual intercourse is intended for persons united in the covenant of marriage. We regard violations of the marriage covenant, including emotional and physical abuse of family members, as sin. We commit ourselves to the support of healthy marriage, family, and other relationships among all of our members.
6. Living as those whom Christ calls to be peacemakers in all areas of life. We commit ourselves to reconciliation in situations of brokenness and oppression, conscientious objection to military service, and the use of economic resources in a way consistent with Jesus' nonresistant love. The congregation pledges support to members refusing draft registration and war tax payment.

In committing ourselves to the above Understandings, we recognize that some situations of members may call for flexibility. Accountability in fulfilling this covenant involves addressing each other one to tone, in the small group and in the congregation.

We are open to study and search with individuals and bodies of believers who differ in their understandings of the meaning of Christ's Lordship. We want continually to test our understandings against all available information concerning the life and teachings of Jesus and the experience of God’s people in order that our beliefs and practices may represent, not private or extra-Christian understandings, but faithful expressions of what it means to be Christian in our situation in today's world.