Affirmation of Faith

The Session would like to commend this affirmation to the congregation for study and discussion. To that end there will be a variety of opportunities for conversation and reflection facilitated by pastors and ruling elders. We anticipate that these gatherings will also be marked by honesty, trust, open-mindedness, compassion, and respect, as together, in humility and hope, we seek to be faithful to Jesus Christ.

We invite you to join in the following discussions as you are able:

May 10, Sunday School, 10 am in the Myers Loyalty Room
May 13. brown bag lunch, 12:30 pm in the Virginia Gilmer Room
May 17, Sunday School, 10 am in the Myers Loyalty Room
May 20, brown bag talk, 12:30 pm in the Virginia Gilmer Room

According to our Presbyterian Church (USA) Book of Order, ruling elders “are chosen by the congregation to discern and measure its fidelity to the Word of God, and to strengthen and nurture its faith and life.” This discerning and measuring, strengthening and nurturing, takes many forms, from attending to the financial health of the church, maintaining the buildings that facilitate and house our ministries, praying with and for our members, making sure worship is in keeping with the Reformed tradition and much more.

Collectively, the Session is responsible for guiding the congregation’s “witness to the sovereign activity of God in the world.” These are awesome tasks, impossible to accomplish without the help of the Holy Spirit. They are to be undertaken with the utmost of humility, recognizing both our sinfulness and the limitations of our wisdom.

Recently, the Session sought to do this through the creation of a statement of faith. A small group from the Session crafted a document stating what we believe and how we are called to live as a result. This was brought back to the full Session for discussion, returned to the smaller group for revisions, and came back to the Session again for consideration. The conversations were reflective of the Session covenant as elders conducted themselves with honesty, trust, open-mindedness, compassion and respect. After much prayer and discernment, the Session approved the following statement of faith to help guide them in their decision making.

Our Book of Order instructs every member to regularly review and evaluate the integrity of one’s membership to increase participation and deepen meaning in the life of the church. In keeping with this admonition, the Session commits to revisiting this statement of faith regularly, recognizing that we are reformed and always being reformed as God is always doing a new thing.

Affirmation of Faith

We believe

in the Triune God, the eternal community of love, and in Jesus Christ—fully human and fully God—who shows us what it is to be human and to live a life of grace and compassion. He is the Lord of All and not subject to any earthly power.[1]

Therefore, any effort to subordinate the Gospel to an earthly power, or to distort the Gospel for gain, denies the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

We are all created in the image of God.[2] Each and every person, possessing inestimable worth bestowed by God, deserves dignity, value, compassion, and belonging. Any effort to dehumanize groups of people denies God’s image within them and thwarts God’s vision of thriving for all.

We live

in a broken and fearful world, which has always rebelled against God’s vision that all people would be loved, valued, and accepted. The brokenness of our world is manifest in the exploitation of the vulnerable and human conflict. While faithful Christians may disagree about specific laws or policies, our Reformed faith does not permit cruelty, dehumanization, or indifference.

We are called

to speak out against injustice.[3] God’s heart breaks when humanity actively and passively participates in, benefits from, and remains silent about injustice that further contributes to the brokenness of God’s world.

The church is called to join in God’s work of transforming the world through peace, compassion, justice, and love. As a Matthew 25 congregation,[4] we are committed to the work of God in “dismantling structural racism, eradicating systemic poverty, and building congregational vitality.”[5] Our faith calls us into the community and world that God so loves.

“In a broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage”[6] to…

Pray: Commit to praying for our neighbors, cities, and those with power to create change for the better.

Give: Financially support organizations that care for the vulnerable in our community.

Act: Take steps to join God’s transformational work.

[1] Theological Declaration of Barmen

[2] Genesis 1:26-27

[3] Psalm 82:3-4, Proverbs 31:8-9, Isaiah 1:17

[4] The Session of First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro voted on November 18, 2019, to join the Matthew 25 initiative of the PC(USA).

[5] Dismantling structural racism, eradicating systemic poverty, and building congregational vitality are the three foci of the PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 initiative.

[6] A Brief Statement of Faith

Pray

We celebrate your steadfast love. We praise you for your mercy. We count on your faithfulness. We celebrate and praise and count on.

And then the world does not work right. We find ourselves unsafe and anxious, caught up in greed and selfishness, beset by a culture of violence and threat.

We wonder about the mismatch between you and your creation.

Mostly we trust, down deep we sometimes do not. We risk truth-telling about your absence and silence and withdrawal.

We do such truth-telling, telling it to you, you…absent, silent, withdrawn. You we address, you, our only hope in this world and in the world to come. Amen.[1]

There is a long list of threats around us: terror, cancer, falling markets, killing, others unlike us in all their variety, loneliness, shame, death – the list goes on and we know it well.

And in the midst of threat of every kind, you appear among us in your full power, in your deep fidelity, in your amazing compassion. You speak among us the one word that could matter: “Do not fear.”

And we, in our several faithfulnesses, are jarred by your utterance. On a good day, we know that your sovereign word is true. So give us good days by your rule, free enough to rejoice, open enough to change, trusting enough to move out of new obedience, grace enough to be forgiven and then to forgive.

We live by your word. Speak it to us through the night, that we may have good days through your gift. Amen.[2]

[1] Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People.

[2] Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People.

Give

BackPack Beginnings: connect children and their families to resources needed to thrive, including food, clothing, toys, etc.

Out of the Garden Project: providing nutritious food to children and families in need, fostering a supportive community, and ensuring every child has the resources to thrive.

Neil Dunnavant Hunger Ministries Fund: funds the hunger ministry programs of First Presbyterian Church, especially Hot Dish and Hope and Neil’s Meals

Greensboro Urban Ministry (GUM): provides food, shelter, and supportive services to change the lives of our neighbors in need.

Interactive Resource Center (IRC): invites people experiencing — or at risk for — homelessness to be part of a supportive community free of barriers. They provide services that help our Guilford County neighbors reconnect with their own lives and with the community at large.

United Way of Greater Greensboro: creates, connects, and leads community partnerships that equip and empower people to leave poverty.

HELD: provides guaranteed income directly to people in need.

StepUp Greensboro: provides free job readiness training, active mentoring, and supportive services to help individuals achieve stable and family-sustaining employment.

Triad Goodwill: help citizens build skills and find jobs by providing customers value when they shop in our stores, by being a key employer in the counties we serve, and by building partnerships with other community organizations that will in turn strengthen our neighborhoods.

Women’s Resource Center: helping women to navigate life’s hurdles, to access community services, to develop new skill sets, to move lives forward.

Family Room Triad: providing love, encouragement and support to families who foster and the children in their care.

Mustard Seed Community Health: providing quality, holistic healthcare to the uninsured and underserved in Greater Greensboro.

Recovery Café Greensboro: offers free, low-barrier, trauma-informed, community-based services to diverse populations, including homeless and low/no-income individuals, people of color, veterans, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people. They believe that there are many pathways to recovery, and celebrates those who have found a specific approach that works for them, as well those who are crafting their own path.

Guilford Green Foundation & LGBTQ Center: advances equality and inclusion through philanthropy, programming, and advocacy that uplifts the LGBTQ community.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Greensboro: brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope.

Community Housing Solutions (CHS): working to make Guilford County homes warmer, drier, and safer by providing repairs and ownership opportunities to income-qualified homeowners.

Interfaith Housing Initiative (IHI): uniting faith communities to create sustainable housing solutions for those in need.

Tiny House Community Development: builds tiny house communities to help alleviate homelessness and encourages those needing shelter and a trade to participate in the construction of these communities.

Church World Services (CWS): welcomes refugees, immigrants, and asylum-seekers from around the globe into lives of freedom, hope, and opportunity through direct services, advocacy, leadership development, and relationship-building in our community.

FaithAction International: immigrant and refugee services to welcome, advocate, and empower.

Siembra NC: a grassroots organization focused on defending immigrant communities from abusive employers and landlords, and ICE.

North Carolina African Services Coalition: a nonprofit, community-based organization dedicated to empowering refugees and immigrants of the Triad through direct social services and employment programs. It serves as a one-stop information source for refugees and immigrant communities to be self-sufficient and independent.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA): enables congregations and mission partners of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to witness to the healing love of Christ through caring for communities adversely affected by crises and catastrophic events.

Rebuilding Hollers Foundation: rebuilding homes, businesses, farms, workshops and art studios in Yancey & Mitchell Counties after Hurricane Helene.

Act

Sign-up to serve the hungry at Hot Dish and Hope here at FPC Greensboro

Volunteer at Greensboro Urban Ministry to serve meals or help with their food pantry

Help out at BackPack Beginnings to sort and organize donations

Join Out of the Garden Project in distributing food to the hungry

Participate in our backpack and toy drives to help children in partnership with FaithAction

Write and call city council members and county commissioners

Follow the Action Alerts from the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness

Follow the PC(USA) and the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness on social media

Participate in the Offering of Letters we do in partnership with Bread for the World

Vote

Attend Interfaith Housing Initiative meetings to learn more about the housing crisis and how we can respond in faith together

Join the monthly Presbyterian Advocacy Hour

Attend a training course at the Racial Equity Institute

Attend local and state Poor Peoples’ Campaign events and rallies

Participate in Interfaith Immigrant Justice Coalition of Greensboro events like the “Service of Healing and Hope”

Attend a city council or county commission meeting

Treat everyone we encounter with kindness and respect

Acknowledge our neighbors who are often ignored and made invisible

Be the Good Samaritan helping the vulnerable without compensation or reward