About Us...Vision &
Mission
Tired of the same old…?
Cumberland is a community
devoted to transformative expressions of life, lived in Jesus’ name!
We are living in an
exciting generation, as Christians seek fresh ways to explore and
understand their lives and faith. What has changed?
Old institutional
loyalties no longer hold sway. People of this post-modern moment are
asking for new reasons to belong: How does the gospel relate to daily
life? How do we have a deeper experience of the Holy? How does meaning
derive from serving the needs of others in Jesus’ name?
The Bible, while our
sourcebook, is not a recipe book for life. Pat answers no longer
satisfy. We know life is more complex than sound bites. To read the
Bible is to make meaning through interpretation. Just like our lives,
the Bible carries multiple meanings and won’t be reduced to stale
doctrines.
Religious diversity
surrounds us like never before, crying out for open interfaith dialogue
about common lived values and experiences.
While grounded in a
rich tradition of community and American Baptist life,
Cumberland is a church energetically engaged in reformulating faith’s
questions and living fresh answers to them. A progressive people, we
relish new ideas and new ways to express them. We embrace all members of
our family as ministers of the church, and strive to equip them for
witness and service in the world. We are fervent in our commitment to
diversity, whether of gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
Vision
Statement: Cumberland
First Baptist Church is a community of faith united in exploring what it
means to follow the way of Jesus Christ, to be a people of God and to
love and care for our neighbors and the whole created order. As a church
we will recognize no circles of exclusion, no walls that separate, no
boundaries that can't be crossed and no loyalties above those which we
owe to God.
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