HI, NICE
TO MEET YOU.
GOD'S WORK,
OUR HANDS
As we learn about each other, what emerges is a unique personality that is River of Hope. Sharing our stories and listening to others as they share theirs, shapes us as persons. The beautiful result: a caring and welcoming faith community like River of Hope!
OUR MISSION.
GATHER INCLUSIVELY. A new faith community is an open invitation for people who have no church home to find a place of belonging. Those who have never been churched or who were disenfranchised from church are especially welcomed. We seek people of differing spiritual understandings and experience. You need not be Lutheran or even a professed Christian, for that matter, just a person who recognizes the need for a spiritual community and a willingness to offer yourself in shaping it.
LOVE RECKLESSLY. Central to our self-understanding as a new faith community is that we are called to love. Our motivation is simple: God loves us and having been loved and knowing what it is to be loved, we are compelled to love others.
SERVE COURAGEOUSLY. Love is a verb. It finds its deepest expression in action. We recognize within our faith community our own need and brokenness as human beings. We discover an affinity with all people when we acknowledge our common dependence upon others for help. We seek to be sensitive to the needs of the Palm Springs community and will do whatever we can to address those needs: issues surrounding poverty and homelessness; issues of equality and human rights; issues of human dignity and respect. God’s work, our hands.
OPENAFFIRMINGEMBRACING.
Reflecting the Beautiful Diversity of Palm Springs
River of Hope is a full-inclusion faith community, embracing all persons as divinely created in the image of God, regardless of status, economic condition, or political affiliation, we celebrate all people of race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expressions.
If you are a believer, a doubter, a seeker,
or a non-believer looking for a community
—you have a place here.
If you have much, have little, or have nothing at all
—you are welcome here.
If you are fully abled, disabled, or a person of differing abilities;
if you have regrets, fears, addictions, or afflictions
—you have a place here.
All who are wise and all who are confused,
all who have found love and all who have lost it,
all who celebrate this welcome statement and all who fear it
—you are welcome here!
For these are just some of the things
that make you who you are: the person God loves.
Come as you are and be celebrated for who you are.
Your place is here!
AFFILIATION.
A Congregation of the Pacifica Synod
We are part of the Pacifica Synod, a geographical area of our larger Lutheran church. This work was begun under there vision. www.Pacificasynod.org
A Congregation of the ELCA
We fall under the umbrella of the largest Lutheran family in the country, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, nearly 10,000 congregations across the 50 states, Caribbean and U.S. Virgin Islands. www.ELCA.org
