Frequently Asked Questions

I don’t understand what New American Orthodox is. Can you explain?

We started this church because we weren’t finding something that fit the practices and ways of thinking we were already doing (celebrating Sabbath, Festivals, the Church calendar, Holy Days, views of Christ’s Atonement). We want to incorporate some of the traditional celebrations and festivals we find God giving His people in the Old Testament, but also want to celebrate the ways the Christian Church has survived these thousands of years. We are bringing in threads from traditional Western Christianity, Eastern Christianity, and our Jewish spiritual heritage into one new cloth.

Ah, so you’re a Hebrew Roots church?

Not exactly. We have friends and know other congregations that are doing these things, and while we love worshiping with them and celebrate what they’d doing, we are firmly planted in traditional Christianity. We are not a Messianic congregation — through some of our practices may be familiar to Messianic Jews.

So you’re Catholic? / Eastern Orthodox?

Nope. Again, some of our practices might remind you of those things if you grew up in those ways, but while we brought ideas and threads over from both those places, we are neither one.

So you’re Protestant?

While we recognize that the current congregation mostly grew up Evangelical Protestant and that we cannot escape our upbringing or current culture entirely (a fish cannot ever imagine what the water is like in another fishbowl) we no do not identify by what we’re not (not Catholic). We want to look for a label that is bigger and wider. This is part of the New American portion of our name. We are uniquely American, and also uniquely New.

I don’t understand what you are.

We’re building a new thing. We are building it as we go. It’s been a grand adventure, and we really feel called by God to express the beauty of His very diverse family. I think the best way to learn about what we are is to spend some time worshiping with us. We are thrilled by God’s gracious kindness and His provision to bring us here to this moment in time with this congregation.

So why not just be non-denominational?

We understand that in some ways this provides an “easier” answer for theological difficulties. But we have very clear idea of where we want to go and who we think God is. Theology and doctrine dictate how we believe God to interact with us, and how we believe He interacts with us. Not all ideas that are housed under the umbrella of Christianity are created equal, and some of the ideas we want to celebrate, and some we want to discard. This is why we have chosen to be here in this time and place. It’s why we are pushing in a specific direction towards a God we believe in kind, gracious, long suffering and personal, and away from ideas that teach that He’s vindictive, arbitrary, and vengeful — in both ideology and practice.

I’m looking for a church that affirms me/my LGBTQIA+ family members. What is your stance on those topics? I can’t find any information on this website.

We feel very strongly that the church is the family of God and should be a place to practice loving everyone in all our messy humanity. We are committed to loving each person and to helping each other realize our identity most importantly as a child of God. While we feel that human sexuality is an important aspect of what it means to be created in the image of God, we also know that our public gathering time is short, and in this particular cultural moment, our time is best spent focusing primarily on who God is, whether or not we can trust Him and His ways of living personally and in community. We welcome anyone to worship, discuss and wrestle with us on these and all other topics related to faith, religion, Christian faith and following our Christ our Savior - including what human sexuality and ethics should look like in our lives and in the church.

So would you serve the Eucharist to someone who is involved in or practicing an LGBTQIA+ lifestyle?

Yes. We practice open communion. If you want to connect with God and truly seek His face, this meal and life are for you and me. God has already pressed closed to us — nothing can separate us from His love, except when we ourselves refuse it. Come to the table and LIVE!

Why do you meet so many times each weekend? I’m not sure I have that much time in my schedule!

This is a common concern. We’ve found that celebrating together all weekend provides a rhythm in our lives that we really enjoy. The services don’t actually take that much time, but remind us to build our lives around the cornerstone, instead of trying to sneak our religious practices in around the edges of an already crammed life. We find that it feels like a lot, until we start doing it regularly, and then we really have come to enjoy it. I challenge people concerned with this to test it, come to church every week for a month, or come to all our services for a month — I really think you’ll find God doing an amazing thing in your life. But He’s open to being tested, and this trial may surprise you.

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Thanks for reading, I hope helped this make things clear as mud!

with love,

Sierra Ward, pastor