Mission: Practice Resurrection
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman
Our mission is to practice resurrection individually, corporately, and universally. From our hearts to the world - we are a community who is about seeing that which has died enter into new life.
OUR VISION:
To grow as a vibrant church who embodies the local culture and ethos of Atlanta's east side through our embrace of a creative, inclusive, justice focused expression of the historic, Christian faith emerging from our United Methodist roots.
OUR MISSION:
To practice resurrection through our embodiment of the movement Jesus catalyzed 2000 years ago. We accomplish this through our core resurrection practices of worship, growth, justice and service.
OUR CORE PRACTICES: WE WORSHIP, GROW & SERVE TOGETHER
At Eastside Church we practice resurrection through authentic worship of God, growing in community in our Christian faith, and serving. At the heart of the generative writings we find manifest in Holy Scripture, we encounter the person and work of Jesus Christ. At Eastside Church we believe that God's mission in Jesus Christ was and is to redeem all of creation. Three primary ways we encounter Jesus’ redemptive practices were his faithful worship of God, his intimate communion with humanity, and his revolutionary ability to learn, teach and embody the truth of God for the world.
WHO WE ARE TODAY:
Eastside is a progressive, intentional expression of historic, orthodox Christianity on Atlanta's east side. We strive to be the Church to our community through embodying a visible, tangible, practice orientated Christianity. As a local manifestation of the Christian faith on metro Atlanta's east side we work to embody the love of God through our intentional practice of this startling and unsettling surprise we call resurrection. It is our desire to exist as a conduit in the world whereby God’s transforming, restoring, and renewing power can infiltrate and flow into all of creation. We believe the renovation of the world begins with resurrection in the human heart. Therefore, at Eastside Church we hope to inspire, equip and enable folks to experience and practice this resurrection in their daily lives through powerful, transformative encounters with the living God.
At Eastside Church we recognize that practicing justice begins with understanding the ways we have participated in unjust systems and practices. We affirm that Black Lives Matter. As a majority white congregation in a truly diverse neighborhood we seek to better understand the ways the world has privileged us while denying the humanity of our brothers and sisters of color. We continue to have conversations surrounding personal prejudice, systemic injustice, and the pervasiveness in white supremacy in thought and deed in this country. As we move toward becoming officially aligned as a reconciling congregation, we are exploring ways the Bible has been used to deny the full humanity of our LGBTQ siblings in Christ. We are seeking new and affirming ways of constructing our theology in order to best love all people God has created.