Mission of Faith Mutt
THE ASPIRATION: FaithMutt is a place of connection for those who embody and give expression to a relationship with Jesus that is empathetically welcoming, embracing of paradox, and embodying of the simple as sacred.
THE REALITY: FaithMutt is a sporadic and cathartic effort of one individual and their ongoing, fitful journey to increasingly find how faith meaningfully contributes to a world, culture and neighborhood that is experiencing portentous change.
Core Values of Faith Mutt
The sacredness of humanity
We acknowledge the uniqueness of all humans in that they bear the image of God. This beautiful truth is not “conditioned” in any way by political ideology, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, personal inconvenience and/or comfort level, orientation, geography, biases (known, unknown or ignored), or documentation (John 4:29).
Selflessness
Empathetic hearts compel compassionate action, however small, and recognize that sentiment alone, however authentic, without action is helpful to no one. We accept that, more often than not, empathy and compassionate action will lead to inconvenience, discomfort, and defensiveness because it requires relinquishing control, power and/or influence. (Matthew 25:40).
Restoring Shalom
We seek to make-right the world, endeavoring to work with, not against, God’s recreating efforts in the here and now. The world is not a “rental,” we are not “just passing through” and our hands will get dirty as we engage the ills of our relationships, neighborhoods, culture and world. We understand the world to be divided between the holy and not-yet holy, as opposed to holy and profane. We are on a journey back to the way God always intended it to be; ever-aware that He is making ALL things new and endeavoring to not be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good (Oliver Wendell Holmes).
Sense of Humor
We value the maturity it takes to laugh at ourselves and with others, recognizing that a “…sense of humor is just common sense dancing” (William James). We hold that humor is essential to faith in that it points to our innate desire to be joyful. We also recognize that we often perceive humor as being at odds with faith because the “humor” we hear is often crude, rude or demeaning — attempting to be funny at the expense of another person’s downfall. We don’t always succeed, but we do strive to keep levity and humanity in tandem.