Faith

At Third Way, our aim is to keep Jesus Christ at the center of our faith and practice. Our beliefs are shaped by the Anabaptist and Mennonite traditions. We value diversity of thought while remaining grounded by the following confessions, statements, and values.

Our Mission

Our mission together is inviting people into kingdom community and joyfully following Jesus’ way through:

Passionately expressing our worship and devotion to Jesus
Choosing the beautiful and challenging path of covenant community
Personally pursuing the practices of Christian transformation
Bringing the very best of our gifts and resources to the mission of the church
Praying and working for kingdom change in our neighbors and city

Statement of Faith

Third Way Church is a member of Mennonite Church USA and its Central Plains Conference. Our Statement of Faith is a condensed version of MCUSA’s Confession of Faith and reflects our theological direction as a Jesus-centered community.

We believe in the Triune God,

Loving Creator of Heaven and Earth
Jesus Christ, our model for life and perfect sacrifice
And the Holy Spirit, God’s active presence in us and our community

We believe that we are saved by grace through faith,

That Christ lived to show us how to live
That Christ died to free us from sin and reconcile us to God
And that Christ rose again to raise us to new life

We believe that the Holy Spirit empowers and transforms us,

That we are called to live a visibly different life from the world around us
That we are called to loving non-violence, even when it is most difficult
And that we are called to love friends, strangers, and enemies

We believe that we are called to community within Christ’s Church,

To participate in the ordinances of baptism and holy communion
To love, support, and challenge one another
And to call one another to account when we fall short

We believe in the authority of Scripture,

That Scripture is God-breathed and useful for discipleship
That Scripture must be interpreted by the community through the Holy Spirit
And that Scripture, properly interpreted, leads us in all matters of faith and practice

We believe in the final Resurrection,

When Christ will return to judge the living and the dead
When God will raise up Christ’s Church to glory and eternal life
And when Christ’s final victory over sin and death will be made manifest

Covenant Values

Covenant partners at Third Way accept, practice, and covenant themselves to these 11 covenant values. Contact us to learn more about covenant partnership.

Covenant Life

Within our community, we invite one another to lovingly encourage and exhort us to remain faithful to our covenant and to Jesus’ kingdom way of life. We commit to building authentic relationships with God and with each other, rejecting comfortable performance and facing reality in pursuit of the life and wholeness we find only in Christ. | Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 4, Hebrews 10:19-25

Worship

We seek to worship God in spirit and in truth, not only when we gather together but in every moment of our lives. We will worship drawing on both the insights and traditions of the saints who have gone before us and the imagination, innovation, and creativity within our own community. | Psalm 95:1-7, John 4:24, Colossians 3:15-17

Stewardship

We commit to seeing ourselves not as owners of earned property, but as thankful stewards of God’s time and resources. We will live simply, share our resources with one another, and give generously to our community and those in need. We recognize God’s gift of creation and will work to live in consideration of the needs of the human family on this planet. | Genesis 1:28-30, Proverbs 31:8-9, Acts 2:44-47, James 1:27

Work, Play, and Rest

We recognize work as the dignified activity of helping God provide for human needs, and we commit to working to sustain our life together, avoiding work that contributes to human suffering. We will create space for play and joy, delighting in God’s good gifts. We will set aside time for rest and reflection, both individually and as a community. | Isaiah 65:21-22, Psalm 16:11, Matthew 11:28-29

Learning

Jesus is our true Teacher, the one who has called us out of darkness and into new life. We ask God to grow us in faith and maturity as we learn to walk in Jesus’ way. We commit to learning from each other and seeking to understand before being understood. We seek be a unified body within which we celebrate the diversity of our gifts from the Spirit and use them to build up the Church. | Psalm 40:6-10, I Corinthians 12, II Timothy 2:14-15, I Peter 3:15

Transformation

We commit to a disciplined spiritual life so that we may become more like Jesus. We will practice making room in our days for God to speak and act in our lives, seeking to love as God has loved us. We will ask for and give accountability, carrying each other’s burdens and rejoicing in each other’s growth. | II Corinthians 3:12-18, II Corinthians 5:16-21, I John 4

Mutual Submission

We submit to Christ as Lord in all we do, and we submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. We imitate Jesus’ humility by putting others ahead of ourselves, refusing to acquiesce to the selfish ambition and individualism of our culture. Within our community, we will resolve conflicts, forgiving when we are sinned against, knowing that we too are sinners. | Matthew 18:15-20, Ephesians 5:21, Philippians 2:3

Peace

We will offer self-giving love to all people, including our enemies, as God demonstrated his love for us. We reject violence as a source of hope and security, placing our trust and modeling our behavior on God’s love and justice. We commit to following the Spirit’s leading as we partner with God to mend our world, living at peace with all people insofar as it depends on us. | Luke 6:27-36, Romans 5:8, Romans 12:18, Ephesians 6:10-12

Reconciliation

We commit to life as God’s new family, actively working for reconciliation across race, gender, nationality, class, age, and other lines that divide our world. We lament division within the Church, in our neighborhoods, and in our own relationships, and we will confess and repent when we have contributed to this disunity. We seek to be a community that welcomes all without favoritism. | Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 2:11-22, James 2:1-7

Good News

We will share the good news of Jesus with our neighbors. We believe God is reconciling the world in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them, and has committed to us this message of reconciliation. We ask God to bring through us love, healing, and restoration wherever we are called to be witnesses of Jesus’ life-changing kingdom. | Matthew 28:16-20, Luke 4:14-21, II Corinthians 5:11-21, Philippians 1:27

Blessing

As a community, we seek to be a blessing to our city. We will work to see our neighborhoods through the eyes of Jesus, to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, host the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the prisoner. We will accompany our faith with action, looking forward to a day when there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, when God will dwell among us, making all things new. | Matthew 25:35-40, James 2:17, Revelation 21:1-5

Sermons

Listen to teachings from our Sunday Gatherings to experience how our beliefs shape how we understand and seek to follow Jesus.

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Anabaptists & Mennonites

Our beliefs are shaped by the Anabaptist and Mennonite traditions. No, we're not Amish. So what does "Anabaptist" and "Mennonite" mean?

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Welcome & Inclusion

Third Way Church welcomes all to worship with us, and commits to treating all people with respect, care, and the love of Christ.

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