Good Samaritan Church
Building the Beloved Community Since 1911
The Full Story
We tend to be a congregation of spiritual refugees, which means we come from a wide-variety of faith backgrounds. You will find a diversity of beliefs represented among us. In recent years we have had everyone from Messianic Jews to Ex-Pentecostals to Ex-Catholics become part of our faith community, which likely means you and your beliefs will fit-in with us. We care more about each person knowing they belong, than all of us fitting in the same box of belief.​ That said, there are a few core beliefs and values we hold in common as a congregation.
We believe God is love
There are lots of complicated, fancy ideas out there about the divine, but we root ourselves in one simple truth: God is love. As 1 John 4:16 says, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
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We believe the life of faith is about learning to live more deeply in that love. There is nothing holier than showing love to another. So when in doubt, we err on the side of love.
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We may call God by different names or hold different beliefs about who or what God is. But if your life is oriented toward real love, chances are we worship the same God—and we’d be glad to worship alongside you.
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We trust in the power of God’s ancient, unfailing love to transform lives and knit us into a beloved community of healing, wholeness and peace.
We follow Jesus
While each of us might believe different things about Jesus, we are all committed to following the way of Jesus. Together and individually we learn and practice the radical lifestyle of love he taught and embodied.
We take the Bible seriously,
but not literally.
The Bible is a rich, diverse collection of writings by many authors in many different languages and contexts. Through it, our ancestors share their experiences of the divine. For millenia, people have found these sacred texts transformative. We believe taking the Bible seriously means doing the hard work to understand its original meaning, while also listening for the ongoing voice of the Spirit—trusting that God is still speaking and more light continues to break forth through scripture, science, nature, and other sources of truth.
We love our neighbors
DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—has become a political flashpoint in recent years, but in Judeo-Christian theology, a core idea echoes its heart: Imago Dei, the belief that every person bears the image of God. We believe we come to know God more deeply by truly knowing and honoring one another. Jesus taught that how we treat others—especially the marginalized—is how we treat God. That’s why we affirm the dignity of every person and celebrate the unique ways each reflects the divine. Core to our identity as a congregation is the story of the Good Samaritan, a story about the power of loving and caring for our neighbors, even and especially those who are different from ourselves.
