Becoming Who We Say We Are
A Season of Listening, Truth-Telling & Repair
Twenty years ago, on June 11, 2006, CCC voted unanimously to claim a name for ourselves: “Becoming an Anti-Racist Church.”
Becoming.
CCC set its sights on a vision: a church that reflects the whole, rich community of Silver Spring, not just a slice of it.
This fall, we return to that vote to ask a question together: Twenty years later, who do we say we are, and who does our faith show the world?
A Season Built for This Question
Our fall worship series, Becoming Who We Say We Are, begins to walk us through a season of listening, truth-telling, and repair:
- Sept 27 — A 20-Year Vision. We open the season by revisiting the covenant itself: what we promised, what shaped that promise, and what a vision looks like after two decades.
- Oct 4 — Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace. World Communion Sunday, with the Neighbors in Need offering. We hold the tension between the peace we long for and the peace we settle for instead.
- Oct 11 — The Neighborhood We Keep Driving Past. A hard, tender look at proximity: who we pass daily and who we actually know.
- Oct 18 — Many Members, One Body. Paul’s image of the body pushes us past unity as a slogan and into unity as a practice.
- Oct 25 — Repairers of the Breach. We close with Isaiah’s charge, and at 2 PM we celebrate the installation of Pastor LaTayna.
The Theological Ground
The 2006 covenant leans on theology: we believe all people bear God’s image. We believe Jesus creates equity between people. We believe the Spirit gives us courage and creativity to do the work.
The 2006 covenant names broad categories: education, worship, mission giving, purchasing, business practices, community outreach. It calls us to develop and implement strategies. Twenty years give us the chance to ask: which strategies? Implemented where? Measured how?
Becoming.
It can become a permanent excuse if we let it. A congregation can say “we’re on a journey” for decades and never arrive anywhere. As we listen and tell the truth together this fall, a few questions deserve a deeper look:
- Where does our pulpit, our curriculum, and our liturgy still center one story over others?
- Where does our budget say more about our priorities than our mission statement does?
- Who sits in the rooms where CCC makes decisions, and who doesn’t?
- What does “purchases and business practices” mean in 2026, concretely, for who we hire and who we buy from?
- What repair, specifically, do we owe and to whom?
An Invitation
Becoming.
This season offers an invitation into the same posture that congregation held twenty years ago: honest enough to name where we fall short, and faithful enough to believe God isn’t finished with us.
Join us as we listen, tell the truth, and figure out what God asks of us next.
~Pastor Matt and Pastor LaTayna