Becoming Who We Say We Are
A Shared Fall and Winter Journey
September 27, 2026–January 31, 2027
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?
One Journey, Three Parts
“Becoming Who We Say We Are” continues through January 31, 2027. It includes our Sunday worship and sermons, along with our congregation’s shared work of listening, truth-telling, repair, and covenant-making.
- Part One: Listening, Truth-Telling, and Repair — September 27 through Thanksgiving Sunday, November 22.
- Part Two: Advent | Preparing the Way with a Plan — during Advent.
- Part Three: Epiphany, MLK Sunday, and Covenant Launch — continuing through January 31, 2027.
Part One: 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 hear Isaiah’s call to become repairers of the breach. At 2 PM, we celebrate the installation of Pastor LaTayna.
- Nov 1 — Memories That Cost Us Nothing. What ancestors, saints, and communities are calling us toward justice now?
- Nov 8 — The Habit of Conformity. Safe Church Training follows worship.
- Nov 15 — Belonging and Becoming. Trans Awareness Sunday.
- Nov 22 — Counting the Cost, Choosing the Future. On Thanksgiving Sunday, we conclude Part One and look toward the next stage of our shared work.
The Theological Ground
The 2006 covenant is grounded in our faith: 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 covenant names broad areas of responsibility: education, worship, mission giving, purchasing, business practices, and community outreach. It calls us to develop and implement strategies. Twenty years later, we have an opportunity to ask: Which strategies have we put into practice? Where have we made progress? What remains undone? How will we measure the work ahead?
Becoming.
It can become a permanent excuse if we let it. A congregation can say “we’re on a journey” for decades without changing its practices. As we listen and tell the truth together, a few questions deserve a deeper look:
- Where does our pulpit, curriculum, and 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 our commitment to just purchasing and business practices mean in 2026—for whom we hire and whom we buy from?
- What repair, specifically, do we owe and to whom?
An Invitation
Becoming.
This journey invites us into the same posture the congregation held twenty years ago: honest enough to name where we fall short, and faithful enough to believe God isn’t finished with us.
~Pastor Matt and Pastor LaTayna