About

AkronFCC unconditionally affirms all people as we live out our call to follow Jesus Christ and his teaching of inclusive love.

We welcome people of every race, age, nationality, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, family circumstance, socio-economic status, physical and mental ability, or spiritual background. We invite all who are seeking God’s presence in their lives to participate fully in our church life, ministry, and leadership.

We strive to be a safe place, free from the fear of judgment, where wounds can heal, differences are cherished, and inclusivity is intentional. We commit ourselves to the struggle against injustice, discrimination, violence, and hatred, in order to foster a world of peace and wholeness.

God loves you. Christ invites you. We embrace and celebrate you.

AkronFCC has had a long tradition of being a welcoming community. We recognized, however, that to be as welcoming and as diverse as we believe God is calling us to be, required intentional conversation and prayerful reflection.

In Fall 2014, AkronFCC entered a period of discernment, where our congregation openly discussed our strengths and weaknesses as a faith community. After completing several weeks of visioning exercises, we proudly adopted a set of Core Values and Bedrock Beliefs, in which an overwhelming majority of our members chose our top-rated Core Value to be acceptance. These same visioning exercises generated other questions for us to consider: who we are and who we want to be as living examples of Christ. Subsequently, six teams were formed to look at various aspects of our church life.

In 2015, our church Moderator created an exploratory team to advise our Governing Board whether the church should enter a process to intentionally explore its welcome of all peoples. This team reported back to the Governing Board with unanimous affirmation that, indeed, the church would benefit from such discernment. The church-wide discernment process then launched in January 2016. During the process the congregation welcomed panels of guests, engaged in one-on-one and small group conversations, watched documentaries, engaged in bible study, read articles and books, and featured Rev. Malcolm Himschoot as a guest preacher. After this period of conversation and consideration, the congregation adopted the Welcome Statement at a Special Congregational Meeting in October 2016.