As the Clergy, Staff, Officers, and Members of the Board of Directors of First Christian Church, Chattanooga, TN, we name ourselves Disciples of Christ.

To name ourselves as Disciples is to clearly claim certain things as core to our Discipleship:

• That we believe that all people are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)
• That we believe that the story of our faith is one in which God chooses to be with all of humanity, particularly through times of need, tumult, confusion, and upheaval (John 1; Matthew 1:23).
• That we are called to be present with and in service to those who are suffering (Matthew 25; Luke 4:16-21).

Because we claim these things, we proclaim that Black Lives Matter.

In doing so, we confess the following:

• Racism is America’s Original Sin, and the American Church has not only passively benefited from the sin of systemic racism, it has often explicitly supported it.
• Despite the gains our country and our community have made, systemic racism is still a reality, and it plays out in incidents of racial profiling and harassment by law enforcement, the de facto segregation of our neighborhoods, and inequity in access to opportunity.
• That while systemic racism plays out in very personal ways, and certainly wounds us, we are often more complicit than we realize.

These are hard truths to confess. But we do not confess them to be absolved.  We confess them to re-affirm our Discipleship as a commitment and call to be an anti-racist, pro-reconciling Church, a part of the whole Body of Christ.

We are called:

• To Seek God’s Wholeness by learning about the ways racism fractures God’s creation, by standing up for unity among all people and working for equity in our church, our community, our nation, and world.
• To Expand the Table as Christ Did by building relationships of true understanding that cut through our bigotries, misunderstandings, presumptions, and stereotypes.
• To Nurture a Spirit of Justice by standing with communities of color in order to reform unjust and harmful criminal justice practices, working to ensure equal access under the law for all people, and holding our civic leaders accountable when policies perpetuate harm for our neighbors.

These are commitments that require hard work.

These are commitments that challenge us, both in how we live our personal and public lives.

These are commitments that we take on prayerfully.

We call on our faithful friends here in Chattanooga, in our wider church, and across the whole Body of Christ, to do the same, so that we might embody the prayer Christ had for his Disciples: That we might all be ONE (John 17:21).

Rev. Brandon Gilvin, Senior Minister

Rev. Jonathan Hyde, Associate Minister

Stephen Underwood, Ministry Intern

Dr. Sarah Harr, Organist

Victoria Flores, Office Manager

Andrea McCurdy, Financial Assistant

Gary Wilkes, Director of Music

FCC Board Members:

Katie Wylie, Congregational President

Bob Sauser, Congregational Vice-President

Alan Voss

Barbara Voss

Betty Floyd

Marcus Rafiee

Jill Rafiee

Linda Hershey

Julie Barcroft

Hank Bramblet

Tom Henderson

Carol Sharpe