What We Don’t Believe
We’re not a belief-based church. That’s not how we organize, and it’s not how we define belonging.
In many churches, you have to sign on to a list of doctrines to be in. But that’s not how we do things at Common Thread. If you’re here, the only thing we believe is that you belong—no matter what you believe (or don’t). What holds us together is not shared belief, but shared practice: showing up with honesty, curiosity, and a desire to grow in love.
Yes, we are a Christian community. But we’re part of a movement that’s reimagining what that means—one that transcends and includes Christianity as it’s been handed down to us—moving beyond rigid dogma, into a deeper way of living and relating. A way that sees everything as connected. A way that leads with humility, curiosity, and love.
We don’t have a list of things you must believe. But we do hold to a few things we’ve learned along the way.
1. We believe you belong.
Ultimately, whether or not you belong is your call to make. But our call will never be exclusion.
Deconstructing? Questioning everything? Trying to reconcile science and faith? Queer, trans, divorced, single, neurodivergent, raised outside of religion entirely? We say: you belong here.
For instance, at Common Thread, LGBTQ+ people and women are not just welcomed—they’re celebrated. They are in leadership. No bait-and-switch here—our pastor is a gay woman! This is your community, too.
And we are all in different places on a spiritual journey we are walking together. Some of us are leaning into mysticism. Some of us are skeptics. Some are barely hanging on. Some feel deeply rooted. We don’t walk this path because we all believe the same things, or because we are all in the same place. We walk it together because love keeps calling us forward.
2. We believe in mystery and humility.
Let’s be honest: the spiritual life is full of paradox.
God is one … and somehow three.
God is love … and still allows suffering.
We are free … and also shaped by forces we don’t always understand.
That’s why we don’t claim to have all the answers. Instead of clinging to certainty, we practice holding the tensions in a space of unknowing. We try to stay curious. We hold space for mystery. We listen—both inwardly and outwardly—for what Love is asking of us.
3. We believe Christianity is worth reclaiming.
Yes, the word Christian carries baggage. And yes, the church has done real harm—across centuries, and in our own communities. But we’re not ready to throw it all away.
We see ourselves as part of a long lineage of people who’ve gotten lost … and then found the path again. We’re throwing our lot in with those across the world who are reimagining a more inclusive, more honest, more grounded Christianity—one rooted in the ancient Way of Love.
We’re reclaiming The Way—the path that was the way for the earliest followers of Jesus, before Rome made it a state religion, before doctrine trumped mystery. We believe Jesus is still worth following – not into exclusion, but into deeper love, liberation, and healing. The tradition may be wounded, but it’s not beyond redemption. Especially not at its roots.
4. We believe community matters.
When spiritual community gets toxic, it makes sense to leave. Many of us have been there—spiritually homeless for a while. And there’s real healing in getting out of harmful spaces.
But we also believe that we’re better together. That spiritual growth doesn’t happen in isolation. That we need people to walk with, reflect with, laugh and grieve and stretch with. Church, when it’s healthy, can be a kind of spiritual home—a place to gather, to be nourished, to become more whole. That’s what we’re trying to rebuild here. Something spacious. Something true. Something worth coming back to.
5. We don’t think sin is the point.
Yes, our choices matter. Yes, our patterns can hurt us and others. But we don’t think the spiritual life is about sin management.
Instead, we focus on listening to the Indwelling Divine—learning to notice what’s driving us, what’s calling us, what’s emerging in us. When we live from that place, sin tends to take care of itself.
God’s grace is bigger than our mistakes. And transformation doesn’t come through shame. It comes through Love.