In calling us to himself, God calls us to one another. We work to be an honest community given to one another in love, patience, and forgiveness, practicing the reality of the Resurrection with one another.
Some of our guiding thoughts on life together, with quotes from the 20th century Christian writer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who, quite literally, wrote the book on Life Together):
It's about Jesus
"Christian community means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. There is no Christian community that is more than this, and none that is less than this... We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ."
All of our life comes in the light of the Gospel: that means we are always dealing with others who have been redeemed, forgiven, and are being restored to full humanity through the grace of God. We can afford to forgive, to hope, to pray and lean on one another as if we dependend upon one another (because we do). And all of that comes becomes we are all "in Christ," as Paul so often puts it in the Bible.
It's embodied
"The community of the holy Lord's Supper is above all the fulfillment of Christian community... Here the community has reached its goal... The life together of Christians under the Word has reached its fulfillment in the sacrament."
Participating in the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper, or Communion) each week expresses that we are a community bound to God and so bound to one another, dependent upon Christ alone, and delighting in the Gospel that has brought us all into this particular Christian community. We strive to interact with one another in all of life as we do in the Eucharist.
It's not ideal
"Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community, even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial."
We are not the ideal church or ideal community any more than we are ideal people. But we fail even in our desire not to foster some ideal! We want to be honest, authentic, and welcoming; we will sometimes be that and sometimes we are sure we will fail. But we are striving to love one another, taking one another as we are, and confident in the grace that is at work in every one of us.