Values

  • We are a Welcoming and Affirming church for all persons regardless of their sexual orientation, education, status or life circumstance.
  • We publicly advocate for peace and justice in Seattle and throughout the world.
  • We value the individual spiritual journey, challenging and insightful preaching, discussion and study together, and prayer and joyful worship.
  • We value an intergenerational membership from newborns to nonagenarians.
  • We continue to grow in all the ways our diverse membership leads us to grow.

The Baptists Word is Freedom

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You may find that Seattle First Baptist Church is different from other churches you have experienced. As an American Baptist Church we do not recite or believe in a defined creed. We enjoy these freedoms:
  • to create our own relationship with God
  • to interpret scripture in our own way
  • to be "priests" to one another without a mediator
  • to have no hierarchy over our local congregation.

Therefore:
  • We understand that we are all spiritual beings. We become whole only by nurturing all of ourselves - including our spiritual dimension - and by seeking our own path for serving the world. If you are a seeker, you will be at home here.
  • We each accept responsibility for our spiritual journey by following the way of Jesus Christ through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, articulating our faith and sharing our understanding along the way.
  • We practice voluntary faith commitment. This means that no one can require faith or a kind of faith from you. You can enter into it only by your own volition. In our tradition we call this voluntary faith commitment soul liberty.
  • We recognize that we do not have all the answers, especially for you, and we enjoy engaging the questions together. Our dialogue builds our faith and we are comfortable with differing views of faith principles that guide our journeys.
  • This is a safe community in which to ask questions, try something new, join a small group, participate in a retreat, work on a commission, walk the labyrinth, and enter more fully into the whole life of faith.
Whatever your religious affiliation - or non-affiliation - we honor your personal journey, and we warmly invite and encourage you to learn more about us.

More about what we value...