All Souls: New West Seattle church, and new WSB sponsor

Today, we welcome a new WSB sponsor, All Souls Church. New sponsors are offered the opportunity to let you know what they’re about – so here’s their story: All Souls is a brand new church for the city, in our neighborhood, hosting their first Sunday worship on October 3, 10 am, at Madison Middle School. They are West Seattle locals, working and serving and playing where they live. They’re fixtures in the neighborhood –– familiar faces at the farmers’ market, the beach, the places with the best kids’ happy hours, the deli with the ice cream, that beverage place, that breakfast spot with the rotating menu, the cafe in the record store, and the park with the zipline. But this growing community is forming here not because our beautiful city is whole, but because it lacks wholeness. And certainly not because it needs more religion or self-help. Instead, All Souls exists because Seattle is filled with people just like us who can’t make themselves whole on their own, and can’t perfect themselves on their own, but who long to experience healing, significance, and hope.

All Souls, part of a network of grassroots, locally grown churches committed to changing cities by renewing neighborhoods, is not a church ‘just for ourselves’ — a community that makes sense only to its own members. Instead, it’s for folks on every corner of the spiritual grid. While ‘the church’ has not traditionally been a safe place to ask questions, express doubt, and work through life’s tattered edges in community, that’s precisely the hope for All Souls: a place to process freely and safely the audacious claims of Jesus, and the inevitable tension between the beauty and scandal of the historic Christian gospel. Because we haven’t heard the gospel for what it really is if we don’t find it at once horribly offensive and staggeringly beautiful. It is both heart-breaking and heart-mending.

So wherever you are on your spiritual journey, whether skeptical or mildly curious about the Christian faith, or whether you are already a committed follower of Christ, All Souls welcomes you. Because Jesus hasn’t come merely to make us Christians. He came to make us new. Learn more at www.allsoulsseattle.org, and discover All Souls Kids at www.allsoulsseattle.org/kids.

We thank All Souls Church for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.

12 Replies to "All Souls: New West Seattle church, and new WSB sponsor"

  • Tony S September 29, 2010 (3:29 pm)

    I say this completely tongue in cheek, but this quote really reminds me of “Fight Club”:

    They’re fixtures in the neighborhood –– familiar faces at the farmers’ market, the beach, the places with the best kids’ happy hours, the deli with the ice cream, that beverage place, that breakfast spot with the rotating menu, the cafe in the record store, and the park with the zipline.

    Not trying to offend at all; it just struck me as humorously ironic.

  • bsmomma September 29, 2010 (4:01 pm)

    No pun intended…….but this seems like the answer to my prayers! I’ve been looking for a church that wasn’t to “this religion” or “that religion”! We’ll have to give it a whirl! Sounds interesting and worth checking out! Might be kind of weird going to church at the place my “bad streak” started! Oh the Irony!!! I love it!

  • GenHill September 29, 2010 (8:11 pm)

    I believe they’re associated with Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). Different from the larger, more liberal Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). Since All Soul’s website does not contain much info about its theology, it might be illuminating to look into PCA’s stance on important contemporary issues to get an idea of what one might possibly encounter at All Soul’s.

  • Sara September 29, 2010 (8:36 pm)

    The All Souls website is incredible. Really well designed and written clearly. Great stuff!

  • LE September 29, 2010 (10:40 pm)

    Their webpage says at the bottom that they are affiliated with Grace Seattle http://www.graceseattle.org/
    and Grace’s page says they subscribe to the “Westminster Confession of Faith”, which is quite specific in the details.

  • smash the state September 30, 2010 (3:22 am)

    do churches pay taxes yet?

  • AM September 30, 2010 (8:34 am)

    While the message contained herein is filled with positive, affirming statements, this church appears to be associated with the Presbyterian Church in America, which has been known to provide support for gays and lesbians who are “seeking freedom from homosexuality.”

    Here is a blurb from http://www.religioustolerance.org

    “They view homosexual behavior as a pathology — a method of “relating that tends to rationalize one’s sins, blame shift, and live in a sort of self-pitying victimization mind set.” They view Satan as a living, supernatural being who takes an active role influencing each homosexual’s life, working to keep him or her addicted to the “lifestyle.” After spending some time in the group, a client may “…come into the light, begin to confess, begin to believe God’s truth, and actually begin to ‘struggle well’ with integrity….They begin to see that homosexuality is only a symptom of deeper rebellion. Hopefully, they begin to see a loving and patient God who is wooing them to Himself. It’s then they can experience the love, forgiveness, and grace of God which leads to deeper repentance.”

    In their doctrinal statement, they maintain “…that God has always called men and women out of homosexuality or other sexual sin patterns and into the new life of His kingdom through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Thus any attempt to claim, cultivate, or promote a gay identity for oneself is out of place in a confessing Christian since it necessarily competes with the holy identity in Christ that every believer had been given and must claim by faith.”” – copied from http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_pcia1.htm

  • CurlyQ September 30, 2010 (12:32 pm)

    BSMomma, you might consider looking into any of the 3 UCC churches in West Seattle (I’m sure there are other good ones in WS too–these are just the ones I’m familiar with). The UCC–United Church of Christ–is a very open, progressive, liberal denomination: one of the first to ordain women (Rev. Antoinette Brown, 1852) and openly gay people (Rev. Bill Johnson,1972), stand up for abolition of slavery (1700s forward) and civil rights (1940s-60s), and support gay marriage (church-by-church since the 1980s). Our motto is “God is still speaking,” which to me means we are open to the ongoing unfolding of God’s wisdom in creation, through science (not against it), and through the wisdom of other faith traditions. We are Christians who take the Bible seriously without taking it literally. Check out Fauntleroy UCC, Admiral UCC, and Alki UCC.

  • goodgraces September 30, 2010 (3:32 pm)

    Hey AM — can you contact me offline at: goodgraces@ymail.com?

    I am grateful for your post, as this was the very issue about which I had questions before going to check out All Souls.

    Thank you!

  • 35this35mph September 30, 2010 (7:02 pm)

    The problem with organized religion is the people…

  • Lorelee September 30, 2010 (10:27 pm)

    I’d like to add another shout out for UCC churches! There is a large pool of 20-30 somethings looking for progressive religion (like ucc) but end up falling for well marketed churches like this, “the skate church”, mars hill… It’s too bad.

  • Eric October 1, 2010 (3:27 pm)

    All Souls is exactly the kind of church we need more of–one that is going to preach the gospel, build authentic community, and serve the city. I don’t know anyone who’s really looking for religion. What traction does ‘religion’ really ever get in our real lives? Ultimately, what anyone desires is to know they are loved and accepted, unconditionally (i.e. grace). That’s the message of Jesus and it appears to be the focal point of this new church. All Souls, we welcome you. Build a community anyone can be part of, and that’s who will be.

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