INTRODUCTION: Covenant, Hospitality, and the Expanding Identity of the United Church of Christ
PART I – Our Church’s Founding Vision of Unity and Freedom
1. That They May All Be One
2. A Unity of Multiple Voices
3. A Covenantal Polity
PART II – Local Churches
4. Encountering God in a Real Human Community
5. Who Is Welcome Here
6. Constitutions and Covenants
7. Keeping Covenant in Times of Stress
PART III – Wider Church
8. Love One Another
9. Regional Organizational Patterns
10. National Organizational Patterns . ??
11. Covenantal Relationships Delineated but Not Dictated by Constitution and Bylaws
12. When Democratic Process Is Not Enough
PART IV – Ministry
13. Authorization and Oversight of Ministry: Strengthening the Covenant
14. Authorization of Ministry
15. Oversight of Authorized Ministry
16. Search and Call: Congregations Finding Ministers and Ministers Finding New Calls
17. Glossary of Terms: Related to Ministry
PART V – Identity and Unity
18. Our Theological Identity
19. Fissures and Tensions in Our Unity
20. The Myth of Unity or the Unifying Myth
21. Concluding Thoughts on Hospitality and Covenant, Our Genius and Our Challenge
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX