Who We Are

At Orange UMC, our goal is to welcome all, without exception. In Jesus Christ, God has, and continues to invite each person into relationship with himself. When we accept Christ’s invitation, God welcomes us with open arms. Scripture even teaches us that God is like a father who runs out to welcome his lost child home and even throws a party! (Luke 15:11-32)

As a church, we are committed to providing the same joyful welcome to each person at Orange UMC, regardless of where you came from or how long you’ve been searching. Everyone can expect a friendly, warm, genuine, and enthusiastic greeting. We provide radical hospitality that makes people feel at home, comfortable, and like a part of the family.

Our welcoming is not limited to Sunday worship services. It includes welcoming people to Bible studies, youth group, committee meetings and every opportunity. While we give special attention to welcoming newcomers, regular attenders and long-time members can also expect a warm welcome. We seek to follow in the example of Jesus, who radically welcomed those who felt they did not have a place in a community of God.

• Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)

• There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

God has entrusted our church with Good News to share. We proclaim a message of grace: that God’s unconditional love is for all people. This message is that God is at work in our world and our lives, leading us toward forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, and justice. Amid the joy as well as the pain of life, we proclaim the message of God’s love. That unconditional love leads us to proclaim the ways in which God asks us to live transformed lives.

We proclaim God’s message in worship through praise, prayer, preaching, sacraments, and in our daily living. We also proclaim it through Bible studies, Sunday school classes and missional communities. Teachers, mentors, and leaders are vital, but so are all who embody this message. Proclamation is the responsibility of the Church. We are each called to be Jesus’ witnesses, and to share this message to all people. Everyone needs the Good News.

• He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

• For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

We strive to be an encouraging church, because we believe that embodying the love of God to one another is vital to our faith. We at Orange UMC encourage all to believe and trust in Jesus Christ, that through his death and resurrection we are offered salvation and freedom from sin. We encourage one another to embrace this unconditional love and to become more fully the person that God has created them to be. But we also encourage by reminding all that they have a place in God’s story. Through Christian love and service, we encourage one another as well as anyone we meet.

Encouragement can help us act with confidence, boldness, and assurance; to serve, use our gifts, show up, give generously, be involved, and fully engaged. Encouragement can come in many ways: through sermons, teachers, classes or small groups, prayer or even conversations with a friend. It can come through words of affirmation, compliments, and support, and it can come with words of accountability and challenge. The presence of others encourages us! Whether things are going well or not, we all need encouragement.

• “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27)

•  “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19)

At Orange UMC, our goal is that each person grows to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). We nurture as we care for, support, and serve one another. We seek to welcome, accept, and include as we build each other up.

Nurture happens best in relationships – with friends, family, and fellow disciples. We believe nurturing happens best in smaller gatherings of disciples. In these more intimate settings, words of affirmation, encouragement, and accountability can be spoken, joys and concerns can be shared, prayers can be offered for one another, and we can get to know each other better as we play and work together.

We plan carefully and intentionally to make sure all people of ages are provided sufficient opportunities to grow in Christ: educational opportunities, worship experiences, affinity groups, ministry teams and more. We highly value the role of prayer and Bible study in nurturing our growth in Christ.

• Let each of you look not to their own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:4)

• “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)

Service is an integral part of who we are as a community. To serve is to participate in the work that God is doing to heal and transform the world, and it is also use the gifts, talents and privileges we have to benefit others. In particular, we are called to serve those who do not fit society’s desired norms. In serving God, we encounter the other, and in serving the other, we encounter God.

• “...Jesus said to them, “I assure you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God’s kingdom ahead of you’” (Matthew 21:31)

We strive to serve all people: family and friends, church and community, strangers, and those in need (the hungry, the lonely, the sick). We serve at church, as we worship, work on committees, teach classes, sing in the choir, and meet the needs of one another. But we also serve at home, at work, and everywhere we go.

There are many forms of serving, but our service is based on stewardship. We understand that everything we have belongs to God – our time, talents, and treasures – and it is to be used to serve God’s purposes. Even our money is entrusted to us for serving God, and God equips each person to serve in meaningful ways. We want to provide opportunities and empowerment for each person to serve meaningfully.

• Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. (Colossians 3:17)

• “…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” (Matthew 20:28)

• There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. (I Corinthians 12:5)

As Jesus once commissioned his disciples, we too are sent out to welcome, proclaim, encourage, nurture and serve others. Disciples are not taught to sit; we are meant to be sent! At Orange UMC, we strive to see the places we are being sent, and this means looking outside of our own comfort zone. While our calling is to physically be sent out to do work, we are not the only ones being sent. We seek to partner with those also participating in the work of God.

Jesus sends us to the hungry, homeless, prisoners, sick, hurting, strangers, broken-hearted, and the marginalized; to serve and love as Christ does. We go to share the love of Christ through word and deed. We may be called to far-off places, but we are also sent to where we live, and the communities around us. Jesus sends us even to our co-workers, friends, and even family members.

With our location in a university town, sometimes people are with Orange UMC just for a season. We encourage and nurture them, too, so they may be sent to another place of ministry when they leave Orange. No matter where we are sent, though, we go in the example of Jesus, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

• “Go! I am sending you out…” (Luke 10:3)

• “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 18:3)