Oct 11, 2026 · 22 min · 8 segments
Vanessa Maleare launches our fall vision series, *Tethered to Belonging: A Theology for Wanderers, Skeptics and Believers*, with a reflection on unity in diversity. Drawing from Philippians 2:1–8, she…
And I also imagine that as a c- we as a community tend to feel some kind of way about theology.
Um, but it really has been made to be a much bigger deal than I actually think it is.
And yet we have this feeling of anxiety or inadequacy, I think, sometimes in having these conversations.
But I think they're conversations that are worth having because they can bring a lot of added texture to our lives.
So to give you a little context as to why this and why now, um, late this summer, Brandon Kinder and I sat down with our one-woman human resources department, Melissa Stevens.
Uh, Melissa started guiding us through a 120-day vision cycle, and there were two themes that emerged, theological clarity and community building.
And we let that sit in our minds for a bit, just kind of in the back burner, as we entered into the Nav staff retreat this fall.
Um, and one of the key activities that we had planned was we asked our leaders what they were discerning and what they were hearing in each of their ministry areas, um, the biggest opportunities or felt needs, and again, those themes emerged with slightly different wording.
We've been picking up this sense of a need for clarity, a willing engagement with conversations that feel difficult and also important.
When I hear the same sentiments emerging from different places at the same times, I have learned that it is wise to listen because it is rarely a coincidence, and it almost always leads to some exciting work or revelation.
So this has led the teaching team engaging this as our fall series, and the principal question that we are wrestling with at the foundation of this vision series is this: What does it mean to be in unity with one another, having a repository of shared language without erasing our diversity of thought? Can we think differently and still be in unity? It's a tricky business that requires nuance, and although we might be tempted to avoid the trickiness of it for fear of being offensive, I believe in us, and I think it starts here in the book of Philippians.
And I also imagine that as a c- we as a community tend to feel some kind of way about theology.
Um, but it really has been made to be a much bigger deal than I actually think it is.
And yet we have this feeling of anxiety or inadequacy, I think, sometimes in having these conversations.
But I think they're conversations that are worth having because they can bring a lot of added texture to our lives.
So to give you a little context as to why this and why now, um, late this summer, Brandon Kinder and I sat down with our one-woman human resources department, Melissa Stevens.
Uh, Melissa started guiding us through a 120-day vision cycle, and there were two themes that emerged, theological clarity and community building.
And we let that sit in our minds for a bit, just kind of in the back burner, as we entered into the Nav staff retreat this fall.
Um, and one of the key activities that we had planned was we asked our leaders what they were discerning and what they were hearing in each of their ministry areas, um, the biggest opportunities or felt needs, and again, those themes emerged with slightly different wording.
We've been picking up this sense of a need for clarity, a willing engagement with conversations that feel difficult and also important.
When I hear the same sentiments emerging from different places at the same times, I have learned that it is wise to listen because it is rarely a coincidence, and it almost always leads to some exciting work or revelation.
So this has led the teaching team engaging this as our fall series, and the principal question that we are wrestling with at the foundation of this vision series is this: What does it mean to be in unity with one another, having a repository of shared language without erasing our diversity of thought? Can we think differently and still be in unity? It's a tricky business that requires nuance, and although we might be tempted to avoid the trickiness of it for fear of being offensive, I believe in us, and I think it starts here in the book of Philippians.
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