The First Congregational United Church of Christ is a united and uniting church.  We believe we are called to carry out Christ’s mission in the world today.  Wherever there are people without the Gospel, wherever there are people in need, wherever there is injustice, strife, hatred, and greed–there the First Congregational United Church of Christ is bound by the teachings of Jesus the Christ to bear witness, to serve, to help, to reconcile, to rebuild.  We belong to Christ and we must follow where Christ leads.

The First Congregational United Church of Christ is a free church and a responsible church.  No one dictates to a local church concerning the decisions it makes.  Likewise, a local church cannot dictate to an association or any other part of the church the decisions made in each respective place.  Local churches, associations, conferences and the General Synod, speak to one another and to the public but do not speak for one another.  Freedom is guaranteed.  But it is freedom in the Gospel and out of a sense of responsibility to the Church as a whole.

The First Congregational United Church of Christ is a church of the people.  The church is not the clergy or organizations in the local, regional or national settings, nor the officers or boards or councils, though all these play their important and indispensable roles.  The church is the people gathered for worship, work and witness in all these settings.  The local and regional mission and the wider mission to the nation and the world through covenanted ministries of the denomination are made possible by the response of persons to the task and witness entrusted to us together as people of God.