CHURCH FOR
THE REST OF US

We’re a good kind of different —
a church designed for people who don’t typically like church.

We think everyone deserves a church that speaks their language and creates opportunities for people to belong before they necessarily have to believe. That’s why a group of friends started EastLake Tri-Cities in 2010.

We knew our friends needed a safe place to hear about the person and the teachings of Jesus so that together we can learn to think rightly, love unconditionally, and be a part of God’s redemptive plan for our world. We do have a dress code, but it’s fairly simple: please wear something.

 WHAT WE BELIEVE

You’re probably looking for a long list of bullet points with catchy titles and multiple scriptural references from verses in the Bible.

Before you read any of that, please know that what we actually believe is revealed more in what we do and how we live it out rather than carefully crafted words on a paper.

We think many of our friends are tired of seeing people who cling to the rules of religiosity without living out the transforming nature of the message of Jesus. Our hope is that you’d give us a chance to prove it to you in real life before you make a judgment call based on impersonal doctrinal statements. Nevertheless, there is limited value in describing the essential framework of our beliefs, so here they are ↓

    • Peace with God comes by loving Him and those he cares about (everyone). This is the only truly fulfilling way in which to live.

    • Jesus is the exact representation, reflection, and icon of God. His physical death and resurrection proved his divine authority over death — the inevitable consequence of sin.

    • Because He loves us more than we can understand, we are offered the opportunity follow his lead and empowered by his Spirit to respond and die to our selfish ways of living and live in new life in Him.

    • As recipients of this undeserved grace, we are also called to be dispensers of this grace to those around us — no matter what.

    • We live with the “blessed hope” of the coming redemption of a new heaven and new earth. This influences us to live knowing there is more to this life than just our day to day existence; what we do now has eternal implications. God invites us to be a part of the redemption of human history.

    • The Bible is authoritative on all matters to which it speaks — and context is critical.

  • We will not accept discrimination of any kind — ethnic, racial, sexual orientation, 
or otherwise. No one is less deserving of God’s grace and love than anyone else — and it is 
available to anyone and everyone...even country music fans.

  • As a community that gathers to study and follow Jesus, we are committed to emulating His 
example in valuing and embodying justice and righteousness on earth, as it is in heaven. We 
affirm God’s good and perfect design of humanity made in His image, and that diversity 
embodies and amplifies that image. We affirm that it is through Jesus that the walls dividing 
humanity are broken down and reconciliation is made possible. We affirm that the path of Christ requires acknowledgment and naming of the evils of our world, grief and lament of its pain, fervent listening, and incessant work on behalf of the marginalized and oppressed.

    We acknowledge the historical and ongoing reality of implicit and explicit racism within our society locally and nationally and even within the Church itself. This brokenness/evil continues to bring pain and suffering upon our Black, Brown, Indigenous, and PoC siblings in Christ, even in ways we cannot currently comprehend. As followers of Jesus, we acknowledge and lament our collective silence and complicity in maintaining a status quo within the system of institutionalized racism both in the United States and the American Church. We acknowledge our blindspots at EastLake Tri-Cities and seek to make genuine progress toward anti-racism and inclusive love for people that more accurately reflects our Creator. We actively seek God’s guidance and healing, that His redemptive work would be manifest in us and through us.

    SOME RESOURCES THAT HAVE BEEN HELPFUL FOR US:
    
“The Color of Compromise” by Jemar Tisby
    - a helpful historical look at the Church’s role in allowing and accommodating racism in 
America.
    
“Be The Bridge” by Latasha Morrison
    - an insightful resource on our role as Christians to have honest conversations about 
unspoken hurts, hidden fears, and mounting tensions that often surround racism and racial 
division.
    
“Listening + Learning” - a talk by Jordan Chaney
    - we invited Jordan Chaney, a local activist for racial reconciliation, to come and share 
his thoughts on the state of racism in the Tri-Cities area.
    


    Got an idea for us to continue to educate ourselves on this path? Send us an email at info@eastlaketricities.com