FAQ - South Bend City Church

FAQs

To begin with, we’re a Jesus-centered community. We trust the Bible as it points us to Jesus, and we trust the Apostles’ Creed as a guiding interpretation of what it teaches. Outside of those essentials, you’ll probably find a diversity of perspectives within our community. (We actually think that diversity is a good thing.) If you’re wondering what our pastors believe on any number of questions, the best way to explore that is to listen to the teachings on our podcast. Or better yet, join us in person for a gathering!

Great question! We call ourselves a community of grace and peace for our city and the world, and we have three essential strategic expressions that are helping us grow into that identity: Gatherings, Tables, and Streets. We have four mantras that describe what we're learning from Jesus about how to be human and how to be a church. Give them a listen to hear more about who we are.

We don’t want to tell you how to parent, but we think you should bring your kids with you! We love kids at SBCC. We have safe, engaging, age-appropriate teaching environments for kids of all ages. Kids can experience their own version of Gatherings and Tables in our kids’ ministry space when they come on Sunday mornings, and our church-wide Streets efforts are often family friendly. Students are encouraged to participate in all of our gatherings and connect with their peers in a student Table.

Are you concerned that someone may harm herself/himself or someone else?

If so, please contact 911 now and give the operator as much information as you are able. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides immediate assistance to both those in danger of hurting themselves and concerned others. (800) 273-8255 (TALK).
If you are not concerned that someone is in danger of actual harm, you can forward your concern to our staff at care@southbendcitychurch.com so that they can be aware of the situation, but it’s important that people in need of help take the first step of reaching out. If they’re not willing to do that at this time, we won’t be able to initiate the conversation. However, please let that person know that we’re here for them if they’d like to reach out.

You bet! You can start by reaching out via care@southbendcitychurch.com, and we can connect you with a pastor to officiate your ceremony if there is one available. If your wedding is more than 6 months out, we should be able to connect you with a pastor who can perform the ceremony. If it’s sooner than that, we’ll try our best, but it may be a challenge depending on schedules. We also offer a pre-marriage curriculum called Prepare and Enrich that is led by trusted members of our community several times a year. You can reach out directly to them (Char & Ritch Hochstetler) at Ritch@uleadinc.org.

Among the members of our leadership, staff, and community, you’ll find a wide spectrum of beliefs about questions related to human sexuality and gender identity, and we believe that agreement on these questions should not be the basis of our unity. We also believe that LGBTQ people have a right to know what they can expect from us in terms of belonging, involvement, leadership, and marriage. Our lead pastor, Jason Miller, addressed this in a teaching that you can hear on our podcast, A Sacred Conversation: Sexuality, and we strongly encourage you to listen to the teaching to understand our approach to this in a way that can’t be accomplished on an FAQ page. (During that teaching, Jason referred to a reading list for further learning, and you can find it in the podcast episode notes.) However, the bottom line is that no one at South Bend City Church will be excluded from belonging, involvement, and leadership on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity, and we have pastors available to perform weddings for same-sex couples.