I began my study of beloved community with the hope to discover ways of fostering inclusive congregations. My initial conception located beloved community within the church. Fairly quickly, I realized that this notion was backward. Beloved community is not about what happens within the immediate church congregation. It is a far more expansive ideal. Beloved community is a continual process within the Christian tradition that, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives. It occurs outside the doors of the church and within the lived experience of our faith. In coupling an academic study of beloved community in Christian theology with a practical internship at the Middlebury Congregationalist Church, I found what beloved community means for my personal faith journey and my future exploration of vocational ministry.
