Our Past
Our first service was held at Paul Keys Elementary in Oct 1962 with the Reverend Joe Babb called as Interim Minister and Reverend Ervin R. Watson was called as the first Pastor of INCC. Since that time we have had pastors guide us through many life changes and we have grown as a family. We have always had a heart for service reaching beyond our doors. For many years we were known as the Pumpkin Church in Irving. Many will remember our former front lawn on MacArthur Blvd covered with pumpkins and our fall festivals that brought joy and laughter to our neighborhood. We have always centered joy, love, and laughter in our work as a church family.
This year we will be celebrating our 60th anniversary in Nov 2021.
Our Present
These past two years have brought challenges, changes, and chances for growth for our congregation. Several years ago we came to a crossroads, had an opportunity to close, and instead chose to create a new life, a new legacy for ourselves. Since that time we have recommitted to being a church that not only welcomes people into our building but also serves community members regardless if they ever join us for worship or not. We are leaning into a new mission and vision and continuing to search for how God is calling us to express Radical Love in Irving and beyond.
Our Future
In the future, we can imagine a space with a large, solid, thick, table. It’s overflowing with good things to eat and drink and there’s enough for everyone. It’s solid and sturdy welcoming in people who are weary and just need to be supported while they rest. It’s the place where we laugh, cry, plan actions, and feed the hungry. It’s the place where babies, youth, and young adults are not shooed away but are valued for who they are. It’s the place where there’s always enough room. We are working to build that table for each other, for you.
Our mission is To express God’s Radical Love, as shown to us through Jesus Christ, by serving within and beyond our doors.
“We are a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.”
— Disciples of Christ Mission Statement
Our Disciples of Christ Roots
INCC is part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which is a Christian denomination in the United States and Canada and a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. Often we are called people of the table, first because we like to eat and we celebrate any occasion where we can fill both body and spirit with love. Also as people of the table and part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table just as God has welcomed us. Weekly we invite all to join in communion as they feel comfortable. The importance of the table, which embodies hospitality and welcome, can be seen in our denominational symbol, the Chalice. The Chalice symbolizes the central place of communion for members of the DOC. Its true goal is to transform, strengthen and deepen the church’s spirituality, resulting in a community that understands its mission to be about bringing justice and salvation to the world.
As DOC members, we also invite individuals to bring both their brains and hearts with them as they participate in our congregations. We value thoughtful conversations, questions, and doubts as these are all healthy signs of a faithful response to God. We celebrate and support the partnerships that we have with other Christian traditions as well as our Interfaith siblings. We value education, embrace openness to all of God’s children, and seek to transform our world through justice, healing, and hope. We move to answer God’s call for justice particularly in the areas of care for the earth, the challenges for women and children, poverty and hunger, and immigration. We seek to do this work in cooperation with other people of faith. Some say we “get dirty for Jesus” as a way of conveying the hands-on mission orientation of many of our faith communities. As Disciples of Christ, we seek to not only speak of love but to show the love of Christ through all of our words and actions. This can be witnessed in many of our actions, including a denominational priority to be a Pro-reconciling/Anti-racist church.
