We are a faith community living into a vision of worship, joy, welcoming, and service located in the heart of Midtown Memphis. Idlewild is a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination and a member of the Presbytery of the Mid‑South.
The mission of Idlewild Presbyterian Church is to pursue, personify, and practice as Presbyterians the good news of reconciliation and salvation in Christ through worship, formation, nurture, and outreach.
Jesus Christ is the center; the mighty voice of God inspires us to love; the Spirit joyfully sustains and nurtures seekers of every age, stage and circumstance.
Worship forms the core of community life; prayer binds our brokenness and connects us in Christ’s love to God and to one another; music, poetry and art flourish in gratitude to our Creator; the beauty of creation is treasured and preserved; all the members of the church are ministers.
The focus is scripture and its meaning for today; faith is formed and spirits nourished through reflection, practice and shared learning; the wisdom of other faith traditions is respected; and a diverse membership enriches and unites us.
Justice speaks loudly and peace is our aspiration; all voices are heard; recreation and play are a wellspring for fellowship, celebration and growth; the love of God guides our minds and spirits, leading us to right action in our hearts, our homes, our community, our nation, and our world.
All who enter find a home.
Our church is a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination, and as such is organized according to the denomination’s Book of Order. Men and women are nominated and elected by the congregation to serve as ordained elders, deacons, and trustees.
Idlewild Presbyterian Church affirms that the Church is called to seek the Kingdom of God. To that end, we confess that racism, as a sin both personal and systemic, keeps us from achieving God’s purposes for our congregation and our community. We believe the Gospel calls us to repent of racism and white supremacy and their effects in our church, our institutions, our communities, and our hearts.
Our conviction is rooted in Scripture, which affirms that “there is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God…” (Ephesians 4:4-5), that “we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members of one another” (Romans 12:5), that “he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Proverbs: 28:13), and that we must be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).
We also confess that as a worshipping community and as individuals we have both participated in and benefitted from racist systems that engender inequality and oppression. About this we cannot be silent. Thus, we now commit that we will confront and confess our church’s role in these racist systems, holding each other accountable as we do the hard work of disentangling ourselves from the false doctrine of white supremacy.
In our historic commitment to being the church reformed and always being reformed according to the Word of God (Book of Order, F. 2.02), we will trust the Spirit of God to shape our worship, liturgy, and formation in ways that allow us to better resemble the Beloved Community. We commit individually and collectively to an ongoing process of learning how racism and white privilege operate in our world. Finally, we commit to engage with and support other communities in Memphis in working toward this shared vision.
In this work, we will remember what the Lord requires of us, which is to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). As we live into this vision, we will seek to embody the oneness of the Church, demonstrate through our love our identity as disciples of Jesus (John 13:35), and truly become a place where all who enter find a home.
