The vision of First presbyterian Church is to live and share the ministry of reconciliation in Clarksdale, in Mississippi, and around the world. 

Ours is a community that, like most others, has long struggled to live at peace with itself. There is resentment and distrust along all sorts of lines—neighborhood, race, class, generation, etc. God has birthed in the hearts of the people of FPC a dream to be a church not defined by these old fractures, but transcending them. We want to be a people and a family defined by reconciliation—both to God and to one another.

Reconciliation to God: The good news of the Gospel is that “God through Christ has reconciled us to himself.” (“Reconciliation” is the restoration of a broken relationship.) We who have trusted in Christ and received his Holy Spirit enjoy now this restored relationship with our Maker. Now the great purpose of our lives is to share this message, for “God has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” 

FPC is therefore a community of people who, both individually and together, have been reconciled with God through Jesus. We share together in the salvation he has graciously given to us all. What is more, we now exist to share the message of the Gospel with more and more people, that they too might be brought into this fellowship and family. 

Reconciliation to One Other: It is not hard to see how our relationships to one another would be transformed by our restored relationship together to God! We have been made brothers and sisters of one Father, and we do not self-select our family members. As Scripture says, “For (Christ) himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.” As a result, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). 

Our vision is for FPC to be a haven of peace in a world of strife: where black folks and white folks, richer folks and poorer folks, older folks and younger folks, (and everyone in-between) live and worship and serve together as one family in Christ. Our dream is that the culture of our church would not be defined by any one sub-culture of its members, but that we would create a new Gospel culture, united in its diversity.