A Jesus-centered collective of growers, makers, and caretakers

WHY A NEW CHURCH?

Ann Arbor is home to 123,000 people and growing; the surrounding metro is 370,000. Additionally, the University of Michigan brings in more than 53,000 students every year.

Ann Arbor is unusually educated and unusually transient. 77% of adults hold a bachelor’s degree or higher — more than double the state and national rates. 32% of residents moved in the past year, also more than double state and national.

Ann Arbor finds its identity in performance. UMich’s own counseling service has named “hustle culture” as a defining feature of student life along with achievement anxiety, chronic loneliness, fear of the future, and a sense of having no time to rest.

Washtenaw County is the most religiously unaffiliated county in Michigan — 37% of residents claim no religion. In the area around downtown, active religious participation fell from 44% in 2021 to 31% in 2025.

At the same time, we are noticing a genuine increase in interest in a spiritual community of belonging. We have had numerous conversations, especially with parents of young children, who are seeking a robustly sacramental, relationally generous, LGBTQ affirming, and warmly liturgical church where you can belong before you believe.

We want to plant this sort of church in Ann Arbor: a church that is intellectually credible, socially aware, theologically serious, and living for the good of the city.

THE VISION

We are planting a church

That is vibrantly & generously Reformed—not as an identity to defend, but as a rich invitation into the Christian story.
That celebrates Christ by centering scripture and sacrament every week.
That understands that its communal life is a witness to the gospel.
Whose worship is liturgical and modern, with songs that prioritize corporate singing.
That resolutely defends the vulnerable and pursues justice because of Jesus.
That brings beauty into being by cultivating the arts.
Where women and LGBTQ people belong in every area of the church’s life.
That sees skill in handling power and privilege as a matter of discipleship.
Where Christian feast days are marked by genuine celebrations.
Whose worship of God leads directly to the experience of rest.
Where you can belong before you believe, where believing brings real freedom, and where no one is a stranger for long.

THE STRATEGY

Summer 2026 — Prepare (Phase 1)
As we network and raise start-up funds, we will focus on pre-launch community gatherings in our home and neighborhood. Gatherings will focus on trust-building and include intentional conversations around people’s experience of religion. We may pilot a book study with Hanna Reichel’s For Such A Time As This and/or Frederick Bauerschmidt’s The Love That Is God. We may hold a worship night to share an experience of the beauty we hope to cultivate.
Fall 2026 — Develop (Phase 2)
As school begins, we will focus on gathering our core leaders and developing our community identity. Leadership development will focus on weekly bible study, spiritual formation practices, and deepening our context awareness. We will identify musicians and other key volunteers to be ready for the launch of weekly worship.
Winter 2027 — Launch (Phase 3)
Weekly worship and faith formation for children and youth will launch. Development of our community identity becomes a wider task. We celebrate our first Feast Days together and develop a plan to welcome the annual influx of people into Ann Arbor in July/August.

THE TEAM

Noah and Kristen Livingston will serve as lead pastors. Initially, Noah will also serve as the lead musician, and Kristen will direct children and youth ministry. As the church grows, the intent is to hire staff to focus on these roles.
We bring 26 years of combined ordained ministry to this work, the last seven of them in Ann Arbor — building relationships across the city, learning its culture, and discerning what kind of church it’s actually missing.
Common Good Church is a plant of City Classis and a ministry of the Reformed Church in America. This connection is vital for us. It’s not just that we can’t do it without them—we wouldn’t want to, even if we could.