OUR VALUES

What We Value Drives What We Do

Jesus

The head of the Church. Without the bridegroom the bride makes no sense. As the Bride of Christ he is our leader and we submit wholly to Him. It’s all about Jesus. His character and His ways are our plumb line through each and every value we hold and every decision we make will be as an act of worship. Jesus is Lord and we are his disciples desiring to make disciples who make disciples.

Bible

The living and breathing word of God. We see the Bible as the infallible truth handed to us from God through divinely inspired teachers. We let the Bible guide and define us and our direction instead of looking to it to validate our personal desires.

The Lost

As Jesus looked upon the multitudes he had compassion on them, because they were sheep without a shepherd. As we all were at one point, dead and apart from Him, the lost are burning white hot on the heart of God. We will continue to do all we do to position ourselves to be used by God to awaken, redeem, and bring home His lost sheep.

The Poor

We follow in the footsteps of Jesus and intentionally minister to the less fortunate and marginalized amongst us. Those experiencing poverty in this world are our heart’s focus and we leverage our lives to be on mission to and with them. We have so much we can learn from the poor and desire to be a community that in turn affirms the Image of God bearing reality that rests on all of God’s created ones.

Family & Community

We Are The Church. We are not “like family.” We are family. We will live in such a way that demonstrates that Spiritual family reality and not the American cultural identity of individualism above all else. We are a collective, a body, a community. As such, we will prioritize doing life together in more than just a regular gathering. This is the community we aspire to be.

Prayer & Intimacy

We are children of a Father who loves us deeply and desires for us to be intimately connected to Him and growing in relational tightness with Him. We will prioritize stillness, silence, and solitude as devote ourselves to prayer. Without prayer our work is detached from the heart of the father and His Spirit that desires to empower the work. Apart from Him we can do nothing.

Forgiveness & Repentance

As the redeemed by the blood we came to God with hat in hand seeking His forgiveness as we repented of our sin. Now he has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We must continually confess our sins to our father and one another, repent, and be ever willing to forgive our brothers and sisters seeking to restore them, knowing that our Heavenly Father always forgives us. A missionary that does not have life-style of repentance and forgiveness is soon to be swallowed up by the snares of self-righteousness and pride.

Humility

We follow the greatest servant of all. Jesus epitomized what it meant to be humble. He exists with all power and authority and yet while on earth chose to humble himself and come as a feet-washing servant of all. We must reject the worldly paradigm of control and power. We must seek opportunity after opportunity to relinquish control as an actor worship to God and a demonstration of humility. There is nothing more attractive than pure humility.

Freedom & Empowerment

When Jesus died and rose from the grave, he defeated the enemy and gave us victory over and freedom from our sin. He set us free from the chains of the law as well. He fulfilled all the laws because he knew we couldn’t. Now we can live out an unshackled lifestyle, free to do all that God has prepared in advance for us. Each of God’s redeemed ones has been given His Holy Spirit and the power and authority that comes with Him. As carriers of the Spirit we’ve all been made into priests and that same Spirit ministers to others through us.

Sacrifice

Jesus lived a life that was the epitome of sacrifice. He came from heaven to take our place and literally be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Then He turns to each of us and say, “Pick up your cross and follow me.” The Christian life is one to be characterized by sacrifice. We will prioritize worship of Jesus, community, and mission above self-focused goals and endeavors. We will in the words of Paul choose to count it all loss, in order to gain Christ.

Compassion

Every day of Jesus’ walking ministry on earth he demonstrated compassion toward others, especially those that were outcasts, misunderstood, poor or not considered worthy of honor by society. His heart of compassion was shown towards the adulterous woman. He wept tears of compassion as he looked upon the city without shepherds, he asked for forgiveness for his murderers as a final act of compassion before his death and resurrection. As His hands and feet, we will live lives of intentional compassion towards each other and those in need.

Courage

The Christian life is not one for the faint of heart. We have been redeemed and purchased by the God who walks through fire, who sleeps through storms, who faces death willingly and now we must take our cues from Him as we join in His mission to redeem and restore others. This takes boldness and courageous obedience in the face of presumably insurmountable odds. God repeatedly calls His church to fear not for He is with us. Yet we cannot possibly live lives with no fear, so instead we determine that we will feel the fear and do it anyway. We will commit to being a courageous church.

Justice

Jesus lead the way in how we should pray. His prayer we’ve come to know as the Lord’s prayer has us praying “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” One element of bringing heavenly rule to earth is active working towards justice for all. Dr. Martin Luther King states, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We must not settle for preaching a gospel that ignores the personal and systemic ways God desires to bring justice to bear here on earth.

Diversity

When we were given new life in Christ, He reconciled us with the Father and with one another. He tore down the dividing wall of hostility between us and made us one people. He then gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are called to live a life with one another that illustrates that God’s family knows no cultural or ethnic boundaries. We are to begin to live in such a way that points to the coming reality of Revelation 7:9 where people from every nation and tongue praise God with one voice in heaven. Today we will commit to live out and preach His gospel with one collective voice from a diversity of contexts and cultural backgrounds.

Discipleship & Multiplication

The foundation of the great commission is discipleship. We are to share the gospel and teach his people to obey. Our focus will always be to make disciples, who make disciples that make disciples. As long as that remains true, we will be a multiplying network. Developing leaders who lead like Jesus, teaching others all Jesus has taught us, doing all we can to give away power, responsibility, and opportunity for our people to hear from God and obey.

The World

While we are passionate about those God has called us to reach locally, we know that God is a missional God and has a global plan of restoration and redemption. We will prioritize participating and partnering with those that God has sent afar to reap the harvest He has prepared. In relation to global mission, we are either called to go, called to develop those who go, or called to fund those who go.

Simplicity

We reject the American cultural value of materialism and slavery to wealth. In our valuing of the poor, we must simultaneously strive to live lives free from the seduction of “stuff.” We commit to Biblically and strategically using financial means to advance the Kingdom of God and not our own. Simplicity should describe our humble lives economically in a world that celebrates wealth.