Top 10 Values
PERSONAL: Life with God should be intimate and connected. God is not interested in impersonal acts of worship or service motivated by what others think (Matt 6:3). The Bible is filled with stories of God's personal interaction with imperfect people and our community reflects this value. We are not just numbers; we are not just faces in the crowd, nor are we nameless. God knows each of us by name. He knows our fears, failures and foolishness and He loves us faithfully. As followers of Christ we become like Him by connecting with each other in a personal and vulnerable way.
CONVERSATIONAL: You will find the teaching and preaching at our church less dogmatic and more conversational. In the Bible, all the big cookies are on the bottom shelf and so there is no talking down to or needless theological complexity. We want our services to be relaxed, conversational and for the teaching to actually relate to normal people with normal problems. In addition, we want everyone to belong to a small group where they can converse about the Scriptures, learn from one another, coach each other and genuinely do life together. We want our community to be conversant in Christ's ways as well as our cultural norms, able to communicate and demonstrate God's love in our world without condemnation.
INSPIRATIONAL: Church should not be dull, boring and dutiful. Instead, we will do all that we can together to encourage, motivate and inspire each other to live "worthy of the calling" that we have received in Christ. After all, the message of the Bible is "GOOD NEWS!" A Church service is a place for celebration and joy: that's why you will see people moving, singing, laughing and generally enjoying each other because of God's goodness among us. Life can be difficult and we shouldn't minimize the struggle, but we should remember that Jesus is the one who said "Come unto me, all who are weary and burdened and I will give you REST...for my yoke is EASY and my burden is LIGHT." His life among us is reason to be joyful.
SACRAMENTAL: Our approach to worship is modern but participating in liturgical worship as ancient believers have done for centuries causes us to understand who we are, where we've come from and gives us rootedness that provides perspective. This is necessary in a world of microwaveable, instant gratification experiences. The Eucharist (or Holy Communion), corporate confession and prayers will be exercised in a way that is integrated with modern worship practices of music and video creating an encounter with God that is refreshingly grounded and redemptively current.
INCARNATIONAL: This is a fancy word for the idea that God is not afraid to be with us in middle of the mess of our lives. Christ came into this world as a baby and grew up as a man to become one of us in order to demonstrate the love that God has for us. He knows our weaknesses and He is unafraid to reach down and identify with us. He is completely able to heal our brokenness, share in our suffering and bring life into the dead places of our hearts. God is here, with us in the dirt and grime of our lives and we shouldn't be shocked that He is at work among us bringing a miracle into the mess.
TRANSFORMATIONAL: When people encountered God in the Bible, they could not help but be drastically altered or changed. We believe when we worship, share the Scriptures, fellowship or break bread together that there is a divine exchange that is possible and normal for all believers. We are all being transformed from who we are into who God wants us to be, and so we embrace one another on this journey of transformation together. Discipleship is another word for it, but seems a bit "churchy." We prefer to say that God is renovating our lives, tearing down our old dirty habitual houses and then replacing them with brand new creations.
RELATIONAL: Christianity is practiced as a communal relationship with God and not as individual spirituality. It is shared in the context of community and not in isolation. None of us are perfect and so we all need one another to coach us and help us on this journey. All of us have weaknesses and strengths that must be shared in order for us to grow. There is no reason why any of us need to be defined by our greatest weakness. The goal of this community of believers is to encourage authentic, spiritual, accountable relationships. We have each other and God is with us in a special way when we connect in the strong bonds of relationships (Matt 18; 1 John 1:7).
MISSIONAL: We don't just get together as a church to feed our self-interests and felts needs. We come together as a group of Christ followers who have a mission and an agenda that Christ gave us in Matthew 28. He told us to go and make disciples, which means we have to be interested in others, be intentional in our coaching and connection, as well as strategic in using our resources to share the message of the good news to our neighborhoods, our city, our nation and the nations of the world. This means we help the poor, feed the hungry, and care for the widow and the orphan with the love of Christ wherever we find them.
ATTRACTIONAL: We also believe that the presence of God and the love of Christ among a community of believers are attractive to many who are seeking, hurting and hungry for the life that God wants to give them. While we believe that many will hate us and our message, just as they hated Jesus, there are many others who will be attracted to the life, love, mercy, forgiveness and healing that they witness in the lives of our family of believers. They will see these signs that follow believers and be compelled to turn to God in a response of love and gratitude.
CHARITABLE: God has given us His Son, the gifts of the Spirit and everything we need for life and godliness. He is the giver of life and we become like Him when we become givers as well. The Bible teaches us to give our first and best of all we have received as a way of demonstrating that God is our source and provider and has first place in our lives. According to Jesus, finances are the surest measurement of our hearts. We give what the Bible calls a "tithe" or "10 percent" of our resources to encourage the work of our local church as well as offerings to worthy projects and needy people. Generosity should be our reputation within the community at large and our open-handedness will be the calling card of our message. So, we give of our time, talent and treasure. We give financially to the storehouse of the local church, to others in need and to missionaries around the world to carry the message of salvation.
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