Values Discussion

Thanks for a great discussion last night everyone! I really appreciate your thoughts on the different values, and I hope that together we'll be able to clarify our statements of what is really important to us as a church and what makes us the kind of church we're trying to be. However, I want to encourage us not to miss the forest for the trees. Let's not get lost in the details. Tweaking the wordings is good, but what's even more important to me is that we each understand and are on board with the "big ideas" behind each statement. As we continue to discuss these values I hope we'll focus on the content, the meaning, and the implications of each value. And I especially hope you'll each be asking yourselves whether the big idea of each value resonates with you personally. Would you say to yourself, "Yes, that's what I value in a church too."?

And once we're in agreement about what we value as a church, I'd like for us to then talk about the practical implications of each value. If we say we value Jesus as the center of our faith, what does that mean for everything else we do as a church? If we say we value a love for God and a love for others, how will that get lived out? I think case studies might be good at this point of the discussion. Let's throw out some examples of situations or questions that might arise in the course of being the church, and then ask ourselves how these values might guide our decisions and actions in each case.

So let's start with the first value; asking ourselves not necessarily "How would I want to tweak the wording?" but more importantly, "Do I agree and resonate with this value?" (and why?) and then "So what will this mean practically for the life and culture of our church?"

The first value is:
We value Jesus as the center of our faith and model for our lives.
We value the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the centerpoint of God's work in human history and in the lives of real people to bring reconciliation and healing to this broken world. We treasure the deep, holistic, heart connection to God that is available to all of us because of Jesus. We are committed to sharing this ongoing story of God*s love through our words and actions as we seek to follow in the same way of living that Christ modeled for us: a way of generosity, joy, peace, kindness, and love.

What does this value mean to you? How would you flesh out this value even further? What will it look like to put this value into practice in the new church?

Let's talk!

-Mike