Values
I have written a couple of times about being in the part of our Visioning Process where we are talking about our values as a church. This week I challenged the board to do some homework around our values and I want to invite you to add your input as well.
As we listed our values out there were four major values that we found are especially important to us. Roughly stated they are as follows:
Investing in Our Community
Come As You Are
Intentional Transformation
Communicating Hope with Relevance
All of those statements are big statements with a lot of meaning behind them, and none of them are complete, but we feel like the capture well what is important to us as a church. We want to invest in our community by engaging the marginalized, and ministering to youth, children and families. We invite people to “Come as you are” because we want all people to be welcomed and embraced by our church. We are about intentional transformation because we don’t think that God simply wants us to get together and love each other, he has a purpose of changing us and reshaping us into his image through these relationships. Finally we want to make sure that everyone we encounter clearly understands that the Gospel message of Jesus Christ is relevant to all people in all places at all times. Nothing could be more relevant.
So now as a church we are working to reshape these values into language that is clear, concise, compact, concrete, and challenging. Can you help us? Tell us what these values mean to you and how you think we should live them out. How have you experienced these values and how much further do we have to go to make these true of us as a church? What scripture comes to mind to support or inform these values?
We value your input in this Visioning Process and would love to hear from you. We need your input.
I would like to comment on your sermon from yesterday 1-10-10 on tithing. It is usually a tough topic to preach and to recieve, but it always challenges me. The topic is on going no matter where you are in your walk. It seems once I got past the 10% of my pay check, I got more understanding and blessed by God. Then the challenge of 10% of my gross income, now that got scarier. God’s character through His Word shows me time & time again…you cannot outgive God. The thing that spoke to me most was…what in my life am I robbing God of? My time with Him? My talents for Him? Holding too tightly to the things of this world? Not allowing all of myself to be emptied and filled with His Holy Spirit? Though I am quilty I am free in His grace to start anew in Him. Thanks Pastor Greg for allowing God to speak through you. God Bless You!