Values

Community Values:
Community values give shape to how we, both as individuals and as a group, find life within the kingdom of God.

• Story - At the heart of our faith is the story of how God has been active through history. But each of us has a story as well. Just as we look to see how God has been at work through history, we also reflect on how God has been at work in our life. Faith happens when we see the intersection of God’s story with our own. Our community longs to join God in the writing of how this story will continue to unfold.
• Wholeness - While we see the work of God in this world, we also hold a deep understanding that not everything is as it should be. God is not finished with the story. In the structures of our world and in our own lives, we see brokenness. But we hope. We long for the final redemption when God will join a new heaven and a new earth together in the ultimate act of restoration. Until then, we choose to live in the Way of Jesus because we believe that is how we will see life flourish in our souls, our homes, our community, our world and in creation.
• Presence - As a church community, we are the presence of God in the world today. God is continually moving into the brokenness of this created world, and so do we. Compelled by God’s love, we partner with the resurrected Christ to recover the beauty, renewal, and justice that our broken world longs to see. We pray that we will be able to help God’s will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Structural Values:
Structural values give shape to how we organize our church community to follow the outward momentum of the kingdom of God.

• Passions - We value passions over programs. While we do have programs, they are born out of and sustained by the passions and giftedness of people that God has placed in our community. We only do what can be sustained by the resources and passions of our community.
• Multiplication - We value kingdom growth over church growth. We believe kingdom growth happens through multiplication of churches rather than addition of individuals, and we structure our home churches and celebration gatherings for simple and ongoing reproduction.
• Mission - Mission is “movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission.” (David Bosch, Transforming Mission) Our primary existence is rooted in the mission to move with God as a blessing to the world and a sign of the Kingdom.