We believe that directly under our statement of faith, there will be things that define us as a unique community. These things will be essential to who we are as a church and who we will become. These will be things that we focus on, emphasize, and talk about over and over. These are the core values, which we hold dear.
We Value the Gospel
It is the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done. In its proclamation, God saves sinful people, changes their hearts and minds, and sustains their lives on mission. The Gospel is the very center of our worship of God through preaching, singing, fellowship, and mission will be the Gospel. The Gospel is the message God uses to plant churches, unify them, and grow them. Our one, overriding mission is to proclaim the Gospel in all that we say and do, sharing the good news that Jesus is God, that he has come to save sinners, and that he is “reconciling to himself all things, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
We Value Biblical Masculinity
We want to see, through the efforts of our church, a strong resurgence of Godly men who love Jesus, their wives, and their children in such a way that the world around them might experience the fullness of the Gospel and build up the church. We desire to restore men to their rightful place in leading the church, which means we will shepherd men as our priority—to call men to faithfully pursue righteousness and walk in God’s design for them to be humble servant leaders whom other men, women, and children can trust. We hold to a Biblical complimentarian view, meaning that men and women were created equal in the image and likeness of God, but are also designed to reflect the economy and ordering of the trinity—that is, different persons of equal honor, humbly and lovingly serving, each in their unique roles; men are to humbly and sacrificially lead, and women are to powerfully and wisely render help.
We Value the Full Counsel of God’s Word
We will dedicate ourselves to teaching and preaching the whole Bible, believing that the truth of the scriptures is God-breathed, inerrant, and powerful to restore us back to right standing before God. We will primarily seek to teach in an expository manner (that is, verse by verse teaching), protecting ourselves from avoiding challenging or uncomfortable verses, and providing us secure contexts in which to understand what the Bible says. We will strive to connect each and every truth the Bible reveals to us back to Jesus. Even when preaching topically, we will dedicate ourselves to right beliefs and understanding because theology really does matter.
We Value Communities on the Mission of the Gospel
We believe that God’s primary strategy, revealed throughout scripture and human history, is to call to himself a representative people for the purpose of advancing the Gospel. God has called his church to be ambassadors of the Gospel, living amongst the nations of this world, living out a preview of what Jesus’ Kingdom will be like. Practically, this is Christians living lives closely with one another, meeting in one another’s homes as well as public spaces, sharing food and resources, confessing sin, encouraging one another, and working together to evangelize the lost and serve their city.
We Value Corporate Worship
God, our Father, intends for his children to gather and worship him. It’s in these larger corporate gatherings where the church is intended to be led by God through the preaching of his Word, encouraged by the praise of his name through song, and edified in fellowship with one another. We will place a high value on the production of our services, while closely guarding the intimacy of the worship and the integrity of the teaching—this will require inclusion of reverent communion and celebratory baptism. We believe that our corporate worship gatherings are to edify God’s children, and also serve as a wide-open door for the lost to be welcomed and wooed toward salvation.
We Value Church Planting
We believe the Great Commission isn’t just a personal mission, but a mission of the local body of believers. Therefore, we believe it is best achieved through local churches that plant new churches or multi-site venues. We will seek to train qualified leaders, provide them with tools and resources, and send them out to plant new churches. In addition, we will love and teach people well who will be sent out with those leaders. We want to be able to draw by the hundreds and send out by the hundreds. We believe the best way to reach the lost and the de-churched is to plant a church in their back yard. A community who is truly on mission for the gospel—not on mission for themselves—will be passionate about planting more and more churches.
