To know Him and make Him known – This one should be easy, everything in Scripture is about Jesus and about knowing Jesus and about making Him known. We don’t even have life without Him. Our everything needs to be wrapped up in Jesus and ensuring that everyone around us knows Him. We who were once lost, have been brought into His presence and have been made alive in Him. And the world, is lost, the world needs Jesus and His light, His Grace, and His Life to be freed from the bondages of sin and to a right relationship in and with Him. Everything we do is wrapped up in that statement, more importantly, everything in Scripture is wrapped up in that statement. And because we have Christ in us, we have a deposit to give to the world, in our knowing Him, it should break our heart for the lost, that they may know Him.
No agenda but Jesus. Jesus is what we are about. He is our obsession. We want no agenda but Jesus Agenda and no agenda but His agenda, that which He lays out in His word. And we will continually re-evaluate our lives, fulfilling His agenda as we see it in Scripture. Striving to never operate out of our own agenda, as it can and will reduce our effectiveness and can rob us of the blessing of walking in His purposes. So, we will always being surrendered and willing to adjust to His agenda, His purposes, His Word and His leading.
It is in those two simple statements that we should have our whole lives be inspired by, informed by. It is exactly what we should have our lives direction pointed to. That our lives would be fulfilled by Him and Him alone as He has revealed and continues to reveal to us in His Word. We want this to shape us, move us, be what is rooted in our lives and stirs us towards everything He has for us and everything He has called us to. May Jesus move us to action and stir us upward and onward in everything we do. Let Jesus be the very reason for our every gathering, the purpose of every relationship, the center of every interaction, the hunger of our hearts and the focus of our lives as we serve Him and each other.
Friendship before function – Seems such an odd thing to say, but it means exactly what it says. That we prioritize our friendships and families over our functions, relationship with Jesus and each other become the basis for everything we do. We intend to build relationships, covenant lifelong friendships with the people that God brings into our lives, we invest in, believe in, pray with, and pour into. Laying down our lives for the sake of His bride. For the sake of those that Jesus brings into our lives and the advancing of His Kingdom. It means that were not just connected to “get something done”. Our friendships are very important, even more so than what we need to accomplish. God is all about relationship, restoring right relationship with Him and He draws us into relationship with one another.
(Acts 2:45-46; John 15:15; 3 John 2, 5, 11, 14)
As a local body, our desire is to not be needs or program driven, but Spirit led. Meaning that our meetings are the tools used to fulfill the Vision and Values we see in Scripture and the emphasis is put on what God says rather than the meeting itself. As such we desire to honor the Holy Spirit and His leading and the gifts He has given and we want to always recognize that the body of Christ (the Church, His bride) is to be a reflection of Christ’s body and also that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all so that we may be encouraged and built up as we partner with Him and one another.
What that means for us is that we need to see each area as an area that Jesus Himself is working in and through and we are, as His bride, or rather we must be, committed to the success of those areas just as Jesus would be. It is His ministry; therefore, it is OUR ministry – Our daycare, our kid’s ministry, our youth ministry and so on. And we need to value all of them just as Jesus would. All of us being committed to all that we do and the ministries that we have that Father is directing us towards.
The Priesthood of all believers – OR — One team many leaders. Because each one of us is called to the Priesthood of believers, we each are to be discipled and disciple others. But also, because we believe in the plurality of Elders – meaning that our team functions as one, there is no hierarchy, while we do believe that there is a visionary elder, it is not “his” team, but a team lead by the multitude of elders functioning as one. So that we together as the Priesthood of all believers, may proclaim the excellence of Jesus. This also includes the necessity to train and equip all believers. Jesus is our King, our leader who we are becoming like, therefore we must fashion our lives after His. (1 Peter 2:9; 1 Corinthians 12:21; Exodus 19:6; 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18; Ephesians 4:12-13; Exodus 18:21-23; Matthew 25:14-30)
Radically Word based – Basically – The bible plus nothing – the bible minus nothing. We want to be surrendered to the whole counsel of God’s Word. Not adding to it, not taking from, but surrendered, submitted, and instructed by His Word. So that we might know Him intimately and be made more and more like Him through His revelation in His Word and by Holy Spirit. This includes how we operate and function in the gifts of Holy Spirit, we’re not about “show” there is an order and a purpose to what God does and we are not interested in pursuing every “move” or “wave” of the “church” but rather, being submissive to the prompting and guiding of Holy Spirit. Always evaluating what it is He is doing in and through our lives.
Let us be moved by Father as He desires and let us never manufacture His outpouring. (Deuteronomy 4:1-5; Ephesians 2:19-22; Revelation 22:18-19; Mark 7:13; Acts 20:20; Acts 20:27)
A sending and receiving Church – The Great Commission tells us to “Go therefore into and make disciples of all nations…” and that’s exactly what we want to be about. Every believer, every saint is to function in the Great Commission, and we are not an exception to that. We want to be obedient in that calling and raise up different ones who will plant, and minister into our community and the nations beyond.
Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers and these gifts are released and sent out by local churches and trans-local teams, and they work together to advance the Kingdom of God through His Gospel by the establishing of local churches. Those gifts are called, equipped, and enabled by God to function in the breaking open of new areas with the Gospel, planting churches, laying firm biblical foundations and structure, teaching the Word of God, and strengthening the Saints. They are gifts given for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry.
We are A Partnering Church. We believe in partnering with the local body and with the team that Jesus has brought us into. We believe that this is not an “optional extra”, the local church partnering with a trans-local team is God’s way. No man, or gift or capacity can do this alone. Not even Jesus did it alone! Paul recognized this clearly. God’s way is about us being stronger together. As such we commit our time and resources to the sending and receiving of Apostolic team members in order to receive the full gambit of Ephesians 4 gifts that Father has placed within our team as a whole and outside of our team as Father directs. This includes the sending of our team to minister into different Churches and the receiving of input from different invited team members. (Philippians 1:3-11; 2 Corinthians 10:12-18)
We are called to build with one another to be in covenant relationship with each other. This requires investing in each other’s lives, being connected to, praying for, growing with one another. We want to send our people out to build friendships with, strengthen and when invited, minister into other churches. Serve where asked and give our time, resources, talents, and finances when necessary.
Again, everything we do is in partnership with Jesus. We are called to function with each other. We need each other, we are all parts of His Body. Individual parts that make up His Body. We are Living Stones in His Holy Temple and each one of us has a part to play. We must function together in unity with one another to accomplish what He has set out before us. Jesus sent the disciples out 2 by 2. We are the branches, and He is the vine, we can do nothing apart from Him, and it is only when we are connected to Him and each other that we are truly fruitful in our lives. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Luke 10; Philippians 1:5; 1 Corinthians 3:9; John 15:4-5)
Generous hearts and lives OR A culture of generosity and hospitality – This is truly about realizing that everything we have comes from God. Our Talents, our abilities, our time, resources, our lives, and our finances. Without His provision in every area of our lives we would not have the “things” or the ability to do what we do. When we live our lives with our hands open and ready to walk in obedience to Jesus and with one another Father pours out His blessings. Not only in our personal lives but in the lives of those around us as we give of these areas generously and with a cheerful heart. This also includes being a people who are hospitable, hosting our friends and “family” with our resources and putting people up in our homes. (Acts 2:44; 2 Corinthians 9:6-8; Philippians 4:19; Matthew 7:11; Malachi 3:10; Romans 12:13; 1 Peter 4:9)
Keeping the main thing, the main thing - Everything is about Jesus. What He instructs, what He examples, and we must model our lives after His. (Philippians 3:12-17; Mark 1:35-39)
Having a heart of worship and being passionate pursuers of Jesus, living lives of holiness reflecting the true nature of Jesus.
We believe that the Church is the Center of Jesus work, that as Matthew 16:18 says “…I will build my church…” that the word “ecclesia” means an assembly of called out ones, that this is a group that has been very carefully and wisely assembled into a well designed and built body. Each part is carefully chosen and set in place as Living Stones (1 Peter 2:4-6) where they contributing to the benefit and the functioning of every other part and the whole body. That as He draws different ones into a body, it is never by mistake or “chance” but by His design so that the Body may be built according to His plan and purposes (Ephesians 2:19-22)
We are convinced that the model for the Church is clearly expressed in Ephesians 4:11-16, and we strive to faithfully walk this responsibility out, in the building up and equipping of God’s people. That as Shepherds and Pastor’s of God’s people we are called to this work, giving our lives for His plans and purposes as laid out in Scripture. As we recognize and embrace God’s model, we will become a mature and vibrant Church, living, and reflecting the diversity and gifts of all people and this is lived out as we submit to the teaching of His Word in Scripture and by Holy Spirit’s leading.