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The Community's core values!


This month at The Community Fellowship we are sharing a series called A Heart for the House, and this past Sunday we talked through our core values.  Since the church began in 2006 these have helped to shape who we are and what we do.

My prayer is that God would help us understand who we are and how we can make the biggest impact on our community and way beyond.  Our motto and theme is demonstrating the love of God to our community.  We do this by serving people and winning the right to share Jesus with them.

"Whoever shows up the most in peoples lives is going to win the battle of influence" -- Matthew Barnett

God loves people more than anything.  That’s what a song says, but it is what we believe as well. 

The church belongs to God, and our core values help us understand what God is doing in our relationship to Him, loving God, and with the people around us, loving others.  That sums up what Jesus said is the most important commandment.

Matthew 22:37-39  NLT
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

That is no small task, yet when we realize how much God loves us, we will want to love Him.  Loving on begins with us knowing Him and spending time with Him.  Loving God allows His love to overflow in love to others.  Others… that is a great word to describe our values.

The following are our churches 7 core values build on the premise that God set up His church to reach the world.  I believe if we will share these core values, that we will see lives change.

COMMUNITY

The Community exists to exalt God, to influence people & to encourage one another to live by faith and to grow closer to Him.  Acts 2 talks about the first church being committed to God and to each other.  Real community means we chose to do life together.

RELEVANT 

We believe with all that we are that because God changes lives.  He has been in that business since the beginning of time.  We believe that the Bible speaks to needs and lives in relevant ways.  John 14:6 reminds us that Jesus is the only way to God.

ACCEPTANCE 

We chose to accept people as they are and where they are.  God accepts us and have forgiven our sin (Romans 14:3,15:7).  To cultivate a place and a fellowship where people know they are accepted makes a huge difference I our lives and in the lives of the people we encounter.  

CREATIVITY 

It’s not always easy to be creative in reaching people.  Churches have a tendency to do the same things over and over and minister to the same people.  We have to be creative so that we can share the incredible news that God gave us.   Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 that he chose to share Jesus with whoever he was with.
  
AUTHENTICITY 

To be real is one of the best ways to help other people open up to God.  When we share our story and where we’ve been, other people will begin to hear how much God loves them and accepts them.  Jesus was authentic and was the example of God as  Hebrews 1:3 shares.

UNITY

By sharing God's vision brings unity, and it is also not easy to grow a culture that prizes unity.  Far too often people know what Christians and the church are against.  We desire to let people know what we are for.  Jesus chose to be humble and to serve others.  There is something about meeting the needs of people that brings unity to the church (see Philippians 2:1-5).

EXPECTATIONS

We are to hold each other accountable.  The church in 2 Corinthians 8:5 went beyond on what people expected of them.  Why?  It is because they knew that the status quo was not good enough.  We can help each other be stronger and more effective.  We do that by encouraging each other to raise our expectations.

What we are passionate about ought to be what we are about every day.  My passion is to influence others for Jesus by meeting needs.  May God help us to let others see and experience His best, and that is abundance on God’s scale.

John 10:10  NASB
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
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