Our Core Values
Our Core Values express our “Why,” the reason that drives what we do. These are the primary motivations for who we are and who we seek to become.
We believe that God’s Word reveals the eternal truth, and holds authority over our lives. Christ himself is “the Word made flesh,” and “the way, the truth, and the life,” by which all persons are able to come back into a loving relationship with the Father. The world around us is ever-changing, like shifting sand, but God’s Word revealed in Scripture remains unchanging. We seek to develop a worldview based on Scripture as our true North. We believe that our experiences should be understood through the interpretive lens of Scripture, not the other way around.
When God created humanity, He placed us in a family relationship. Adam and Eve, the first man and first woman to bear the image of God, did so together in the bond God ordained. However, Sin corrupted and broke God’s image in them, and so consequently in us, and this also corrupted and broke God’s perfect image of family. Yet, God didn’t abandon humanity, and He didn’t abandon family. Instead, He set about to redeem both. Abraham and Sarah were the beginning of a family through whom the Messiah, the Christ, would come to earth and redeem, restore, and reconcile us back to Himself. When Christ came in the flesh, he built a new family around himself and gave them his Spirit and authority to carry on his mission. That family is the Church, where all people, regardless of past or present family circumstances, are meant to find eternal connection and community.
Jesus Christ is the perfect image of Humility and, at the same time, strength and courage. Humility is not having low self-esteem. In fact, only those who have ultimate confidence in who they are can be truly humble. In Matthew 3, at Jesus’ baptism by John, the Father makes a declaration of who Jesus is and His love for the Son. Because Jesus had nothing to prove to anyone, knowing fully well who he was, he could stand in silence before his accusers later in Matthew 26 and 27. Humility doesn’t seek justification from self-actions or other’s opinions. Because the truly humble don’t need this external affirmation, they possess the courage to do what is right regardless of the consequences.
Because God’s Word is authoritative over our lives, we must submit our will, our desires, and our plans to the commands of God. When He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, obedience to these commands requires a radical departure from natural human responses.