Values

Back when planting a church was just an idea I would spend hours at the library in Senoia because it was quiet and lonely. (There's something sad about empty libraries and what it says about the communities around them--but that's another blog).  I'd go in the morning with a stack of 17 1/2'' X 11'' sheets of gold paper and my Zebra mechanical pencil on which I tried to capture as many thoughts as possible about what I thought would need to happen and when. I asked myself lots of questions and I even answered a few. I thought about creative ways to communicate vision and strategy. I thought about my philosophy of ministry and leadership; and I tried to sift out the wheat from the tares of my thinking. 

One of the critical questions I asked myself in the library was: 

"What should a church truly value?" 

Values can and should be written down but just because they are formally adopted and/ or displayed in a prominent place for all to see doesn't change reality. If our stated values are not embodied then they are as dead as this tree. Our values are revealed by our behavior. As I wrestled with this question I discovered seven (nice biblical number) values that I wanted our church to embrace.

Framing them as contrasts helped me to clarify what I meant. So, here they are:

Disciple-Making not Crowd-Building

Gospel-Centered not Religious Right (or Left)

Authentic not Fake

Simple not Complicated

Empowering not Controlling

Deep not (just) Broad

Green not Brown

One of the coolest things is that to some degree we are living these out!

In the next several blogs I am going to briefly discuss what I mean by each of these values and how I see them being literally fleshed out in the life of the church.