By Pastor Merrill Davis

Core values establish identity and purpose. There is a real and present danger for a church to lose the center of faith and God’s reason for the existence of the church in the first place. It is possible to be caught up with things peripheral and completely miss out on the essentials. As we live up to our core values, this drifting from the center of faith will be avoided. 

 

1. Faith pistiV

Faith is a gift from God without which there would be no believing or trusting in Him. Without faith it is impossible to please God. The infallible and inerrant Word of God serves as the foundation of faith. The Scriptures cannot be broken. They can never be set aside as irrelevant, inaccurate, or nonauthorative. Since faith is objective and subjective in nature, our behavior is predicated upon our belief. We believe in God and His Word. This belief involves both an intellectual assent to the truths of Scriptures as well as a trusting in the Lord of the Scriptures. As the hymn writer proclaimed, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!”

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things notseen” Hebrews 11:1

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude 3

 

2. Hope elpiV

A vibrant church has a healthy understanding and appreciation for the past and a hopeful expectation for the future. Christians are people of hope. The kind of hope God gives is not wishful thinking. It is a confident expectation that God who cannot lie will keep His promises. Christian hope is for today and tomorrow. It works now and will keep on working for us. The blessed hope, the soon return of Jesus Christ, encourages us to persevere in the faith, and promotes sanctified living. This hope is expressed by Isaac Watts in a communion hymn: “With joy we tell the scoffing age, He that was dead has left His tomb; He lives above their utmost rage, and we are waiting till He come.”

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13

“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” I John 3:3 

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye mayabound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Romans 15:13

3. Love agaph

The day will come when faith and hope will no longer be needed. Since faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the substance of things unseen, in time through the providence of God, faith will not be necessary because we will no longer hope when Jesus fulfills His promise of gathering the saints unto Himself. When the beatific vision becomes a living reality, faith as we know it today, will no longer be needed. But love is another matter. Love lasts forever because love is of God. God is love. For love to cease would suggest that God would cease. This is impossible. Love continues for eternity because God shall continue for eternity.

“And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” I Corinthians 13:13 

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:34-35

 

4. Worship

As people of faith living with the confident expectation of Christ’s soon return and who love God, His people, and those who are unsaved, we understand it is our duty to worship God. Worship ascribes worth to God. God who as Creator is the supreme sovereign, the powerful Savior, absolutely holy, a wrathful Judge, yet rich in love, desires to be worshipped and delights in worship. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. The purpose of worship is to glorify God. We seek to glorify God the Father who gives life, and the God the Son who lost His life that we might live, and God the Holy Spirit who produces the Christ life in us. In Jesus Christ, all our deepest needs are fully satisfied. Grateful hearts that realize God is worthy of our adoration, worship because they know where all blessings originate.

“For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3

 

5. Disciple Making maqhteusate 3100

The Great Commission is the Church’s mandate. The Church is in the business of making disciples. This includes evangelism of the unsaved and the edifying and equipping of the saints. The church ought to be a school of Christ. The building up of disciples occurs when the Pastor faithfully teaches and trains fellow believers to do the work of the ministry. As believers are edified through the Word and spiritual gifts are developed and deployed within the local body, evangelism will become a natural outcome. There is something attractive and powerful about a disciple making church. It is our intention to develop believers and ministries designed to bless others by meeting needs. Just as the early church provided the paradigm for ministry, as God gives us strength unequal to the task, so will we practice the growth and disciple making principles that makes the church healthy and strong.

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations (make disciples), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” Matthew 28:18-20

 

6. Evangelism

Since the whole point of the Holy Scriptures is to point people to Christ, as a New Testament Church, it is our intention to evangelize the unsaved. Jesus Christ makes His followers fishers of men. If Christians fail to fish for men, they fail to follow Christ. The Church flourishes that fishes for men. Just as Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, so the Church, as the Body of Christ on earth, are to seek out the lost, and witness to them whenever and wherever possible. We seek to possess a robust passion for the lost imitating our Lord who would have all men to be saved. While the Scriptures teach believers not to be friends with the world, yet we seek to penetrate the world for Christ and to make Him known. 

“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” Philippians 2:15

 

7. Servanthood

The Bible makes it clear that followers of Christ are to live and serve Him in humility. The Lord Jesus taught that if anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all. (Mark 9:35) The goal of this church is to develop members into ministers, servants of the Most High. Every member a minister serves as a guiding principle. We shall strive to be a community of servants just as Jesus who did not come to be served, but to serve, gave us the example by washing the feet of the disciples. We find personal significance not by comparing or competing with others but through the timeless and special relationship with the living God releasing us to focus on the needs and interests of others.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:” Philippians 2:5-7

 

8. Excellence

A culture of excellence creates an attitude of never being satisfied with being satisfied. We are not afraid of innovation and acceleration. We strive to be the best at what God leads us to do. The church that goes from good to great can never be satisfied with mediocrity. Why should we do anything unless we are doing our best? Evaluation and accountability become a part of the process of which we willingly accept. We understand that a healthy environment of excellence attracts those who want to make a difference. The right people in the right place desire excellence, which in turn attracts more of the right people.

“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” Colossians 3:17

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” I Corinthians 10:31