Core Values

ABIDING WITH JESUS

We prioritize our relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, knowing that our identity can only be found through intimacy with Him. Everything in our Christian walk flows from our time spent with the Lord. We long to grow in intimacy with Jesus, making our faith personal. Intimacy with Jesus births passion that fuels our faith.

We value spending extravagant daily time in the presence of Jesus in addition to allowing the Holy Spirit to fill and equip us for our mission to boldly proclaim Jesus to everyone everywhere.

INTENTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Instead of individualism and isolation, we commit to sacrificing our time and schedules to invest in others, building intentional relationships anchored in the Lord. We do what we say, we make time for others, and we maintain teachable hearts. We recognize the significance and impact our lives have on others and how we were meant to support one another in community.

MULTIPLICATION

We commit to being disciples who make disciples, focused on putting our faith into action. We act out of calling from a place of intimacy and passion produced in time spent with God. First, we sit and listen, then we go and do. We do not exist to create a “holy huddle.” On the contrary, as each believer becomes fully alive in their individual walk with Christ, from this place of intimacy they will be empowered to reach others around them who are lost. While multiplication within our groups will be specific to believers participating in intentional discipleship, the result will, and must be, a spreading of the Gospel among the communities in which we live and the people with whom we interact daily. The ultimate goal is that each person will bring new believers into the process and teach them to be disciples who make disciples.

We value the Apostolic function, a lens we wear that allows every one of us to see our individual callings as a part of God’s plan to reach those around us. We commit ourselves to engaging in local communities and sacrificing as necessary in order to make disciples as God leads us.

Community Values

Devoted Worshippers

We want to be people who are devoted to worshiping Jesus. We want to carve out daily time for prayer and Bible reading. We make time to join with others to pray and study His Word. We regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper and can’t stop thanking Him for His mercy. These are not obligations we try to squeeze in, but cravings we can’t live without. We don’t require gifted communicators or musicians; we just love to worship Jesus even in the most basic settings.

Loving Families

The body of believers is supposed to be closer to us than our own families.  “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Matt. 12:46-50 ( also Luke 14:26). Jesus said that “all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). He also prayed that his disciples would be so “perfectly one” that the world may believe that the Father sent Jesus (John 17:20-23). 

Equipped Disciple-makers

Each of us should be fully trained for greater works of service. We believe that all believers are called to be disciple-makers. No one should come as a consumer, but all should come as servants.  We want our leaders to teach us how to lead and help us develop in character through their modeling and teaching. Our goal is that each one of us becomes like Christ, and develops the ability to lead others to Him, make disciples, and plant churches.

Spirit-filled Missionaries

The aim is to be people with supernatural character, focused on sharing the gospel with neighbors and coworkers. We want to be people who aren’t focused on survival or higher standards of living, but devoted to the mission. For some, this will mean going to foreign countries to share Christ where He has not been heard. For others, this means supporting those who have gone. For everyone, it means sharing the gospel regularly.

Suffering Sojouners

We should be people who are eagerly waiting for the return of Christ. We are willing and wanting to suffer because we believe in heavenly rewards. When you read the Scriptures it is undeniably clear that Christians are supposed to expect, lean into, and embrace suffering with joy. And this call - to willingly walk into suffering for the sake of the gospel - is a call for all believers, not just for leaders or missionaries serving in persecuted areas of the world.

Love the Poor

Last, but not least, is the importance of loving and caring for the poor, as seen in scripture. Reading passages such as Galatians 2 and 1 John 3:16,  emphasizes the need to show love through actions and not just words. Also in Matthew 25, we see Jesus separating the sheep from the goats based on their treatment of the poor. As believers, we need to follow the example of Jesus and actively care for those in need, both locally and globally.

Devotion to Scripture

We desire to build a culture of people spending time with God every single day for themselves.  Many Christians look to Sunday morning as the time where they will be “fed” by someone preaching a sermon, but we encourage everyone in our movement to read through a portion of Scripture (we suggest a year-long Bible reading plan) during the week each day. This is the primary place that they are “fed,” through spending time with God in His word and in prayer.  Then, as we are doing life together, we can easily discuss the passages we are all reading. 

Small Simple Gatherings

In order to help us truly love each other, we’ve committed to having gatherings of 10-20 people meeting in a home. We’ve seen that once we get to 30 or 50 or 100 people in a church it becomes increasingly more difficult to live like a family, truly know each other, carry each other’s burdens, and build each other up. Many churches will do this in the form of a community group, which is great. But far too often people view a Sunday morning big gathering as the primary context of church, and the community group as optional. For us, we want to everyone to opt into sharing life, and therefore the primary context of church for them is a spiritual family of 10-20 people.

When things started getting out of control in Corinth, Paul reminded them of how he started the church. In 1 Corinthians 2 he states that he intentionally held back from using “eloquence,” “human wisdom,” and “wise and persuasive words” when starting and building the church. He didn’t want their walk with Jesus to be built on anything other than the power of the gospel. Likewise, Jesus was unwilling to draw people with anything other than Himself. Are we willing to do the same in our churches? Are we willing to strip everything away to make sure people are being drawn by Jesus and Jesus alone?

Everyone Discipled and Discipling

Everyone is called to make disciples.  We are all called to share the gospel with non-believers in hopes that they would follow Jesus. We are all called to take responsibility for the spiritual care of other believers.  But discipleship is hard and messy.  It involves intentionally getting to know someone, having hard conversations when sin is evident, working through conflict, and spending extra time with them when life gets hard.

Everyone Exercises Gifts

Paul said “to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7).  He goes on to list many different types of gifts that the Spirit gives to believers for the sake of the body. Then, he explains how every part of the body is needed and that we must be careful not to develop a mindset that some gifts are more necessary than others.  But is that truly how we function in the church?  Does every single believer in a church realize that they are just as needed and important as anyone else in the church?  Or do they tend to think that the preacher and worship leader are more important? 

Regular Multiplication of Gatherings

So many churches begin small, relational, and discipleship-focused, but aren’t able to maintain those characteristics as numeric growth happens.  Before they know it, they have become more and more of a machine rather than a healthy family.  Meeting in homes sounds great, but what happens as the church grows?  How does a church adapt as the Lord adds to their number?  One word: Multiplication.  The true fruit of an apple tree isn’t apples, but rather more apple trees.  The true fruit of a strong leader is not followers, but more strong leaders.  The true fruit of a healthy church is not congregants, but more healthy churches.  God has designed the world to be one that reproduces and multiplies.

Disciple Maker Values

We grow in secret, not in public

Intimacy with Jesus comes first. We grow in secret with the Lord, focused on growing in relationship with Him. From this place of intimacy, He will ignite passion; and from this passion, purpose. Instead of living a life of doing, we live a life of being with Him. Our calling comes from abiding and being with Him.

Major in the majors and minor in the minors

We are united in our pursuit of Jesus and minor differences will not cause division. Part of becoming a mature disciple is knowing what hills to die on and how to collaborate with disciple-makers who have different theological viewpoints. We strive for strong doctrine and uniting around the absolutes, while setting aside the differences that will not be resolved this side of heaven. We agree we are all here because we love Jesus and want to grow as disciples. We will stay focused–and help each other stay focused–on the essentials.

Growing big people, not a big organization

The purpose of our movement is to grow the individual so they are not only a disciple but a disciple-maker. We believe that growing big people is the mission. The only way our movement grows as an organization is by growing as people.

God pleasers, not people pleasers

Our movement is aimed at only pleasing Jesus and glorifying Him alone. The Word of God says that the Gospel is offensive, however, we will not back down from navigating that challenge and view it as an attribute of true discipleship.

Glorify only the name of Jesus, no man

We are not here to promote a person or their brand, or make this ministry a one-man-show. We’re a movement of many leaders who are about Jesus and making Him famous.

Fun not phony

We are disciple-makers filled with the Holy Spirit and the joy of the Lord. We embrace being ordinary and are authentic in our faith. With lightheartedness, we acknowledge our shortcomings and do not take ourselves too seriously. After all, we are each a work in progress. We share the nitty-gritty of our lives with each other instead of maintaining a phony facade. We believe that we can have fun in the adventurous pursuit of following Jesus and living life on mission. When we are called to the uncomfortable, we will fight to keep the joy and excitement of the invitation ahead of us.

High challenge, high grace

When we employ these two attitudes together, we are empowered and energized to continue forward in our faith pursuits. We are a high challenge environment. We are tired of being coddled. We are about taking responsibility for our growth in Christ. We are not consumers; we want a challenge because no change happens without it. Rarely do we value participation trophies or things that come easily. What value are we placing on our faith if we are not willing to sacrifice and challenge our minds and bodies for it?

High grace arrives as we take the risk in high challenge. We know God is for us and delights in our effort to obey Him. Even when our efforts fail, we are confident that His love and relationship with us remains steadfast.

Willingness over ability

As we read the Bible, we see over and over again God using the ordinary to do the extraordinary work of Kingdom building. God isn’t moved by a person’s extraordinary talents or abilities, but by faith and willing hearts. Willingness puts our faith in the Lord to accomplish what He is calling us to do, despite our abilities.

Followers not consumers

We are not a social club. We are committed to work hard and dedicate our lives to the Gospel and discipleship. This requires that we change our mindset from spectators and consumers to players and participants.

Attitude of gratitude

We are grateful for a God that rescues. That gratefulness moves us to action. There will be times when we will be discouraged or burnt out in ministry, but by living in gratitude for Jesus’ sacrifice, we will stay focused on our pursuit of discipleship.

Kingdom first

We will be inconvenienced. Our time, resources, and anything we hold valuable belongs to God, and what He chooses to use we willingly surrender for a greater purpose.

Work like it depends on us, pray like it depends on Him

Nothing of eternal significance happens apart from prayer. We choose to work hard and pray hard. Prayer throughout your study and in your group is essential to being a disciple.

Credit: The values above were taken from Ordinary Movement and We Are Church.