When deciding who we hope to become as a church, we realized we don’t have to look any further than the teachings of Jesus. He called us to form our lives around His teachings, so the lifestyle values He calls us to at the beginning of His famous sermon on the mountain (often called “the beatitudes”) are also the values of who we want to be as a church:
(Matthew 5:3-8, NLT)
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”
We strive to be people who are fully aware that we can't do life or church alone, that we're in constant desperate need of God -- His grace, His love, His power.
“God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.”
Regardless of where someone is spiritually, life always brings some loss, obstacles, and sadness, (“In this world you will have trouble…” Jesus in John 16:33), so we strive to provide space in our journeys for grieving and mourning–so that nobody has to mourn alone, and so we can always remind each other of the hope of Jesus.
“God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth.“
We strive to follow Jesus' constant example of humility, and to value it as highly as He does. So we want to never position ourselves "above" anyone else, and to hold what we do "know" about God with holy humility, so that we can continually be re-formed and re-shaped by Him.
“God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will be satisfied.“
We value highly as a church a constant hunger and thirst for God’s Kingdom to come “here on earth as it is in heaven”, as Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:10), so we strive to always commit a big part of our time, resources, finances, energy, and relationships to loving our neighborhood, serving our communities, and blessing the rest of the world.
“God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.“
We strive to constantly remind each other of God's incredible mercy and grace to us--even though we don't deserve it--so that mercy and grace can flow through us to others in our lives.
“God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.“
We believe that the more we let God see of us, the more we'll get to see of Him, so we strive to grow our hearts to be more pure, less divided, more authentic to who God wired us up to be.
“God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.“
We believe that peace-making and reconciling are core to who God is, so we strive to be people who work with Him to restore peace--in individual relationships, in our church, in our community, and in the world.
“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.“
We know that trying to live out these counter-cultural values of Jesus, won't be easy. So we want to strive to live them out even when we feel hurt by others, even when we feel alone in our beliefs--but always with the heart of a peacemaker, a heart that's pure, a heart that's humble.
