What I (and hopefully we) Value

As we move forward as a church, pursuing Christ as a joy filling redeemer, I want to give everyone again the five ministry values I put forward to everyone on Sunday:

1. Gospel Centered Ministry

We want everything we do to be centered on the gospel. God's wrath stands against us until we come to Christ in repentance so that His death can count as ours. We want this message to constantly enlarge our view of God and make our hearts pound with joy as we recognize how much God had to do to reconcile his image bearing enemies. This message will transform how we view others, giving us ease to know people are broken sinners who need to be saved from themselves. It will help us to rely on grace for today and not count on what was needed yesterday. It breaks social barriers so that we can relate to all people, knowing that we are all in need of mercy. We want our prayer meetings focused on gospel faithfulness more than sickness and health. We can find healing in this message - for our relationships with God, our family, friends and fellow brothers and sisters.

2. Bible Saturated Ministry

Being "biblical" can carry a lot of different meanings, but what we want to say is that the Bible is not just defended as the Word of God, but loved. We want to move beyond quoting the Bible, and see ourselves as part of the grand redemptive narrative that God is weaving. We want to be part of the story, seeing ourselves as part of a long plan that God has had. We want the Bible on our minds and hearts, unashamed of what it is and unapologetic to what it claims. We want families to go home and open their Bibles together. We want everyone to bring Bibles to church and learn what God has done (not just for us, but in history). We want the sermons not just based loosely on one verse out of context, but grounded in God's salvation history, intent on discovering the meaning intended by the original writers.

3. Elder Led Ministry

Elders are appointed to lead and they must - we will be held accountable by God for the care of the souls of those placed under our care. We are to protect the church from bad teaching and divisive people. We are to run after those who are falling away and bring them back. A pastor is just one of many elders who shares the ministry of teaching and training people to be Bible saturated Christ followers.

4. Ageless Ministry

So many congregations split the age groups up - so we have youth, singles, young married, middle age, empty nesters, seniors, men, women, children, etc. all broken up. They spend most of their time on youth, believing that it is the best time to reach a person is before their 18. What we want is a cross section of ages ministering to each other. We want the older generation tied to the youth. We want married and singles together. We want the wisdom of the ages to be shared, not horded in small sections of the church. We want the young married couples to sit down with those married 20,30, 40 and 50 years and learn what a godly marriage looks like. The church will not be centered on one age group, but all - a multifaceted ministry pointing everyone to Christ exalting joy filled living.

5. Congregational Driven Ministry

If the pastor is the one who "does" all the ministry we will end up missing out on 99% of the gifting on the church. The elders role is very specific, but God gives the congregation a significant amount of grace based gifts for the purpose of blessing each other. We don't necessarily need a program or even permission from the elders. We don't need an evangelistic campaign to always reach the community. Authentic Christ followers will serve the Master as a natural outflow of their own godliness. They will evangelize because they love the lost. They will serve, exhort and counsel because they love people. While we will plan things as a congregation from time to time, let's not rely on organizational strategies to use our gifts. Let it be an outflow of a Christ following heart. We will receive nothing but unbreakable joy as we use the grace given gifts God has bestowed on us for His glory and our joy.

Pastor Darren