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God's values and mission
We are to grow in understanding God's values, purpose, & mission:
God is holy, and for our good and His glory He wants us to be holy, faithful & pure. But He is also merciful, and we may approach His throne of grace at any time to receive mercy & find grace to help us in our time of need!
God wants all people to be saved as well. Let us follow God's promptings in helping others to become part of His Family, too!
When it comes to Christ's church, His gathering of people unto Himself, we are able to define more specifically His vision, mission, and values:
Vision - The first part of the Lord's Prayer He taught us
To see God's name hallowed
To see God's kingdom come
To see God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven
From this vision necessarily comes the mission statement:
Mission-The Great Commission
To make disciples of all the nations
(This is a shorthand way of saying the mission is to help all people to become subjects within Christ's kingdom and thus experience life to the full; each of us with our unique individual gifts contributes to teaching, modeling, and making possible others' entry into the Kingdom)
In line with Jesus' mission statement, we can also compose a purpose statement for our lives, for our Christian communities, which corresponds to the great holistic themes of the Bible:
Purpose
"Life was meant for living". Life is all about relationships and walking hand-in-hand in harmony with God and each other as we go about doing the delightful beautiful tasks God has laid before us.
By God's grace, in accordance with His will, and with His help we seek to:
Glorify God and give thanks to Him in all that we say and do.
Meet the needs of all people we come in contact with, as best we can, and especially care for our fellow believers in Christ.
Help all people become mature followers of Jesus Christ and thus help them experience life to the full! Each one of us with our unique individual gifts contributes to teaching, modeling, and introducing others into a growing fruitful relationship with Jesus Christ.
Fulfill the mandate God gave us at the beginning of creation: having good relationships with God and each other, fill the earth and subdue it.
Now when it comes to the values all disciples should hold and becoming more and more aligned with, it follows that these will be congruent with the nature of the King Himself, and will be those which maximise positive harmonious relationships:
Values - the duty of mankind
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength
Love your neighbour as yourself
Love one another sacrificially and with mercy just like Jesus modelled to us
It is good for us, however, to expand on these values, especially as it is in these very areas that sin has so drastically affected us, and we need to have our minds as thoroughly renewed as possible in the realm of interpersonal relationships. But remember, these interpersonal values (toward God, each other, and creation) are all the natural outworking or fruit of coming to know and understand our new identity in Christ! These values are not commands to be obeyed slavishly but rather should be the joyous fruit of our faith! (cf Romans 1:5).
Expanded values set
New Relationship with God
We are committed to growing in intimacy with God because of what Jesus has done for us, expressing itself in thanksgiving, praise, worship, trust, giving Him glory, and desiring to listen to & obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit;
Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength
Romans 1:21 Glorify God as God and give thanks to Him
Matthew 4:10 Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on our own understanding.
John 15:4-5 Abide in me ... apart from me you can do nothing.
New Understanding of Life
We are committed to understanding who we are in Christ and its implications for our lives: "I AM ... in relationship";
New Power for Living
We are committed to relying on the Holy Spirit, His gifts, and prayer, both in solace and community, in coming to and living out new life. Our personal responsibility is to abide in Christ through the Spirit and thus do the will of God.
As a result we will seek to embody and fulfill the following values ...
Contentment: Thanksgiving to God for the provisions available;
Responsibility: Contributing to the good of the community and the greater world;
Creativity: Expanded horizons of what life can be and a seeking to develop into all what God intended for our life;
Beauty: All things done for the glory of God and thus reflecting His grandeur;
Generosity: Not withholding from others in need the wealth which comes to us because we know that it all comes from our generous and loving heavenly Father in the first place, who always has our best interests at heart;
Awareness: Open eyes to see the needs of a neighbour and serve in love;
Brotherhood & Sisterhood: Freedom to communicate cross-culturally and recognition of the intrinsic worth of every human being;
Community: Tangible expressions of belonging, acceptance, and interdependence;
Forgiveness: Forgiveness and a release of others from their debts towards us;
Involvement: Interest and contribution to events which bring elements of the community together;
Service: Readiness to give to and invest in others freely and generously because they are fellow human beings of great worth and because that is how our heavenly Father treats us;
Purity: Self-control and an honouring of others as human beings with personalities, made in the image of God;
Liberty: Freedom from addiction and oppressive forces to enjoy life in wholeness;
Integrity: Qualities such as honesty, being real, being genuine, not wearing a mask, no 'show & games', no gossip, no slander, no unkind criticism;
Holiness: Set apart from wickedness and worldy principles and practices (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life), and dedicated to living a blameless life as God commands;
Humility: Gentleness and humility coming from heaven's wisdom, which is first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere;
Respect: Realisation that no matter what gifts we each have we all have the same status: image bearers;
Devotion: Delight in growing to understand and being conformed to God's ways and in being a celebratory community around Him;
Submission: Recognition that the Holy Bible has been given as our absolute visible source of authority from our invisible God (being the yardstick for all our study, thinking, & meditation upon matters of life, salvation, history, the cosmos, & morality). We also recognize the authority of Godly leadership, whose counsel we should seek.
See further the Kingdom Manifesto in Matthew chapters 5-7 (Jesus' Sermon on the Mount).
In actual fact, it is very interesting to note how the three love commands of Jesus correspond with our spirit, soul, and body, and can be summarized with these words: worship, care, forgive. They also correspond to the three aspects of Micah 6:6-8. They are: do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God!
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