I am doing a series of personal journal-type entries on the blog focusing on my role as the Pastor of Lifeplace.

I remember before we started Lifeplace, we spent a lot of time trying to distil our core values into a small list. This process of discovery felt at times like grasping at a mist as it was so hard to narrow down the kind of church we were to become before we had even had one meeting!

Looking back at that process, and then looking at our church now, it would feel as if the process of discovery is much more dynamic than just a static list of values on paper.

Yes we have core values of Relevance and Depth, and they have helped be a navigation tool for us. And yet simultaneously it feels we are only on the first leg of discovering the kind of church God has called us to be. I believe the reason for this is that values are contextualised to the city and the people that comprise the church community. It is not just the Pastors values, but those shared values that resonate with us all broadly.

Our true core values are not just words, they are who we are and what we actually do. Some interesting observations thus far on our values:

• Our church has a strong relational feel to it. People typically stay an hour after services at our cafes talking and building friendships. This is a value that is authentic and has developed organically.
• Our church values practical teaching from the Bible. As much as I may personally like more theological subjects, it would seem that I always get the most response from very practical messages.
• Our church loves volunteering. We have a very high percentage of people involved in serving.
• Our church responds to worship and the presence of God. There is a faith-hunger in people’s lives.
• Our church truly is generous financially. People tithe, they give offerings, and they give regularly.

Some of these values we have worked at intentionally since we started, but bear in mind we worked at many other things that didn’t catch. These are some of the ones that we worked at and they connected with the people God has placed in our church.

For someone as myself that is driven by logic and being systematic, it is a wonderful surprise to see our church develop and take its own shape over time.

Our values – not that which we hope we like – that which we actually are.

I welcome your feedback and thoughts and questions on this.

Lifeplace

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.