Core Values
Our core values that correlate to our purpose are hospitality, honour & honesty. Hospitality is the gift that refreshes. Honour is that which esteems and re-builds. Honesty is being lovingly truthful in order to restore. Read more: The vision & mission of this church is driven by members who understand, embrace & practise our core values. The reproduction of these values is what will build and create a culture within which people can flourish. The first of these values is:
HOSPITALITY – It is often the most overlooked and perhaps the most underrated of gifts within the church at large. Jesus declared the intent of His mission when He said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45). This is a cornerstone principle of biblical hospitality; ‘not to be served, but to serve’. Then in John 13 Jesus once again uses the basic tenets of hospitality to demonstrate to His disciples what true leadership looks like and the passage ends with Him telling them, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” People often equate their experience of a church service with the element of worship and how strongly they might have “felt” the anointing in the room. Jesus equated the anointing he “experienced” in the room with the basic values of hospitality. (Luke 7:44-47). The woman who anointed Jesus with her perfume and her tears took the untendered hospitality of Simon and raised it to the next level. Some consider this excessive, but Jesus considers it reasonable. It’s exactly what He did too. He first says that He did not come to be served, but to serve and He then takes it to the next level by adding, “and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Herein lies the challenge for us; to not just serve out of duty and offer great hospitality, but to always push ourselves to take it to the next level. That’s being “Just like Jesus”.
HONOR – The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all inclusive. Just as He gave His life for “all”, so also, we’re told to honor “all” men. “Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” (1 Peter 2:17-KJV) We don’t get to pick who’s worthy or not, but by submitting ourselves to this godly principle we will in fact honor God. “The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:45)
HONESTY – The willingness to be open and to speak the truth in love will cause people in the body to grow. If we value relationship like Jesus does then we must commit to seeing people we are in relationship with grow continually and maximize their potential, gifting and call. We must lead by example in working in unity to create a culture in which we value honesty; “speaking the truth in love” as an inseparable element of our growth. While writing to the church at Ephesus on the issue of unity in the body, the Apostle Paul makes this principle amply clear. (Ephesians 4:15-16) As members of this church the onus for driving these core values and creating a culture of hospitality, honor & honesty is literally “on-us”.