Value #8 -- Community

We believe honest, reconciled, loving community is the best environment for growth. (Acts 2:42-47, Hebrews 10:24-25)

We strive for this community to be a place where people can be who they are without fear of being judged.  It’s important that people don’t feel like they need to pretend to be accepted.  We are all sinners who are relying on Christ to change us.  When we’re honest about our struggles, doubts and sins, we can walk together on the journey.  Because Jesus tells us love for each other will be the greatest sign of our love for Him (John 13:35), we put the highest value on being reconciled to each other.

In it's most basic form, the church is a community--it's a group of people coming together, who share a common bond, faith in Jesus Christ.  As the early church began meeting, we see a great deal of togetherness. The image we get is groups of believers who shared life together.  Over the years, there have been different movements and ideas I don't think are necessarily what Jesus intended for His followers.

For one, there were monks who would move out into the desert to spend their lives in solitude.  Now, solitude can be a good thing, if it's done with a purpose in mind.  But were created as relational, social beings because we were created in the image of God, who is also a social being (a Trinity).  There was perfect communion between God and humans before the fall.  The result of the fall was separation, deception, and hiding.  So spending time in solitude, might help people to focus or study, but the end result should be for that person to come back into community to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.

There has also been a temptation of people in the church to believe (or act as though) participation in the church only needs to be attending worship service, hearing a message, celebrating the mass, or whatever ritual they prefer.  But as we look at the example of the early church and the instructions to the early church, we see that participation in the church is intended to be much more.  We're intended to share life together, to encourage each other, to confess our sins to each other, to sharpen each other and the list goes on.  All of these things requires much more than attending worship service.

What we've listed in our values statement are three aspects of good community life in the church.  Honesty, reconciliation, and love.  All of these things sound fluffy and nice, but all three are things that can be very difficult and take a great deal of humility and work to achieve.  I'll explain.

Honest relationships are hard--at least if they really are honest.  Being honest with people takes both humility and grace.  It takes humility on the part of the person who is being honest.  If I'm going to be honest about my short-comings, mistakes and sins, then I can't keep up the front of perfection and righteousness--I can't wear the mask.  Usually what we hide are not the good things about ourselves.  What we hide are those things we're embarrassed for others to see.  Honestly happens when I drop the pretense.

On the other side, however, it takes a great deal of grace.  When someone is honest with me and allows me to see them for who they really am, if I don't give them grace, the relationship will not be healthy and probably won't last very long.  When I give someone grace, it's not that I excuse their sin.  We always acknowledge that sin is sin, but we don't judge them for it, and we offer to walk with them as we work on our sin together.

The second characteristic of good community relationships is reconciliation.  Sometimes we think being a Christian is about being "nice."  We want to smile for people and put on a good face, because it seems more peaceful.  However, peace is only present when there's peace on the inside.  Just because we're not at each other's throats doesn't mean we have peace.  That's why true reconciliation is hard.

There are going to be times when we don't agree on things.  There are going to be times when we tick each other off.  But according to Jesus, we should never allow those feelings to continue (Matthew 18:15-17).  Instead, reconciliation demands that when we have a problem with someone else, we seek reconciliation.  We don't allow things to fester under the surface.  We deal with them so we can have peace.  Sometimes it seems much easier just to let things go, but in the long-run, only when we work to have true peace in our relationships can we have a unified church and grow into Christ-likeness.

Finally, true community is loving.  Love can certainly have some pretty vague definitions in our day, but when we understand Biblical love, we understand that it's not an emotion, but it's the decision, the action, of putting other's needs ahead of our own.  It's sacrificing my preferences and rights for the sake of others.  That's love in a marriage, at work, or raising children.  If it's not active, it's not love.

So while this value might sound fluffy and feel-good, there's actually a great amount of work that has to happen to make these relationships work.  In the end, however, there's no better place to grow than in these relationships.  If spiritual growth is relational, then practicing relationships grows us into what God intended.

Value #7 -- Grace

We believe that because God has given us grace, we are called to extend grace to others.  (Romans 2: 1-4, Ephesians 2:8)

Jesus calls people to come as they are, but doesn’t intend for them to stay the same.  Judgment and condemnation are not part of our job.  While we maintain high standards for people inside the church, we give grace to those on the outside.  Paul writes in Romans 2 that it is God’s kindness that leads people to repentance.  Jesus always led with grace and acceptance of the person who is far from God.  When people became His follower, then He had high expectations.

Grace is a subject that has taken me most of my life to grasp and will probably take most of the rest of my life to master. Grace is not our natural inclination because of two pieces:  1) It recognizes that something is terribly wrong and 2) that it's OK.

First, something is terribly wrong.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the world is flawed--in fact, people are flawed.  We all have a sense that things aren't the way they're supposed to be.  We see violence and decadence and broken relationships and selfishness as the norm in our world.  But instead of just resigning ourselves to "that's just the way it is," we say to ourselves that it's not supposed to be this way.

We see it in our own lives.  In Romans 7, Paul says it so well:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

I think we can all resonate with that. Not only is there something wrong with the world, there's something wrong with me.

Oftentimes religious people just try to cover up this fact.  We often forget we're sinners.  We often forget that we're so far gone that we don't need self-help, we need someone to save us.  Having that understanding of our own need for grace is the first step to becoming what Christ called us to be.  As long as we think we're good enough for God we'll lack humility--not to mention, we'll be unbearable to be around.  When we lack that understand of our own need for grace, we become self-righteous and self-righteous people are the least attractive or enjoyable people to be around.

Here's how 1 John puts it:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:7-8)

John says that if we're willing to walk in "the light" (which means living a right life and being honest about ourselves) we will actually connect better with each other than if we hide our sins from each other.

But I think sometimes people get confused about what grace is.  Simply put, grace is not getting what we deserve.  God knows we are sinners--He knows everything about us--and He loves us anyway.  But grace is not quite that simple.

First, grace isn't simply a "wink wink" at sin as if it's just OK.  Sin is not OK.  John Burke has a great line when it comes to grace.  He says, "Tolerance is just a cheap substitute for grace."  Tolerance says there's not really anything wrong.  You can do whatever you want.  But the reality is that sin has consequences and we can't just look the other way or treat it like it's not there.  Instead, grace acknowledges sin and treats it seriously, but here's the plot twist...

The Bible tells us grace is not free.  OK, it is for US, but it was not for God.  Jesus paid a high price for us to have grace.  If God just said, "I know you're sinners, but I'm just going to look the other way," He wouldn't be a just God.  Sin always has harmful effects and justice demands that things are made right.  But the great plot twist is that the ones who deserved to pay the price don't have to because Jesus paid it for us.

Grace is the foundation of the Gospel and I believe it's the appropriate motivator for change in our lives.  Guilt and shame can leave people in despair, but grace can motivate people to move beyond sin and live a life of thanksgiving to God.  That's why we lead with grace.  We do believe sin is real and destructive in our lives, but grace gives us a much better way to deal with it.

Value #6 -- Our Responsibility to the Poor

WWe believe the church has a mandate to serve the poor.  (Isaiah 1:16-17, James 1:27, Matthew 25:31-46) 

Scripture is very clear that God has a particular affinity for the poor, oppressed and marginalized.  From the prophets, to Jesus Himself, God called believers everywhere to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and care for the broken as an essential part of the Gospel.

I know this one might be a little controversial for some people, but I can't quite figure out why.  God's care for the poor and marginalized is plastered all over the pages of scripture.  While the evangelical church in America works harder and harder on making great worship services, traditionally we've largely ignored the poor.  This is what Isaiah was talking about when he wrote these words to the nation of Israel:

¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD,
   you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
   you people of Gomorrah!
¹¹ “The multitude of your sacrifices—
   what are they to me?” says the LORD.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
   of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
   in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
¹² When you come to appear before me,
   who has asked this of you,
   this trampling of my courts?
¹³ Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
   Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
   I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
¹⁴ Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
   I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
   I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer,
   I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
   I am not listening.
   Your hands are full of blood!
   ¹⁶ Wash and make yourselves clean.
   Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
   stop doing wrong.
¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice.
   Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
   plead the case of the widow.

He's saying all your worship of me is detestable to God if it isn't accompanied by care for the oppressed, widows, and orphans.  I believe this is a call not just to Israel, but a call to the church today as well.

The good news is that I think even the evangelical church is beginning to take notice and heed the words of Jesus who said, "whatever you did to the least of these my brothers and sisters you did to me."  We believe this is an essential part of what it means to be a church that wants to build the Kingdom of God. 

But I think I need to make another clarification when it comes to serving the poor.  Perhaps we could better say that we have a mandate to "identify" with the poor.  It's one thing to give them some money or serve them a meal and be on our way, but never really associate with them or get to know them, it's another thing to find it worthwhile to see that they may have something to teach us.

I think it's often easy for us to take a paternalistic attitude toward the poor and "stoop down to help them."  But I don't think it's a paternalistic attitude that God calls us to have.  Think about the example we have in Jesus.  The guy we try to emulate is the guy who left the luxuries of heaven to come, not help from above, but to serve and lift up from below.  When Jesus came, He didn't come as a king or dignitary or religious leader.  He came as a common man.  For the years of Him ministry He didn't really own anything or have a place to live.  He knew what it was like to rely on the gifts and grace of other people.  He knew what it was like to be subject to the whims of the influential in society.  Not only did Jesus help the poor, He identified with them.  He showed them God values them by valuing them Himself.

What we receive from the poor is an understanding of the core of the gospel.  When we associate with the poor, we learn that we're not self-made.  We learn that whatever we have came as a result of the right circumstances and the people who went before us.  That's not to say people can't work hard and make a better life for themselves, but sometimes people don't have the opportunities to "lift themselves up by their bootstraps."  As much as we'd like to think we're self-made, when we associate with the poor, we understand the advantages we've been given in life and accept them with grace and worship.

That's why it's not our intent to come to the city from the suburbs and retreat to our luxury homes.  Our call is to live simply, to give generously and serve humbly.  We don't (and won't) judge people who have more or live more, but we believe the church has a responsibility to the poor and we will look for ways to fulfill that responsibility.

Value #5 -- Discipleship

 We believe a central function of the church is discipling believers to be like Christ. (Philippians 2:3-11, Ephesians 4:11-13)

While the church must be externally focused, we must put a great amount of energy into growing people to Christ-likeness so the church can reflect the character of Jesus.  Discipleship is essential to effectively reaching our community and world.  We do this through teaching, modeling, mentoring and providing opportunities for people to serve.  The end-result of discipleship is that people will become less self-focused and more God and other focused.

The Need for Discipleship 
We've already talked about the need for churches to be externally focused.  That's most definitely a must for all churches.  However, we also know that it does little good to be outward-focused and bring people into the church if their lives aren't transformed.  God gives people grace and accepts them the way they are, but He doesn't expect them to stay that way.  His goal is that people are redeemed and restored to the image of God.  The way we like to describe this is Christ-likeness.

We believe Jesus was the true expression of what humans were intended to be.  To have a close relationship with God, to obey Him, and to selflessly serve other people.  The Great Commission teaches us to go and make disciples...baptizing them...and teaching them to obey...

The End Result of Discipleship
People have different ideas about what churches should be doing when it comes to discipleship.  Some churches will spend almost all their time on teaching the doctrines of the faith and of their particular denomination.  While those things are important and we do those, a knowledge of all the details of theology or doctrine is not the goal of discipleship.

But the end-result and the goal we should strive for in discipleship is to teach people to become like Christ.  This includes knowing who God is and how the world operates, but it's also more than that.  We don't just want to have knowledge of God--even the demons believe the right things about God (mostly), but we certainly wouldn't want to use them as our model of discipleship.  Instead, that greater knowledge of God should lead to a lifestyle like that of Jesus.  And it's not just that people should act like Jesus, they should develop the heart of Jesus--to be like Jesus.

Some would also lead us to believe that mature Christians are ones that spend all kinds of time meditating and studying scripture and things, but that's not necessarily the case.  Although those disciplines are helpful in moving us toward maturity, the amount of time we spend doing spiritual disciplines is also not the measure of maturity.

I believe perhaps the greatest character-trait of Jesus that we should develop is selflessness.  Philippians 2 is a perfect explanation of this.  Paul says we should put other people's interest above our own.  Our attitude should be like that of Jesus,

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Even though Jesus had all the right to the privileges of being God, He "emptied Himself" of those privileges and instead sacrificed for the sake of the world.  For us, this is the end-result of discipleship--that we learn to let go of ourselves and give ourselves to others.  When we empty ourselves, that's when Christ actually lives through us.  A central task of the church is to move people from being what they were without Jesus to everything they can be with Jesus living in them.

Value #4 -- External Focus

We believe the church must be externally focused, first toward our community, then toward the world, serving people and introducing them to Jesus.

When Jesus founded the church, He founded it as a missionary organization.  We are called to love and care for each other, but the orientation of the church must always be that we exists to serve others.  Just as Jesus said He didn't come to be served but to serve, the church as the body of Christ is also called to serve those outside its walls.

The first three values we've discussed so far are pretty much no-brainers for a Christian Church.  Jesus has to be our center, the Bible is God's clearest communication with us about how we should live and prayer is essential to every Christian's life and to the effectiveness of the church.  But now we're going to get into some values that seem to us to be central to the function of the church, but not every church operates in this way.

Many people will say about the church, that it's good for churches to do outreach, but really their main job is to study the Bible, or have great worship together or great fellowship.  But our belief that the church is essentially externally focused stems from two things:  1) Jesus' founding of the church; and 2) The nature of the spiritual life as modeled by Jesus.

First, when we look at Jesus' founding of the church in Matthew 16, He says He is the foundation of the church and "the gates of Hades will not overcome it."  What we should notice here is that gates are a defensive weapon.  So the picture Jesus paints is of the church going on the offensive against the powers of Hades, infiltrating our society with the weapons of the Kingdom (which is another topic altogether).  Also, as Jesus was ascending to heaven, His command to His disciples was to "go and make disciples."  The church has many benefits for believers, but the purpose of the church is to expand God's Kingdom.

Second, we believe this not just for the church but for each individual as well.  Some people will say that the result of spiritual growth is greater knowledge of Scripture, or deeper or more emotional worship experiences or charismatic gifts.  As great as those things are, they aren't the end-result of the spiritual life.  Our goal is to be Christ-like.  When Jesus explained His own personal "mission statement" (if you will), over and over, He says things like, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many," and instructs us to do the same.

So when it comes to your own spiritual growth, you will know that you're making progress, when deep-down--at your very core--you believe you exist not to make yourself happy, but to serve others.  Now don't misunderstand, just because we do things for other people doesn't mean we're Christ-like, but Christ-likeness will come out of a heart that is filled with gratitude for God's grace in our lives.  If we serve out of an empty heart or out of other motives, at some point we'll become bitter.  But when service is motivated by emptying ourselves and being filled with Christ, serving will only grow us more.

The same thing goes for churches.  If the church is the "body of Christ" then we should be doing what Christ modeled for us.  The church is the new incarnation of Jesus to the world.  So for us to spend so much time focusing on ourselves is really forgetting our purpose.

Now, to be honest, we haven't done this perfectly.  Waite Park has always been know for supporting foreign missions.  For the size of our church, we give an incredible amount to our various missionaries overseas.  That's very commendable and necessary.  However, where we've fallen short is that we haven't always been externally focused when it comes to our community.  It's almost as if we jumped right to Judea, Samaria and the whole world, and skipped right over Jerusalem (Acts 1:8).  We've done projects here and there and National Night Out, which is good, but if one of our core values is that the church must be externally focused, then there will have to be some refocusing on our part.  Developing this focus is essential to the future of Waite Park.

With this in mind, over the course of the next few months, we're going to be looking at where we can be most effective and find some organizations we can partner with to be more effective in reaching our community for Jesus.

Value #3 -- Prayer

3.  We believe prayer is essential to the Christian life.

The Bible tells us prayer is necessary and effective.  God works through prayer.  When we pray, we receive God's help and wisdom and are also reminded of our need for God.

Even for people who have been believers for a long time, prayer can be a great mystery.  For some, the question is; if God already knows what's going to happen, why pray?  For others it's; why would God listen to me?  Does He need my advice?

The truth is, there are some things about prayer that will always be a mystery on this side of heaven, but no more of a mystery than why God would care about any of us in our sinful state.  We should all be constantly in awe that the God who created the whole universe, knows everything about us and still loves us.  When we can grasp that, we can grasp prayer.

First, we pray because we believe God answers prayer.  Now I don't think we can say God always gives us what we want.  Sometimes He does, but sometimes our prayers are too small or too short-sighted or wrong-headed.  Even in those cases, sometimes He gives us our way.  But other times He'll do what's best, not what we want.  James 5:16 tells us "the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."

Second, we pray because prayer changes us.  When we make it a habit to turn to God for wisdom and guidance and help in trouble, we teach ourselves (or God teaches us) that we're not alone.  In fact, scientists are beginning to study the brains of people who spend a great amount of time in prayer.  What they're finding is that there is a certain part of the brain that engages prayer and is enlarged in people who pray--like they're exercising their prayer muscle.  Not only this, but studies also show that praying people are less stressed than those who do not pray.

Third, we prayer because it connects us with God.  The second and third points here are certainly related, but this one is worth mentioning on its own.  We believe that not only can we talk to God through prayer, but God also speaks to us.  It's like radio waves.  Radio waves are all around us, but we can only hear the talk or music if we tune in to the right frequency.  The story of Elijah tells us that God speaks in a gentle whisper.  We can become so busy with life that we aren't able to hear the whispers of the Spirit in our lives.  When we take the time to slow down and listen for God, we learn to recognize when He is speaking to us in the everyday.

All of the ministries of our church are "bathed" in prayer because we recognize that we don't do any work that God hasn't already begun.  Our job is then to learn to join Him in what He's already doing.

Value #2 -- The Bible

Working our way through the Waite Park Values.  As I mentioned, we didn't just determine that these will be the values of the church.  Now there are some that we recognize are important, but we haven't emphasized in the past, but for the most part these values are things that we have discovered about who we already are.  They're the things that will help guide us in the future.  We already talked about one value--that Jesus is the center of everything we do.  But where do we learn about Jesus?  This leads to the second value:

1.       We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and serves as our guide for life and ministry. (2 Tim 3:16)

The Bible is our guide for our individual lives as well as corporate life.  It reveals God’s character, points to Jesus and shows what it means to be what God intended.  Though we believe the Bible doesn’t prescribe one particular way of being the church or organizing the church, we strive to order our ministries in line with the Bible.

Last post I mentioned that we don't worship the Bible.  It's true.  The Bible is not meant to be worshiped, however we do believe the Bible is God's special revelation to us in a way that no other writing in the world is.  Let me explain that a moment.

Paul says in Romans 1 that what can be know about God is plain to us because He has made it plain to us. (Rom 1:19-20)  That speaks of general revelation.  The Psalms and various prophets speak of how all of creation shows the glory of God.  That's why we shouldn't be surprised that religions have so many similarities.  We can reason our way to some things about God.

But we can't know everything about God through creation.  That's why the Bible is so important for us.  We don't just want generalities, we want a God who speaks clearly to us, who shows us what life means, how creation works, how human nature works, and most important; who God is.  We believe that God directly inspired the writers of the Bible to give us specific instructions for life and ministry.

Now some people read the Bible like a doctrinal code.  They read it and try to put together propositional truths that somehow give us the knowledge to be able to go to heaven.  Now I do believe doctrine matters.  It's important for us to have an accurate understanding of God and the world.  But I think if that was what God was most concerned about, he would have given us a book of correct theological propositions.  But if we read the Bible on any level, we learn that this is not what we have.

Instead we have history.  We have poetry.  We have teaching.  We have parables.  We have prophecy.  We have laws and maybe even a few propositional truths.  In short, the Bible is a book of life.  It's the history of God and creation and fall and redemption and it promises that one day everything will be restored to the way God intended.

Most of all, the Bible points to Jesus.  The Old Testament looks forward to His coming.  The New Testament proclaims the good news of His coming and gives us instructions on how to live until He comes again.  Because the Bible is our most clear revelation about the character of God and about Jesus, we seek to bring everything we do into line with what the Bible teaches.  It's not an easy task at times.  We always have the temptation to do things our way, but when we do things God's way, we find satisfaction, peace and hope no matter what's happening in the world around us.  That's why the Bible is so important to us.

Value #1--It begins and ends with Jesus

OK, now we're taking a look at the nine core values Waite Park leadership identified as we took a good, hard look at our church.  Before we look at the first one, let me say a few preliminary things.

1. This obviously isn't an exhaustive list.  Just because we don't say we value CPR doesn't mean we don't think it's important to try to save the life of a guy having a heart-attack.  As we looked at our values, these are the ones that came up.  For instance, we don't have a value specifically related to the Holy Spirit, but that doesn't mean we don't believe in or value the Holy Spirit, we just don't state anything specifically about the Holy Spirit.
2. Some of the values are what you'd call "actual" and some are what we'd call "aspirational."  Actual values are the ones we have that are reflected in how our church works.  Aspirational values are values that we know we should have are want to have, but may not currently be reflected in how the church operates. What this means is that some of these will be natural for us, others, we will have to develop.
3. All of these are beliefs that are or should be reflected in our message, structure or programs.  So we will always have to go back to our core values and evaluate how these values are reflected in our ministry.

OK, with that being said, core value #1.

1.       We believe Jesus is our source of life and the center of our faith. (Acts, 17:28, John 14:6)

We believe Jesus is the human expression of God’s will, character and example for us.  We believe His saving work on the cross and His resurrection gave us forgiveness and the power to live transformed lives.  Jesus Christ is central to everything we do.

This is absolutely key.  We are CHRISTians, which means we are followers of Jesus.  We are not just church-goers, we actually seek to live lives that Jesus taught and modeled.  We are not a social club. 

We are not a "Bible" church.  I know this could be misunderstood, so let me explain what I mean.  We don't worship the Bible.  As you'll see in the next core value, we place a high value on the Bible, but we recognize that its value is that it points to Jesus.  The Old Testament looks forward to Jesus and the New Testament reveals and explains Jesus.  Jesus, Himself alluded to the Pharisees misuse of scripture in John 5:39-40:

"You search the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

What Jesus is saying is that life isn't found in a book.  Life is found in relationship with God through Jesus.  So we study the Bible very carefully but are careful not to miss out on the fact that while scripture reveals God, Jesus reveals God most fully.

The value doesn't explain every single thing we believe about Jesus, so let me elaborate a little.  We believe Jesus is God's one and only Son (fully God), who in obedience to the father, gave up His place in heaven and "emptied Himself" (Phil 2:5ff) of divine characteristics and became human (fully man) to teach and model the godly life and ultimately to die for the sins of the world so we can be restored in our relationship with God.

Jesus did not come for form a new religion, He came to replace religion with Himself.  Because of Jesus, we can now have access to God without having to go through religious rituals or be mediated by a priest.  He came healing, challenging the self-righteous "religious" people while giving grace to "sinners" and calling them to leave their past and live a holy life.  Since that was the mission of Jesus and we are the body of Christ, that is our mission as well.

If that ever ceases to be the focus of our church, we are no longer the church.  Next up:  Value #2  We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and serves as our guide for life and ministry.

Our Values

You might be interested to know that the leadership of Waite Park is working through some planning for the future.  I guess we're still trying to determine what we want to be when we grow up!  I've always said we want to be very transparent in the process. 

If you've been a part of Waite Park Church for any length of time, you know it has a long history.  We've done some great things over the years.  But every church has to wrestle with the tension of holding to a timeless message and yet communicating it in fresh ways that reach the culture around it.  A very obvious example of this would be if we had a great idea to record our services and distribute them on 8-track tapes.  Wouldn't make much sense, would it?

Now there are some traditions that are still meaningful.  We still celebrate Communion and even sing some songs that are hundreds of years old.  And yet the task that we have as church is too important for us to continue to look back at the good old days.  Even Isaiah, after he reminded Israel of how God brought them out of Egypt tells them:

¹⁸ “Forget the former things;
   do not dwell on the past.
¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing!
   Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
   and streams in the wasteland."

It's always good to remember where you came from, but God is concerned about the future.  He has a desire to see churches be movements, not museums.  We want to be a movement.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how Waite Park Church impacts its community for Jesus. 

As I mentioned, right now, we're determining the direction we want to go.  But first, we are setting our foundation.  So over the last couple of months, we've been developing (actually just recognizing) our core values.  They are the the timeless, deep-down things that drive us.  Every church has them, but not every church recognizes what their are.  What I want to do, for those of you who are interested, is to spend some time talking about our nine core values.  For those of you who are part of Waite Park Church, they should be familiar to you.  If you're not a part of Waite Park, it'll give you a little insight into who we are.