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.