Believing that Jesus’ Great Commandment “to love God and to love others” (Matthew 22:37-40) is the foundation for all that we are and all that we do, we will pursue Jesus’ Great Commission to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19-20) as the primary expression of that love. Our core values grow out of this scriptural understanding and are the cornerstone of our congregation.
Word of God - Believing God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path; we place ultimate value on the Scriptures for our faith and practice. We believe God speaks to us in many ways and that his people can hear his voice. We give high priority to the proclamation of the Word and believe in its power to impart life and bring about transformation both in people and in places.
(Scripture Reference: Psalm 119:105; II Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12, Luke 4:4; John 10:27; I Corinthians 2:4-5, II Timothy 4:1-2; Acts 4:38.)
Kingdom of God - Believing the kingdom to be God’s ways of doing things, we value the aggressive extension of the kingdom into our spheres of influence.
(Scripture Reference: Matthew 6:10; 11:12; 13:3-9, 18-23, 31-33; Mark 1:15)
Worship - Believing God is seeking those who worship the Father in spirit and truth, we consider it our highest privilege to freely bring Him extravagant praise and proclaim his mighty deeds and the kingdom of God. We believe all that we are and everything we do should be offered to God as worship.
(Scripture Reference: John 4:23; Revelation 5:13; Luke 1:51, Luke 9:60, I Corinthians 6:19)
Prayer - Believing we individually and corporately develop intimacy with God and discover his will and his ways through prayer, we will bathe the conception, planning, and execution of all our personal and corporate activities and ministries in prayer.
(Scripture Reference: Mark 14:35-36; Luke 11:1; 22:39; John 18:2; Mark 11:17)
Relationships - Believing right relationships with both God and man are God’s way of conforming us into the likeness of Jesus Christ, we make it a priority to love our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
(Scripture Reference: Matthew 22:36-40)
Unity - Believing Jesus desires His people to be unified in the same manner that He and His Father are united, we will intentionally strive to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace with all those who declare Jesus to be Lord.
(Scripture Reference: John 17:21; Ephesians 4:3)
Restoration - Believing it is God’s gracious desire to redeem everyone, we, too, will gently restore people and not reject them. We will opt for grace instead of judgmentalism. We will move toward others with love rather than condemnation, while encouraging people to be reconciled to God, His Word, and to others.
(Scripture Reference: I Timothy 2:3-4; Galatians 6:1; I Peter 4:10; Galatians 5:15; Matthew 7:1-5; I Peter 1:22; Romans 8:1; Ephesians 4:32, I Thessalonians 4:11; Matthew 18:15-18; Matthew 5:23-24)
Culturally Relevant - Believing we are to become all things to all men so that by all possible means we might save some, we dedicate ourselves to remaining faithful to God while striving to be relevant to our culture.
(Scripture Reference: I Corinthians 9:22; I Chronicles 12:32)
The City/Regional Church - Believing that Jesus empowered his Church to penetrate her Jerusalem and Judea, we highly value our responsibility to influence the city and regional church of Lubbock and West Texas to become one.
(Scripture Reference: Acts 1:8; John 17:20-21)
Missions - Believing Jesus has commissioned us to make disciples of all nations, we devote our energy and resources to the purposes of making disciples in our city, our nation, and the world for the cause of Christ and His Kingdom.
(Scripture Reference: Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19)
Discipleship - Believing Jesus charged us with the responsibility to make disciples, we commit ourselves to reproducing Christ-likeness in those entrusted to our care by modeling and by teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.
(Scripture Reference: Matthew 28:19; II Timothy 2:2 Matthew 28:20; I Corinthians 11:1)
Leadership - Believing churches should be led by men and women who possess the giftings of apostle, prophet, evangelist, teacher, and/or pastor and those who have been called to support these giftings, we value these servant-leaders as gifts from Jesus to the church for the purpose of establishing the government of God and equipping the people of God.
(Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:11-12)