Core Values
We here at CHURCH ON THE JOURNEY claim as a community
of faith the following five attitudes which direct our behavior
as individual Christians and as the corporate Body of Christ.
They are known as our CORE VALUES:
PASSION…
- being Christ-driven in all things
- praising God through joyful and
self-offering worship
BELONGING…
- celebrating the God-given gift of
diversity in personal thought and experience
- loving one another without condition as
modeled by Jesus Christ
COMMUNION…
- affirming the presence of God-inspired
mystery in our everyday
- encouraging the individual’s
responsibility to know and learn about God
- building relationships through trust-based
small groups
PURPOSE…
- positioning itself for Christ-tasks
- reaching out to all people in the context
of their unique circumstances
- living life as the hands and feet of
Christ in a broken and despairing world
- adopting God-mindedness in the church’s
pursuit to overcome prejudice and discrimination
- growing servant-leaders in the image of
Christ
STORY…
- transforming God’s neighborhoods through
the lived-out expression of Christ’s love
- finding the right words to express our
individual and corporate faith-journeys
- embracing the biblical heritage from which
we come
Here’s a somewhat more expanded explanation to help you
understand us a bit better:
PASSION…
We express “passion” as an out-of-control love for God—a love
willing to sacrifice all. We know of this love having
experienced God’s passion for us through the creation event
itself. And yet, it is through God’s gift of Jesus Christ we
find the Holy One’s greatest demonstration of passionate love
for each and every human being. In response, we seek to be
driven by an out-of control love that desires to honor God in
all we say, in all we do, in all we think and in all we feel as
our lives become spiritual acts of worship.
(Inspiration:
Romans 8:31-38)
BELONGING…
Created in God’s own image, humanity is a virtual symphony of
different skin colors, languages, cultures, thoughts and
experiences. In the midst of such diversity, resides a yearning
within the heart of each human being to belong to that which is
larger than self. With this in mind, we celebrate God’s gift of
diversity. Having made covenant together as church, we are
committed to providing a safe place for every human being where
all can experience the joy of belonging without fear of
rejection or exclusion.
(Inspiration: John 10:14-16)
COMMUNION…
Relying upon our commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus and
his disciples as the defining symbol for shared life, the people
of God reside together in the uninterrupted spirit of communion
with the God of Sacrificial Love. This experience of communion
is founded on the claim of a common faith in Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior, built on the foundation of mutually dependent
relationships, and lived out through the commitment of
individuals and the corporate body to grow in Christ likeness.
(Inspiration: Acts: 2:42-47)
PURPOSE…
We are a people of purpose, a people with roles to
play in fulfilling God’s vision for the Creation. Every believer
is called out of isolation to be in the world as an agent of
God’s transforming love. Seeking to change a broken and hurting
world through faith and the use of our individual God-given
abilities, we purposefully seek to live lives modeled by Christ.
As cultivators of faith in the hearts of the faithless, some
will plant seed, some will water and some of us will harvest
yields that only the eye of God can envision. But in this
endeavor, we joyfully accept our roles, committed to the purpose
of bringing glory to the God of Creation.
(Inspiration: I
Corinthians 3:1-9)
STORY…
From generation to generation the Hebrews passed on their
shared-story through the oral tradition. Through story, the
people time and time again discovered and rediscovered their
connection to their Creator God and to one another. We too, as
the Body of Christ, claim our heritage through the
shared-stories of the Hebrew people, the church of Jesus Christ,
along with the life-stories of every believer past and present.
Through story, we claim our connectedness to God. Through story,
we find words for our own individual experience of God. Through
story, we have the means to offer the good news of God’s love to
those who have yet to hear.
(Inspiration: Deuteronomy 6, Matthew
28:19-20)
