Values

Biblical
“…the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God that serves as the final written authority for living out the Christian faith.” [from 10 Facts You Should Know About American Baptists]

2 Timothy 3:16-17. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Therefore all other sources utilized for interpretation such as sociology and psychology are to be submitted to the will of God, as known through his Word and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Trinitarian
Our Worship and Service is Trinitarian. We honor and serve our Father; We are redeemed by the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and desire to be transformed into his image; and, We are guided and empowered for service by the Holy Spirit.

“I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three." [Breastplate Prayer of St. Patrick]

2 Corinthians 13:14 – “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Transformational
Our goal as Christ-followers is not to try to cram people into whatever our behavioral ideals might be, but to lovingly help people connect and be transformed into the likeness of Christ.

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Gen. 1:31), but then brokenness was introduced to the world through Adam and Eve’s sin. God’s task through the redemptive work of his Son Jesus Christ, and through the transformational power of his Spirit, is to reclaim that beauty.

2 Corinthians 3:18 – “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the
Spirit.”

We desire for Transformation to occur on four levels through the cross of Christ, as seen in the adjacent diagram (See Colossians 1:15-20)

Diverse
God has created a diverse people and we celebrate that. We recognize that we each have brokenness, diversity and differences, but through the cross of Christ, we can individually and collectively become something beautiful.

Whilst we encourage and embrace diversity and celebrate differences, we also submit such to the will of God through his Word and by his Spirit, so that transformation can continually take place.

Revelation 7:9 – “…I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”

We also strive to embrace Biblical Christian Diversity as witnessed through the various Christian Streams throughout history [1],

- The Contemplative Tradition (The Prayer-filled Life)
- The Holiness Tradition (The Virtuous Life)
- The Charismatic Tradition (The Spirit-Empowered Life)
- The Social Justice Tradition (The Compassionate Life)
- The Evangelical Tradition (The Word-Centered Life)
- The Incarnational Tradition (The Sacramental Life)

See also the adjacent diagram [2]:

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[1] Richard Foster, Streams of Living Water.
[2] Diagram adapted from James Bryan Smith and Lynda Graybeal, A Spiritual Formation Workbook. HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 1999, 30.