six
values
The church is not a club that it should value membership and dues paid on time. It is not a circus that it should value a full house and a good show. The Church is not a classroom that it should value the orderly dispensing of information. Nor is it a corporation that it should value the “bottom line”. Our values don’t come from committees or marketing strategists. Our values are all tangled up in the stories that Jesus told when he said, “The Kingdom of heaven is like…” Following are some “kingdom” values that we long to see expressed within the community of CCF.
Time
God rarely does anything in a hurry. He works in seasons, years, decades and centuries to accomplish His desires. Why do we resist this rhythm by filling our lives with activity and stuff? We surrender ourselves to the sovereignty of God and ask that He grant us patience while He does what He wants to do. Life just takes time.Awareness
When we slow the pace of our lives and set our hearts on the long journey home we begin to notice more. We are more sensitive to the needs of those around us and more aware of what is happening in the interior worlds of our own hearts and souls. This awareness is a gift and it’s absence should always be a warning.Intimacy with God
With God everything begins, flows from and comes back to relationship. Our tendency toward “doing” stuff for God to the exclusion of “being” with God is frighteningly insidious. Still He invites us, as He did the very first humans, to walk with Him in the cool of the day. Intimacy is knowing God not just knowing about God. This is the sacred romance that our hearts cry out for even when we don’t know it.Humility
The sun comes up and goes down every day and we don’t have a thing to do with it. Any sense of control that we might have is pure illusion. It’s been said that the problem with modern day Christians is that we take ourselves too seriously and God not seriously enough. Pride was the first sin and all the others flow from it. God resists the proud the Bible tells us but He gives grace to the humble. Christ is our example in living a life of humility (see Philippians 2)Courage
Courage is not the absence of fear. Rather it is the absence of self. Human rebellion against God is most on display in our endless parade of self-preservation. “Take up your cross and follow me”, Jesus said. “He must increase, I must decrease” was the cry of John the Baptist. To follow Jesus has always required audacity and a willingness to risk losing one’s place in line.Grace
“The heart of Jesus loves us as we are and not as we should be, beyond worthiness and unworthiness, beyond fidelity and infidelity; He who loves us in the morning sun and the evening rain without caution, regret, boundary, limit or breaking point.” (Manning) This grace is bearing fruit in our lives when we love one another this way.“If you fill your calendar with important appointments, you’ll have no time for God; if you fill your spare time with essential reading, you will starve your soul; if you fill your mind with worry about numbers, the pains in your shoulder and chest will betray you; if you try to conform to the expectations of those around you, you will forever be their slave. Work a modest day, then step back and rest—this will keep you close to God.”
Author Unknown