Sorry for the bait and switch, but this isn’t a post about money. It is a post about stock though—and values. It’s about putting real stock in your church’s values.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Wait!
I know that sounds like a real sleeper, but what if I told you it was actually extremely critical for the Christ follower to get this? Critical doesn’t even go far enough—what about life saving?
Spiritually speaking.
You better not be calling me a Drama Queen right there in front of your Macbook, in the protection of your basement, sipping coffee in your pajamas! Instead, you should prepare yourself to hear me out.
Ready?
Good.
At Southbrook Church we have 9 Core Values. They are anything but random—some are as old as the church. Others are relatively new. Nearly all were born out of pain. Most values are. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Pain. Either a lot or a little. And the amount of pain tends to determine the weight we put on our values. If it really, really hurt—the tenacity in which we defend the value that could have prevented the hurt–will be great.
Example: Many of the churches that experience the highest degree of unity are the ones who once encountered a great degree of division. The pain that disunity causes can be an extremely powerful motivator to look into what it takes to keep dividers and disunifiers away from the flock—or wolves away from the sheep. Pick your metaphor.
Here’s another.
Why do some people so emphatically emphasize God’s Word at their church while others barely use it—opting instead to teach a constant barrage of felt need sermons taken from the latest craze or whim of culture?
Easy. They don’t highly value God’s Word
Ok, Ok, you know that much. That much is obvious. But why? How could pastors and ministry people take something so foundational as the very Words of God so lightly?
Well, there are several reasons…
1. They may not know God (not saved).
2. They may not want to offend.
3. They may not be mature and can’t teach what they don’t know.
4. They see it as more of an allegorical compilation of stories than as God’s Words breathed out to man.
There could be several reasons really. None of those relate to values as much as the following though…
Many times church leaders are a little too slack regarding the Word of God because they haven’t been burned by the lure of heresy and false teaching. In other words, they haven’t seen the lives of sheep utterly destroyed because a false teacher came in and scattered and confused the sheep with teaching that sounded good but was completely counterfeit.
Only when you see the Sword of truth recklessly wielded on others and the resulting damage it can do will you be most motivated to let others know you value “biblically centered” teaching and will not bend concerning God’s Word being the final authority.
See how it works?
Touch a hot stove and you’re highly motivated by the pain not to do it again.
I’ll touch on a couple more of our values in my next post.