Core Values
Passion
Our passion belongs to the Lord – our hearts, minds, and might are to glorify Him. God, in Christ, by the enabling Spirit, is to be the ‘love’ of our lives (Luke 10:27).
Prayer
The primary mark of a true believer is that he ‘seeks God’ with all his heart. A believer is marked by a life of prayer – transformational prayer. This is the source of direction and empowerment, the place of grace and growth; both God’s face and hand are sought. We believe personal, at-home, daily, to-be-like Jesus praying is critical, along with couples and family-altar prayer, pervasive prayer groups, and praying churches (Ephesians 6:10-20).
Governing Principles
The Holy Scriptures, we believe, are fully inspired and ordained by God. They inform our values. Renew our minds. Clarify our decision process. Provide a lens for interpretation of our world. They reprove and correct, edify and strengthen. They provide the basis of our authority as a believer (2 Timothy 3:16).
Guiding Philosophy
We believe the primary call of the church is worshipful communion with God, out of which flows mission – the call to be ‘a house of prayer (Godward in orientation) for the nations (missional in engagement)!’ Therefore, we believe the ‘reformation’ is still on, and God is restoring his Church. The church must be not only a place of worship and nurture, but also a place of mission; it is not designed merely ‘for us’ to receive ministry, but it is to be a center from which ministry flows to the unreached (Ephesians 2:10).
Critical Perspective
We recognize that the American culture is not organized primarily by ethnic and tribal bonds, but by ‘professional tribes’ – each with their markings, ranks, and standards, territories inside our culture and cities, and to reach the nation, we must evangelize inside these tribes; which means awakening and training a new missionary force, made up of current Christians; and this means mobilizing the church ‘diaspora’ – sown and scattered in the Marketplace. It means a new level of ownership in terms of ‘mission’ by the Nehemiah [marketplace] stream in partnership with the Ezra [pastors and clergy] stream.
People
We believe God loves all people – and wants all men to be saved. Each person bears the image of God, marred by sin, and salvation launches a process of personal redemption; and a part of that restorative journey is the consecration of all the person is to God – talents and native abilities, spiritual gifts and personality, learned skills and life experiences – nothing is wasted. The goal is not merely a saved people, but an engaged people. Our greatest joy is found only in our full abandonment in worship and service to God, offered sacrificially, but in complete liberty (Luke 10:27).
Family
We believe the family – a man, a woman, and children – are the basic building block of community, whether faith, city-county, or nation. And as the family goes – so goes the community. Further, we believe that family is the imprint of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit (who births, nurtures, comforts); equal in value and vitality, yet different in function; and therefore, that not only does humanity, the individual, bear the image of God, but the family does as well; that it is a sacred definitive design. Finally, fathers are critical not only to the family but to the nation as spiritual leaders; when nations err, it is the turning of the hearts of fathers that most quickly averts judgment. Godly fathers are irreplaceable in the divine design.
Priority
We believe the Great Commission is not an option – but the Lord’s final command. The Church must fulfill its obligation ‘and then shall the end come.’ Around the throne are to be gathered representatives of every tribe and tongue, every people group and nation. It is within our grasp. We are not to make converts – but disciples. The good news must be shared with ‘everyone everywhere’ in their language and cultural context. (Matthew 28:18-20).
Concerning Partnership
The final harvest must be reached by the ‘people of God’ in some unified manner. The essence of our message is reconciliation – so a divided church is a contradiction. Unity is the missing partner to the message of God’s love. Proclamation is not enough; incarnation is essential. God desires for His church to be one. Only through a united church will Jesus be appropriately revealed to the watching world. This requires authenticity in relationships and genuine partnerships that honor God and synergize ministry (John 17).
Great Awakening
There is a line of egregious sin that a nation crosses – from which there is no retreat but certain judgment. We believe America is now on the ‘warning track,’ and increasing peril lies ahead if the nation does not return to God. That revival in the church and a corollary spiritual awakening in the whole of culture is essential and our only hope. Nations, individuals, cities, and states, must repent – and call a ‘Solemn Assembly.’ But we doubt the resolve of either the Executive, Representative/Legislative, or Judicial branches of Government to do such a thing. Therefore, we rely on the promise of II Chron. 7:14 – and pray for a nationwide, grass-roots movement of deep humility expressed in repentance and turning to holiness by God’s people.