Everybody Have Fun Tonight
The fun continued with Session 2 of our Leadership Conference.
We introduced Session 2 with this amusing video. (I love how he hums the Spider-Man theme at the end!)
Immediately after that introductory video, Matt talked about our church’s core values, or in other words, the things that we feel are unique about us as a church. Here they are, as well as a couple of comments Matt made about each of the values.
Value #1 – Communicating Truth
We teach people how to live out the principles and truths of the Bible. We don’t just want to teach the Bible. Anybody can do that. We’re committed to teaching the Bible with the goal of application and transformation, not simply information. We want to teach the Bible in a way that helps people.
Value #2 - Celebrating Life Change
We rejoice when people’s hearts and lives are transformed by God. The opposite is true as well. We are unhappy when people’s lives are not being changed.
*To drive this point home, Matt asked the band to play “Celebrate” (yes, the song by Kool and the Gang!), and then asked everyone to sing it out loud as if they’d just witnessed 50 people make the decision to follow Christ.
Value #3 - Challenging Status Quo
We risk the ordinary to experience the extraordinary. We believe that playing it safe is risky. We would rather do what is most effective than do what is most popular.
Value #4 - Creating Community
We connect insiders and outsiders to our church and each other. We really believe that the best place to find accountability, belonging, and care, is in the context of a small group. As such, we refuse to let people “do church” in isolation.
*To reinforce this point, Matt asked the band to play another short piece of music, but this time as the band played (“Lean on Me”), he invited everyone to greet the people around them like they were a part of their family and not just fellow members of the church (in other words, no handshakes allowed!)
Value #5 - Compelling Environments
We conduct our cause with fun and passion. If it’s boring, we don’t want to be a part of it, and God certainly doesn’t want His name on it! We make laughter and celebration a priority in all our ministry environments.
Value #6 - Choosing Love
We love and accept all people. Anyone ought to be able to walk through any of these church doors and be loved and accepted by us. We need to receive people right where they’re at and not expect them to act a certain way first, remembering that all people are valuable to God and should therefore be valuable to us.
I could say a lot more, but this is a blog, not a book, so I’ll stop. We’ll be posting our thoughts from the Saturday morning sessions soon!