5 Values
As FOLLOWERS of Jesus at New Era Reformed Church...
you will find what appears to be many individual expressions, gifts and abilities. Yet, in reality, we celebrate that we are connected to the One who redeems us, calls us, and empowers us to support, to nurture and to reproduce.
As Jesus calls the many forward as one, literally as members of His Body, we identify these five expressions, each distinct and yet an inter-connected whole calling us forward, to support, to nurture and to reproduce. What follows are 5 Values helping us as that connected whole, to live & love like Jesus in order to make disciples
RELATIONSHIP
Love God, Love People-we are at our best when we live in relationship with God and one another.
God has made us to love Him and to love one another. Jesus never saw church as a place to go, but as a people who love Him and are learning to love one another. Because of who God is and who God has made us to be, we recognize that we are at our best when we live in relationship with God and with one another.
We will intentionally seek to love God more so that outwardly and inwardly we will reflect God’s grace-filled love in our marriages, families, workplace and community.
Genesis 1:26, 27; Mark 12:28-30; John 15:1-7; John 17:20; 1 John 4:7-21
GRACE and TRUTH
Jesus is Truth. We love the Truth and offer it to all from the foundation of Grace with a commitment to community.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Therefore, we know that truth is not simply a concept, truth comes to us written in the pages of the Bible and truth comes to us as a person – Jesus. Truth informs us that we are an imperfect people, in need of forgiveness. Truth also declares that God delights in us and has extended grace to us through Jesus life, death and resurrection. In a world that struggles with understanding truth, we are a community committed to hearing, knowing and following God’s truth. We will intentionally seek to live as people of truth, receiving God’s grace and extending that grace so that all may experience the fullness and gift of God’s love and delight through Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah 29:11; John 14:6; John 15:26, 27; Romans 3:23; Romans 5; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-10
PRAYER
ALL mission & ministry we are involved in flows straight from the Father’s heart.
Jesus walked deeply and intimately, in continual communion with his heavenly Father, God. We long to walk intimately with God, knowing that Jesus left us a model to follow, to be a people of prayer, dwelling in continual communion with the Father. We will intentionally seek to live as a community of prayer, committed to listening and responding to the prompting of the Spirit in our lives so that all mission and ministry flows out of our communion with God, straight from the Father’s heart.
Psalm 1:1-2; Matthew 11: 25-26; Luke 5:16; Luke 6:12; Luke 10:22; John 17; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18;Hebrews 5:7
GROWTH
God intends to grow the Fruit, transforming us, that we might live and love more like Jesus.
As people we begin this journey imperfectly. When God enters our story, life changes and growth takes on a new life-giving direction. The story of those following Jesus is a story of God transforming, restoring and making whole. As we intentionally pursue a relationship with God, He will continue to “grow us up” to become more like Jesus. Truth informs us that as we stay connected to the vine, who is Jesus, that God will produce abundant and lasting fruit through our lives. We will intentionally pursue and live in relationship with God so that God will continue to change us and transform us that we might live and love more like Jesus.
John 15; 1 Corinthians 11:1; Romans 8:28-29; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 4; 2 Peter 2:21; Revelation 21
ENGAGE
God has engaged us with the life-changing love of Jesus, we will engage ALL that they might know God.
The condition of our lives informs us that the only hope of renewal, restoration and redemption requires God to take a step toward us in order to engage us. Truth informs us that God engaged us through Jesus, and invites us to become a part of God’s life-changing, world-changing movement. God has called us to become the hands and feet of Jesus in a world that needs to know the reality of God’s loving and life-changing engagement. We will intentionally seek to engage our families, our neighbors, our community and our world, loving them, serving them so that all might know of the Father’s love and new life offered in Jesus.
Matthew 28:18-20; John 3:16-17; Romans 5:8