Getting to Know Our Core Values

Core values can guide new growth.

At the core of an apple core is getting seeds planted and new trees growing.   What's at our core?  Knowing this answer helps us to know who we are and we we're here.  Then the answers to other questions like "what should I be doing?" come more easily.  Our core works like guardrails: if we know them, we won't go too far off track or can make a course correction when we do.

I hadn’t always understood this.  When I started serving with Burns Church, I wanted us to write a vision statement; you know some grand articulation of what we were here to do.  I was concerned that until we did, new programs and ministries would only start helter-skelter.  At best we'd become a church of isolated silos; at worst there'd be conflict from opposing ideas about what we should be doing.  We needed the unity brought by sharing the grand dream.

Folks were gracious, but not enthusiastic.  They tried to be supportive, but before long it became clear that visioning just didn't get many of us very excited.  Some confessed they had been part of visioning exercises in the past.  Those exercises had resulted in a document everyone had contributed to, but that no one owned.  Now it sat on shelf, gathering dust.  Most of us wanted to get on with the fun stuff of seeing lives impacted by God’s love.  

A conversation helped me rethink our strategy. 

I had coffee with Dr. J.P. Smit, a wise colleague working with Presbyterian Churches in our area. After confirming what I was seeing in the folks at Burns, he said, “I think core values are far more empowering than a vision statement.”  Then he gave me a single question to start the conversation. 

It was:

“If we were to stop doing X, Y or Z, we might as well close our doors.”

A few weeks later, the leadership team from Burns asked the congregation to pray for us as we took a day to grapple with this question.  We shared breakfast together in a beautiful venue.  I did some teaching on core values and then we dove into it. 

Within a few minutes we had distinguished ourselves from the local service club in town, and the country club down the road.  We were realizing afresh who God had made us to be, and to whom God was calling us.

Here’s what we discovered:

1. “If we stopped centering our lives on the Trinity we might as well close our doors.”

2. “If we stopped allowing the scriptures of the Old and New Testatments to shape our understanding of God, we might as well close our doors.”

3. “If we stopped striving to live so all of life is worship

            or stopped experiencing God profoundly in our church community

            or participating in the work he started in Christ

            or allowing ourselves to be transformed into Christ’s image

            or becoming agents of God’s transformative work in the world

                                    Then we might as well close our doors.

4. “If we stopped being a warm and caring congregation that continues to show the hospitality we learned from the old-village church we used to be,

5. “If we stopped being inspired by our faith to generously serve the needs of others inside and outside our congregation,

6. “If we stopped trying to shape our ministry both by the needs of the people we’re serving and the gifts God has given to us,

            and

7. “If we stopped believing in the power of prayer to connect us with God and each other

                        We might as well close our doors."

I’d spent 2 ½ years trying to get a vision process off the ground.  Now in half a day, we had a firm sense for who we are and what we can do.  As I reflected on how the Spirit had spoken in our time together, I realized we could structure our values in terms of Jesus’ great commandments.

            Love God (see core values 1-3)

            Love our neighbours (see core values 4-7)

Afterwards

After lunch on that retreat day, we easily came up with three goals that addressed concerns in terms of these values (More on that next week).

This is just the beginning, but the process is beautiful in its simplicity.  Since it didn’t require a huge investment of time and energy, it can be adjusted easily as God continues to reveal to us who we are, and to whom we’re called.  I fully expect that to happen as the congregation reflects on them.  They’re already being shaped by the amazing Stewards-by-Design conference we took a team to in May (more on that in a couple weeks too).  Knowing our core values was a much needed start, pointing us in the right direction.

I’d like to try this for me individually too.  Maybe I’ll go for a walk in the woods and ask, “If I stopped X,Y, Z, I might as well close my (proverbial) doors.”  I wonder how God would speak?