Our sermon series this term is about making our Vision Statement a reality:
To be a church that is committed to ‘bringing glory to God by calling all to delight in Him as their ultimate treasure’
The way we will achieve this vision is through our core Values, which are (i) grace, (ii) church, (iii) the Bible, (iv) prayer, (v) outreach, (vi) fellowship, and (vii) justice. With just 2 modifications, these are the Values our Bible study groups agreed on several years ago, as to how we will reach our Vision. But how can we know these Values are the right ones?
In his book ‘You can Change’, English pastor and author Tim Chester argues that the only way to truly rid our lives of sin is through ‘the expulsive power of a new affection’. He says Christians will become the people God wants us to be, by deepening our delight in God.
Chester claims there are 7 spiritual disciples that help us achieve this. Yet he doesn’t like the phrase ‘spiritual disciplines’, as it sounds like WE achieve this end. Rather, he prefers the traditional phrase ‘means of grace’. There are 7 ‘means of grace’ (i.e. gifts) God gives his church to help them delight in him. They are (i) Bible, (ii) prayer, (iii) fellowship, (iv) church, (v) service (similar to justice), (vi) suffering, and (vii) hope. As you may notice, Chester’s list is almost identical to our values, except that instead of ‘grace’ and ‘outreach’, Chester has ‘suffering’ and ‘hope’.
Reading this book over the holidays has instilled confidence in me that our Values are well suited to help reach our vision. So may we pursue these values diligently, so that we can call all to delight in God as our ultimate treasure.
Brendan McLaughlin
