Reflections From Sunday Evening

In the sermon this morning (actually yesterday) I mentioned four values the World War II generation brought home from the war -- according to Tom Brokaw.

1. Personal Responsibility
2. Duty
3. Honor
4. Faith

This got me thinking about other sources of values. Several years ago I preached my grandfather's funeral. I share some values I took from his life.

1. Rising early
2. Hard work
3. Abstinence from alcohol
4. Being frugal (some might say I took too much from this one!)

There are other sources of values. The Missouri Annual Conference has five values that we seek to use in ordering our life in ministry.

1. Christ-centered
2. Fruitfulness
3. Excellence
4. Accountability
5. Collaboration

I've been praying about values I think God would have us claim in our church. They are pretty close to the Conference values with a few changes.

1. Christ-centeredness
2. Spirit-empowered
3. Biblically based
4. Outward focus
5. Fruitful
6. Accountable

It seems to me a church should first and foremost be as Christ-centered as possible. We should always strive to keep Jesus Christ at the very core of what we are about.

Being Spirit-empowered means we are willing to take on a mission or task that we could not accomplish in our own strength using our own resources. It puts us in a position of acting on faith with the awareness that if the Holy Spirit does not empower the ministry it simply will not happen.

A church that is Biblically based will strive to always be faithful to the scriptures and order our life together following biblical teachings and principles.

It is an ongoing challenge to be outward-focused. It is human nature to be most aware of our own needs and the needs of those close to us. We are discovering the importance of putting others first and being more and more outward-focused in our mission and service.

When we are faithful to Christ and trust in His power to lead us we will find the church producing good fruit for the kingdom. If we are not being fruitful we need to examine our practices.

Finally accountability is important. We need to do more to build accountability into our ministry teams, leadership and membership.

I invite you to consider these various values and ask God what He would seek to instill in your life during the new year. I continue to seek to better understand what is really important to me. I invite you to do the same.

It's been a good day. I hope you have a good day too.