Worship.
Worship is the eternal task – and delight – of the church. God is central in our lives; He is our King; His love for us creates in our hearts a love for him; He is worthy of our worship. In our sin, we often give our worship to other things; we let our hearts be captivated by things which can’t give them the only delight they were made to be satisfied by. But, God in his grace, is drawing our hearts back to him. Gathered worship on Sunday moves us to live our entire lives as “living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship.”
Learn.
If God is the object of our worship, then his word is the standard for our lives. Christians, and the Church, are governed by the Scriptures, which are the Word of God – the sole and final authority on all matters of Christian doctrine and Christian living. And so, the task of the Church is to teach Scripture, and the task of all Christians is to learn what the Scriptures teach.
Love.
Just as we can’t rightly love until we’ve learned what it is to love, neither have we rightly learned until we’ve put into practice what we’ve learned, by living a life of love. Christians should be known for their love – because we have experienced the love of God for us in salvation – and so shouldn’t be concerned merely with “information”, but with “transformation”. We strive for our lives to be transformed more into the image of Jesus, who was the perfect embodiment and example of love on earth, and who taught us to love one another, love our neighbors, and even to love our enemies.
Grow.
Christians should realize they haven’t arrived, and so strive for personal growth and change. As a result, they should be able to love and extend grace and patience towards others who haven’t arrived, no matter where they stand on the spectrum. The Church should have an unquenchable desire to see more and more people come to know Christ. And so, it can never be ingrown or inward focused, but always reaching out and welcoming in the outsiders – even those who are different than us or seem difficult to love, since we know that we ourselves are difficult to love. We strive to be a place where anyone can come and feel welcome, learn about the Christian faith, and worship God.