We are in the middle of thinking about what our values should be, clarifying our “ethos” as a movement. Remember we are trying to do that by starting at the right place,

THEOLOGY (Who God Is) —> MISSIOLOGY (What God does) —> ECCLESIOLOGY (Who We Are As God’s People)

On Sunday we looked at the implications for our values of WHO GOD IS, that our God is a Trinitarian God. During this week we are going to think about the implications for our values of WHAT GOD DOES …. Of what is called the “Missio Dei” the “Mission of God” that we are called to join him in. In order to do that we are going to think about the “whole story” of the Bible because its in that story we find what God is doing, what our calling is as His People and what our values should be. We are going to look at different sections of the story to help us get the “big picture”

CREATION

The message of Scripture is that we are not here because of a massive cosmic coincidence. Rather, that behind all of Creation but distinct from it, is a loving, purposeful Creator.

The fundamental fact of creation is found at the climax of the story of creation in Genesis 1 “31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the sixth day.”

God’s creation in its pristine condition, as he intended it, including humanity was GOOD.

So what are the implications of that? Well I can think of a few

Creation is GOOD …. we are to value and enjoy creation as God does.
History has a purpose …. history is not the result of cosmic chance, there is purposeful creator, therefore life has meaning and God gives it that meaning
Humanity has incredible value … Humanity, male AND female, equally and perhaps interdependently, are created in the Image of God. Human life matters, we are more than an evolved collection of chemicals. Included in this idea is that humanity reflects God’s character and represents Him, carrying out his wishes in creation.
Relationship matter .… Human beings were created for relationships, with God, with each other and creation
Stewardship of Creation …. God gives us “stewardship” of creation, its our responsibility to manage it well on his behalf, not exploit for our own selfish ends

VALUES
If we believe what we have just outlined above, what should we care about, what should our values be?

For me a few stand out. We should value

Creation & Creativity
Human life
Relationships

Anyone have another other ideas or thoughts?

We are just brainstorming here and then we will seek to distill all of these values down to what will be the essence of who we are