Our Values
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40
Our values begin with a desire to follow the biblical mandate to love God and each other.
PARTICIPATION: we believe that God calls church leaders to equip and empower the people of valley evangelical free church so they can join in the ministry God has for them. (Ephesians 4:11-13).
Therefore, we value encouraging and enabling people to participate in doing God's work in our church and in our world.
GROWING RELATIONSHIPS: we believe that our love for each other exhibits that we follow Jesus Christ. (John 13:35).
Therefore, we value sharing life together and finding ways to connect with each other in love and truth.
Therefore, we value sharing life together and finding ways to connect with each other in love and truth.
BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD: we believe that part of being God's child is being led by God's spirit. (Romans 8:13-14).
Therefore, we value hearing God speak to us individually and corporately to guide us into what he wants us to do and where he wants us to go.
Therefore, we value hearing God speak to us individually and corporately to guide us into what he wants us to do and where he wants us to go.
USING OUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS: we believe God has given each of us special gifts to use to honor him and encourage others. One way the spirit indicates what he desires us to do is through the gifts he has given us. (I Corinthians 12:4-31).
Therefore, we value helping people discover and use their spiritual gifts and natural abilities in ministering to each other and to the world around us.
Therefore, we value helping people discover and use their spiritual gifts and natural abilities in ministering to each other and to the world around us.
OBEYING SCRIPTURE: we believe that Jesus Christ equates our love for God with our hearing and obeying his word. (James 1:22; John 14:23).
Therefore, we value hearing and studying the Bible, and we look for ways to do what we learn.
Therefore, we value hearing and studying the Bible, and we look for ways to do what we learn.
TRANSFORMATION INTO THE LIKENESS OF JESUS CHRIST: we believe that God reveals himself to us and desires to shape us into the image of Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:29; Romans 12:1-2 Ephesians 4:13-16).
Therefore, we value learning, worshiping, living and serving together in such a way that our attitudes and behaviors look increasingly like Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we value learning, worshiping, living and serving together in such a way that our attitudes and behaviors look increasingly like Jesus Christ.
REFLECTING THE GRACE OF GOD: we believe that we are saved by grace, enabled to serve each other by grace and called to extend grace (forgiveness) to each other because of God’s grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Therefore, we value an atmosphere of grace whereby we experience forgiveness, support to grow and encouragement to use our gifts to follow Jesus Christ.
