Our Five Core Values – Colonial Church

The following five core values were discerned through an intentional process of prayer, listening (to God and our congregation), and earnest deliberation. We believe them to encompass our identity and calling in this next season of our life together. The sentences following each value provide detail but are also dynamic and therefore subject to modification as we live them out together.

Welcome, Beloved

We are each beloved and welcomed unconditionally by God. In turn, having been loved and welcomed, we strive to love and welcome all people no matter what. At the same time, God’s love is an invitation to transformation. We are loved as we are, but we’re never left to stay that way. To encounter Jesus is to be changed.

Risk Together the Messy Path of Faith

Following Jesus entails risk. We must die to ourselves for the sake of new life, forgive expecting nothing in return, trust God when all hope seems lost, and take up a cross to follow Christ who for us is the way, the truth and the life (Mark 8:34; John 14:6). We do not risk alone. We have each other and the courage and conviction of God’s Spirit.

Wrestle with the Tensions in God's Word & World

As finite and flawed humans, we necessarily struggle with the teaching of Scripture, with God’s call to righteousness and with life in our troubled and complex world. Yet wrestling makes us honest, open and vulnerable toward God and others. Our doubts and struggles are material for deeper spiritual growth.

Immerse in Sacred Spaces & Rhythms

There are places, traditions and particular practices of faith and worship wherein we tangibly encounter the holy and living God. Regular immersion in such places and practices forms and reforms us in line with the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2). In these transcendent places and moments, we experience realties larger than ourselves and realize the fullness faith in Christ makes possible.

Do Good For Christ's Sake

Jesus said you will know a tree by its fruit (Luke 6:44). While you can do nothing to earn your salvation or God’s love, you must do something to show you’ve received it. We live out the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) in our church and families, at work and in our neighborhoods, even to the ends of the earth. Together as church, we encourage and identify giftedness, train, equip and collaborate in service to the world as Christ.

Strategic Focus

The strategic focus is a guide for leadership decision-making. It derives from our core values.

Cultivate a deeply relational community and cross the gaps that divide.

“To cultivate” taps into the Hebrew word meaning to till, serve, work or worship. The Lord gave the first humans paradise of Eden to cultivate and keep (Gen. 2:15). As people made in God’s image, we are invited to participate in God’s work in the world. Jesus picks up on this imagery with his parable of the sower. Seeds sown in cultivated soil yield a hundredfold return (Mark 4:20).

To “cultivate a deeply relational community” prioritizes the practice of love, kindness, honesty, forgiveness and grace—every element of strong relationship—for the sake of personal well-being and rich community. But deep relational community is not an end in itself. Our expectation is for deep community to yield a hundredfold return of good fruit for the world.

Among this fruit is the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20), and thus the commitment to cross the gaps that divide. As a noun, the cross sits at the center of our faith, symbolizing both the costly love of Christ as well as the cost of following Christ. As a verb, to cross implies the movement we must make in order to engage and embrace, to confront and speak truth, to love and to reconcile. Such movement mirrors Jesus’ movement toward us to reconcile us to God.

Therefore, as a church, we will promote programs and practices that cultivate a deeply relational community and cross the gaps that divide, be they personal, social, theological, political or cultural.

Strategic Priorities

Because we cannot do everything, we seek to do those things which we value and for which we are primarily gifted and called. These priorities will increase in specificity over time as leadership and congregation prayerfully plan for the future. The initial six priorities fall into two categories, “breathe in” and “breathe out.” Breath is a prominent symbol (and reality) in Scripture for the Holy Spirit and for life itself.

Breathe In

One Body. Infuse our five core values into all aspects of Colonial’s life so that everyone knows and feels connected to our identity and calling.
Spiritual Growth. Generate pathways for healing, equipping, forming and educating disciples with Scripture and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Creation. Foster beauty in all we do to experience the fullness of God.

Breathe Out

Engagement. Leverage our individual and collective resources and strengths to participate innovatively in God’s restorative work.
Intergenerational Relationships. Develop and strengthen meaningful relationships between people of differing ages, stages and life experiences.
Social Justice. Confront social injustice to transform hearts and minds.