Values

We've been going to different churches in the Sugar Land area looking for a church home. I've been checking out web sites of different churches to try to get a feel about what the church is like. One thing that I found is that the value statement of a church often reflects the character of a church.

What was interesting was that I compared the value statement of our church in Austin, Hope Chapel, with a community church in the Fort Bend area.

Here is a comparison of the value statements for the two different churches in areas of worship, discipleship, and evangelism/community outreach.

Worship
Hope Chapel exists to glorify God by: worshipping Him with passionate and thoughtful celebration of our common faith and life; asking Jesus, through prayer and intercession, to take His rightful position as Head of our church in tangible and supernatural ways; inviting the Holy Spirit's empowering presence to work in our midst.	On Worship We believe in expository preaching, which is “that method of proclaiming the Scriptures that takes as a minimum one paragraph of Biblical text and derives from that text both the shape and the content of the message itself.” We believe in music in worship. Music has the unique ability to express thoughts and feelings too deep for words. We believe in creativity. Audio-visual, audience participation, testimony, etc. can be effective means to communicate God’s truth. We believe in planning ahead to bring about a unified worship service with each part of the service adding to, not canceling, the worship theme.
Discipleship
By growing devoted followers of Christ, loving, accepting, and honoring individuals of all generations; challenging individuals to radical spiritual formation as disciples of Jesus to be salt and light in our world; equipping all believers in godly character, and in knowledge of the Word of God; releasing them in the gifts of the Spirit and in works of service; building a multitude of communities that encounter God, meet relational needs, minister to fellow believers, and invite unbelieving friends to know the transforming Jesus; modeling and equipping Hope believers for family life in a world that disintegrates families; validating a high theology of vocation that empowers Hope believers to touch their diverse worlds with the power of Jesus.	On Discipleship We believe in discipleship. People learn best in a mentoring relationship. God first, then people. People will apply the truth when they see it work in us. When people don’t apply the truth, they have not known the truth. We believe in accountability. We believe in the power of prayer. Prayer is one of the key ministries of the pastors and the leaders of the church. 4. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, without which nothing of spiritual value can be accomplished.
Evangelism / Community Outreach
Partnering with God's people to transform our city, and making disciples of all nations: articulating the Epic Story of the Gospel to our culture in creative ways; participating with other churches to transform our city; creating an environment for the expression of the arts within Hope that also becomes a creative outreach to the Austin community; assisting Hope believers in joining with other believers to glorify God in their vocational calling; reaching out with all possible resources to the university worlds of Austin, evangelizing and discipling students and faculty; serving and empowering the poor and disenfranchised; planting 'worshipping communities of God' wherever He may lead; sending and supporting a force of short, medium and long-term cross cultural servants to proclaim and live the full dimensions of the Great Commission; carefully stewarding and lavishly releasing our natural, human and financial resources for maximum impact.	On Evangelism We believe in cross-culture evangelism not only in the missions field but also here locally. God puts us here not just to evangelize the Chinese but the whole area for Christ. We believe every Christian, not just a few, can do evangelism, if given proper tools and motivation. People want to share their faith, and evangelism is an integral part of Christian life. We believe evangelism is not taught, but caught. It begins with the leaders. We believe that any community services we may have serve as contact points to create a “fishing pond” for evangelism. We believe in follow-up work for new believers. Every new convert should be contacted within thirty-six hours and taught the basic foundation of Christian life. On Community Ministry We believe that our community is the Fort Bend community, regardless of race and color. This is our home on earth and Fort Bend is our backyard. We will seek to serve this community and bring them to Christ. We believe meeting the needs of Fort Bend community through prayer, community service, Christian school, and helping the family. The church is here to meet needs.