When we think about “church” at Guthrie Grove, we don’t want to be just another church. So we have to ask, “How will we become a church that matters to people?”
Our mission is what we can identify as our over-arching goal. You can remember our mission by looking to the CROSS: care, reach, offer, serve, support.
Our values are the things that help us answer the question – "How will we become a church that matters to people?" – in a meaningful (and realistic) way. We've identified 7 values that guide our community as it grows.
Care — to demonstrate God's love, creativity, power, and care to His children
Reach — through the power of His Holy Spirit our mission is to reach past ourselves to those who God has placed around us
Offer — to provide an atmosphere to encounter and know God in worship and offer ourselves as a living sacrifice
Serve — we desire to see our members become more like Christ by serving each other, the church and the community together
Support — to identify, train and support believers who carry the ministry of the local church into the world
Strategic service is allowing our corporate mission & strategy to determine our individual place of service. Every Christian has certain gifts, talents, & abilities that God expects them to use to benefit the church. We want to be a church where people feel free to invite their friends and neighbors. But that can only happen when members ask, ‘In light of what God has called us to corporately, what do you need me to do individually?”
This happens in a church where people genuinely connect are both encouraged and challenged in their relationships with God and each other. We want to be a relational church which breeds healthy relationships in which people feel encouraged and safe to explore their relationship with God.
A disciple works alongside another in order to learn all the ‘teacher’ knows so they can duplicate the teacher’s work in another environment, or replace the teacher in the current environment. In the Bible, we never see Jesus doing ministry alone because he was less concerned about success in ministry than about succession. He expects the same from us. You are not responsible to know everything about your area of ministry, but you are responsible to pour what you do know into the life of another. How does this process work? It’s actually very simple...
“Relevant” means using what is cultural to say what is timeless. We can allow the culture to drive us, we can ignore the culture, or we can strategically use the culture for God’s purposes. At Guthrie Grove, we choose to use the culture strategically to communicate God’s timeless message of hope. That means being flexible with what is cultural and focusing on what is timeless, so we never assume what worked yesterday will work today. We measure success by what is happening relationally, not just organizationally.
“Intimacy” means being fully known and fully accepted. That’s the kind of relationship we want each member of Guthrie Grove to develop with their Heavenly Father. However, it’s scary to be fully known, because we fear rejection. As your relationship with God gets more personal, you will become more accountable. We often don’t want to give up control of our lives in that way. That’s why the Bible pictures Jesus as ‘standing at the door’ of our hearts wanting to come in. It’s up to us to ‘let him in.’ One of our values is helping people continually work at developing a close relationship with God through his son, Jesus.
The transition from unbelief to faith in Christ is always a process of questioning, dialogue, and discovery, eventually leading to belief. Our role is simply to partner with God in this process. We at Guthrie Grove encourage a culture of investing, inviting, including, and igniting as we prepare for the Kingdom of God.
There is a difference between seeing the Bible as ‘authoritative’ and submitting to its authority. Submitting to its authority means allowing its principles to guide your decisions relationally, financially, professionally, socially...every area of your life. When a church abandons the Scripture as its authority, it results in all kinds of organizational problems. But a church’s commitment to Scripture is only as firm as its members’ commitment to Scripture, so the strength of our church depends on your commitment to the Bible’s authority.
