Our core virtues form our way of life before God and our increasingly complex world. We begin and end with the God of Scripture, who reveals his character and nature through original and ultimate tension—he is one and three, just and merciful, powerful and compassionate. Therefore, we experience him and his world through tensions. This is God’s world and ours. Our human experience is beautiful and broken. Simply put, such sacred tensions in Creator and creation inform our core virtues and commitments to:
- A High View of Text & Context – as the incarnate word of God, Christ is truly divine and truly human. Likewise, as the written word of God, Scripture also exhibits truly divine and truly human qualities through God's engagement with human communities, languages, and cultures over thousands of years. Therefore, as we preach, teach, pray, serve, and lead, our way of life holds our authoritative text in one hand and our emerging contexts (theological, literary, cultural, historical, etc.) in the other.
- A High View of Openness & Critique – our increasingly digital and polarized world can contribute to a lack of thorough, nuanced understanding. Therefore, we build knowledge and skills through multi-generational, multi-cultural, and multi-disciplinary dialogue. This allows us to recognize strengths in others' perspectives and limitations in our own. While challenging, our hope is to not sound off like the next echo chamber but instead, to engage with Christlike, Spirit-filled wisdom.
- A High View of Health & Growth – in Scripture, faithfulness to God's covenant and fruitfulness in his mission are two sides of the same coin. Communities and leaders who increasingly stand before God must increasingly advocate for underserved people groups. As such, Christ expanded movements to prioritize those on the margins. Therefore, in Christ and by his Spirit, we connect with, coach, and care for people to grow quantitatively and qualitatively, increasing in number and advocacy.
