I’ve been meaning to post our community’s values for sometime now and finally got around to finishing them off. In between our walking through the gospel of John and now our walk through the book of Acts, we had a chance to discuss in general what we mean by these core values that we hold to as a church.
Over the next few days I’ll be posting our four core values of which I alread did the first one a few weeks ago, missional journey. Today I wanted to put the second one, authentic community.
Here’s what we believe and value about community:
We live in a world where we find it necessary to define the kind of community we are seeking to cultivate as "authentic." Authentic community is hard because it’s messy and strange because it’s full of people who are messy and strange…we all are. The word "house" in our name signifies our hope to be more than an organization and more than just a gathering of individuals but rather a people from all backgrounds who choose to share life together in meaningful ways as followers of Jesus. We see ourselves as family and friends, eating, laughing, working, playing, forgiving, serving and supporting one another in the midst of all the peaks and valleys of life. "Joshua" is the Hebrew name for Jesus who we see as the head of our household and the one who gives us the mercy, grace and peace to be the people God has called us to be. We see and hear Jesus guiding us to grow roots in our neighbourhoods and cultivate a community that would live in the midst of our city, seeking its well-being from the inside out.
Practically for us this means making interdependent community groups the heart of our church life. These are safe, accepting environments where people can build authentic relationships, ask questions, laugh, learn, confess, share, serve and worship as we journey together as followers of Jesus. Moreover, these groups seek to naturally enter into the lives of the neighbourhoods in which they meet through care, involvement and service as a starting point for a movement of grace and peace into all the world.
Scriptures: Genesis 2:18; Psalm 133:1; Matthew 28:19; Mark 3:34-35; John 13:34-35; 17:20-23; Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:9; Hebrews 10:24-25
