What do the three following experiences in churches have in common? Members drive past two or three churches of their own denomination to attend church. There is an ever present tension between congregational leaders which surfaces from time to time as conflict. The whole church rallies around a couple of events each year to a level that few other churches reach. What do they have in common? Often the motivation for all three are core values. Understanding Core Values Core values are the most deeply held convictions shared by a majority of congregational members. These values define the church’s identity. They bind together the membership. New members are often attracted to churches because they share the congregation’s core values. …show more content…
Values are convictions, thus in the realm of concepts and ideas. Discovering core values does not take a great deal of time, but it does require intentional effort. Clarifying Core Values Two decades ago churches created core values statements with ten to fifteen core values. Since those early days we’ve learned there were really three subcategories within the core values list. Aspirational Values: Churches were including values they wanted to develop in the future. So congregations would state, “We value outreach.” In reality, the church did no intentional outreach. The value was included because leaders wanted the congregation to engage in outreach. These so-called “aspirational values” are not truly core values, because they don’t yet exist. Doctrines: Congregations were confusing core values with distinctive beliefs. Sometimes doctrines are also core values. I’ve worked with a couple of churches were “grace” was both a fundamental doctrine and core value. However, doctrine and values usually serve different roles in churches. Core Values: It turns out congregations will usually have three to five core values. This is because its difficult for a fifty people to share even three deeply held convictions, let hundreds or thousands of