What’s Up With these Values, Purpose, Mission?

If you’ve looked around here very long, you’ve seen LifePointe’s Core Values, Purpose, and Mission. You may have wondered, what’s going on with all this stuff? Why have all of these things defined? What’s this got to do with a new church?

There’s a verse in the Bible that many Christ-followers are familiar with. It’s Proverbs 29:18. This is what that verse says:

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

That comes from the King James Version of the Bible. Here’s that verse from some other translations of the Bible:

“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.” - The Message

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.” - New International Version

“When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.” - New Living Translation

What this verse tells us is that we need God’s vision, God’s revelation, God’s guidance for LifePointe, or we’ll be in real trouble getting this church off the ground from the get-go. What we need is to align ourselves with God’s reasons for LifePointe so that He can use us for those reasons. God has revealed His vision in the Bible. We’ve studied the Bible and believe that our purpose, vision, and core values are the purpose, vision, and values God has for LifePointe.

So what’s the difference between purpose, vision, and core values?

Think of is this way. Our purpose is why LifePointe will exist. We will exist to make disciples that impact our community for the glory of God. Our purpose is to see people come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, teach them what Jesus taught, so that they will impact the whole community for Jesus. When this happens, God gets the glory. That’s our purpose. That’s why we will exist. There’s nothing more or less for us to do.

Our vision is the outcome of us fulfilling our purpose. If we do what God wants us to do, thousands in our community and county will have a relationship with Jesus. They will be part of the family of God and LifePointe. They will have real, life-changing relationships with Jesus and those who make up LifePointe. They will experience life-change in their families, friends, and all other relationships. They will experience life, and that life to its fullest.

Our core values are the parameters for our purpose and vision. These are the things that we value in fulfilling our purpose and will lead us to realizing our vision. Our core values are the DNA of LifePointe. Just like your DNA determines who you are, our core values determine who we will be as a church. They define who we are as a church.

Hopefully, this sheds a little light on what all this purpose, vision, and values are all about. If you have a comment, or want to know more, leave a comment on this article.