7 Values We Embrace
1. Humility-Somebody once said "If you find a perfect church don't join it, because you'll just ruin it." And since arrogance isn't attractive on anyone, even if the person is "right", here at The Village Chapel we freely recognize our need before God. The New Testament teaches that we are all sinners and in need of God's grace, mercy and forgiveness. Therefore, in humility, we bow before God spiritually, morally, and intellectually. This attitude also impacts the way we view each other. It keeps us from thinking too highly of ourselves and leads us to treat each other with love and respect.
2. Authenticity- Over the years, hypocrisy has been one of the main complaints people have had against the church. The Bible reveals that Jesus didn't like hypocrisy either so here at The Village Chapel, while we are not perfect, we do seek to be honest in our relationships with God and with each other. We do not come to our worship services seeking to be amused or entertained, we don't use the church as an opportunity to perform, we don't bring demo tapes to pass along to anyone, we simply come seeking to grow and become more real and authentic in our faith. It is only through the transparency of authenticity that we can begin to grow in our love for God and each other. We will not fall into the shallowness of merely going to church, we want to be the church.
3. Integrity- At The Village Chapel we believe that God is holy and that since He has created us in His own image, God expects us to emulate His holiness. This means that we commit ourselves to not only believe certain facts about God, but to yield to the Holy Spirit to do the work of transforming our thoughts, attitudes, habits, and behavior, to tune our hearts to the heart of God. Desiring spiritual integrity simply means that we want to make our "walk" match our talk.
4. Accountability- At The Village Chapel we recognize our need for input from each other. We acknowledge that each of us, including our pastors, elders and staff members can benefit from the perspective of others and that by encouraging mutual accountability we can sharpen each other's faith walk. We do this by developing the habits of encouraging, exhorting, and praying for one another.
5. Diversity- At The Village Chapel we recognize the human tendency to gather only with those who look, think, and act just like we do and so we intend to make a concerted effort to reach out beyond our own cultural comfort zones. We also recognize that believing Christians can sometimes disagree on a variety of secondary doctrinal issues and so we intentionally allow for flexibility in those areas. We agree with the maxim: "In the essentials- unity. In the non-essentials- diversity. In all things- charity.
6. Creativity- At The Village Chapel we believe that creativity began with God, the Creator of everything that exists. God has given us the privilege of refashioning some of the elements of His creation to use in the expression of what is in our hearts and on our minds. We use a variety of these art forms in the direct expression of gratitude and praise to God and in speaking to one another about the things of God.
7. Vibrancy- At The Village Chapel we believe that faith in God should always be dynamic, never routine or static. We will not allow our worship of God to become trivial or marginal. We want to avoid sliding into spiritual complacency. To do this, we will seek to stimulate and challenge one another in ways that will stir our hearts to a living and vibrant faith.