1 Every person bears the image of God and is therefore of great value. One person is not more or less valuable than any other, regardless of age, gender, or status. We don’t look on the external, but seek to understand what God is doing in people’s hearts, minds, and souls.
2 God’s mission is to all people, all nations, and all cultures, regardless of any ideology that would sway us into thinking the mission is only about us and our own people.
3 God passionately loves every person he has created. This love of God flows from His being, rather than being a developed character trait.
4 God is already more active in our lives than we can possibly imagine. Thus, God is already in the place where He is calling us to go and has already been speaking with whomever He is calling us to speak to, even if we are oblivious to it.
5 God is passionately committed to His will. He desires that all would be saved and none should perish, and He alone is responsible for the acts of saving, regenerating, indwelling, filling, anointing, and growing His Church. Thus we joyfully and obediently co-labor in the realm of the impossible (or what is only possible with Him) in the lives of people.
6 God’s only acceptable and perfect solution for peace and reconciliation with His humanity is the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, and there is no other name, way, truth, or life whereby men may be saved.
7 God’s plan has always been to use the Church as His loving ambassadors of His Kingdom. We are to preach the good news of His free gift of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Thus, there is no child of God who has not been called to co-labor with Him.
8 The everlasting life of the Christ-follower begins at the moment in which they believe. Thus, we live in the now, but with the perspective of our life’s affect upon an eternity in which Christ says we are already seated with Him in the heavenly places.
9 God delights in nothing as much as He does our faith, through which we are saved, justified, and now learn how to walk with Him in the manner that glorifies Him the most. We recognize that we will only do what we really believe, and thus we seek to thwart deceptions and lies that are contrary to the truths God has revealed to us by faith. Because it is impossible for one part of God’s Word to fail, nor any of His promises to fail, we grow in our faith through accepting what the Word of God says and acting on it.
10 Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ, and unless the Lord opens their hearts and minds to understand, lost people cannot comprehend or discern the things of the Spirit. Thus, we are quick to speak the Word of God and we are no longer swayed by people’s sin, but rather by the truth of God’s abounding grace. We expect the lost to behave, think, and feel as lost people do, but we know that where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds all the more.
11 Unity among the Body of Christ worldwide is vital to the mission and indeed the very prayer of Jesus before His arrest. Thus, we bring the culture of God’s Kingdom to bear on every culture in which God puts us, rather than an inherited culture of our native land. We look for ways to be unified and at peace with all men, especially believers, without compromising the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
12 God is the Provider, capable of utilizing any resource He pleases at any time to sustain His purpose in us and for us, but He has made it clear that we are to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. Thus, we are fully reliant on the Lord for what we need, and not people, but we are always inviting people to join God at work with us, investing existing Kingdom resources to meet existing Kingdom needs.
13 God has never called His people to any sense of safety, comfort, or being sustained outside of Himself. We know that there will be a cost for following Christ (what the world would call risk). Thus, we have counted Him of far greater value than any other pursuit and are aware that the result of genuinely following Christ will be persecution and suffering but we also know that the glory yet to be revealed far outweighs it all.
14 Everything experienced is rooted in the spiritual and we have placed the supernatural as our highest reality. Thus, we seek to respond to each circumstance prayerfully and in tune with the Father before reacting according to the flesh.
15 God’s kindness leads us to repentance. Thus, in cooperation with Christ, we do not come into the world to condemn what is already condemned, but to seek to save that which is lost.
16 Identity, purpose, and permission to do whatever Christ desires from us is already fully established in Christ Jesus the Lord. Thus, we have ceased seeking the approval of men to go forward in God’s will.
17 There is no higher authority in the universe than that of Jesus Christ, as granted to Him by the Father. Thus, we must obey and follow him, rather than men. However, we also recognize the Word He has given us regarding the ordained positions of various authorities, and we seek to live in balance of boldly fulfilling God’s mission, submission to God-given authorities, and a peaceful, quiet life.
18 Nationals must learn to eventually reach nationals, and that discipleship multiplies best as it spreads in local communities among indigenous believers. Thus, we are sure to keep our ministries centered on Christ, repeatable, reproducible, and less and less dependent on the individual person.
19 God is more creative than we can ever be. Thus, there is no need for any other mission or vision than what God has already clearly revealed in the Scriptures, which still provides abundant room for every member of His body to follow Christ as the Father has gifted and uniquely burdened each for ministry through the Holy Spirit.
20 God never told us to grow our churches, but He did unquestionably command us to make disciples. Thus, we are constantly raising questions from within the church community to spur the church on toward its unceasing mission and away from a sense of complacency or a church culture that is centered on the approval of men.