Vision and Values Statement

Vision:

To reach our world for Jesus by growing in faith, offering hope and acting in love. 

Values:

1.    Loving God through a life-style of worship

2.    Investing in relationships is essential

3.    Using spiritual gifts to build others up

4.    Engaging the next generations

5.    Developing servant-leaders

6.    Sacrificing for God’s mission

7.    Caring for those in need

8.    Depending on God in prayer

 

 

 

Loving God through a life-style of worship.

The greatest commandment according to Jesus is to Love God with all of our heart, soul mind and strength.  We believe that expressing Love towards God in these ways is called worship. Our aim then is to live a life that practically loves God with everything we are and everything we do. 

Investing in relationships is essential

We believe that we are called to be a community not a congregation. We were created to live in relationship with one another. Therefore it is essential that all of us intentionally invest in relationships with people in a way that helps us live out our faith in Jesus and demonstrates His love to those around us.  

Using spiritual gifts to build others up.

God gives each of His followers certain gifts for the purpose of giving Him glory and building others up. When God empowers these special abilities we are able to serve each other and our world in amazing ways. 

Engaging the next generations

Jesus developed a model of ministry that needs to be passed on to the next-generations in a way that involves them today. We want to serve them in a way that develops their heart for God and their abilities in culturally relevant ways. We want to always be encouraging people to find ways of loving God and others in a life-style that is effective to reach their generation. 

Developing servant-leaders.

 God’s model of leadership is always as a servant-leader. Jesus took on the nature of a servant in order to lead people to His Father. We believe that one of our roles is helping people to become both better servants and leaders, which reflects the heart and mission of God.  

Sacrificing for God’s mission.

We are called to be committed to God’s mission of love in our world. It is impossible to fulfil that mission with out cost. We believe that God deserves our time, talents, money, resources, and in fact everything we have. This sacrificial style of giving is in response to His ultimate sacrifice for us and the world we endeavour to serve. YVV seeks to utilise these resources in ways that glorifies God and fulfils His mission in the world. 

Caring for those in need.

Jesus modelled a life-style of meeting the needs of those around Him. Wether it is spiritual, physical, financial or emotional need, we are called to continue this ministry in our world. 

Depending on God in prayer.

 We know that we are charged with a task that is wholly dependant on God. We want to seek God for everything. Not only out of our dependence, but out of our love for Him. 

 

At the meeting we spent the night talking through the Vision and Values for YVV in the next season of life and growth. We have spent months as a staff and then as council trying to hear the Lord and His direction and calling on His Church. This has been a labour of love and has really brought us closer to what we feel is the heart of God for His purposes in the world. We again stress that the Vision and Values is not a top down, leadership imposed, one man’s vision. We want to have the Church know that this has been and will continue to be a team process of seeing this Vision realized in our community. The Vision is bigger than any of us could accomplish, even together, without God’s leading and empowering. That’s why we spent some time seeking, dreaming and searching the scriptures to catch a glimpse of what the vision could look like.

Part of this team owning and modelling of the Vision and values is that we as a leadership team (that means you) begin to leak out the vision in our areas of ministry. We have suggested looking at the Vision and Values as a home group or talking through them with your friends and ministry teams.

We also talked about having us begin to write a short devotional guide that can help people begin a personal and communal journey into developing these values in our lives. We would love to see how God begins to lead us and inspire us to see these values lived out in a practical way.

We will want to hear stories of how people are “being the church” in tangible ways. So please let us know of any stories you have or ways God is moving in our midst.