CITYLIGHTS VALUES

Passionately desiring the presence and power of God. We want to be seekers of God.  We want a convergence of Word and Spirit. We want to be a people who hunger for more of God, live for the glory of God, and are open to the gifts of God.  We want to hear God through the Bible and for this to be authoritative in our lives.  AND We want to be a Spirit-led and Spirit-empowered people who earnestly desire the gifts of the Spirit. We want to know God's presence and God's power.  We want to genuinely know God and his love, experiencing him in both quiet contemplation and passionate zeal.  We want to know God through his whisper in the wind and in the roaring fire.  We want to be seekers of God.

We are sharing, showing, and being shaped by the gospel in everyday life. We want to be gospel-fluent.  We want to be changed by the gospel that changes everything.  The gospel is the good news that Jesus, Lord of all, brought his kingdom, lived, died, and rose to save sinners who believe.  We want this transforming truth to transform us and to saturate our cities.  We want the good news of Jesus to overflow from our lips because it fills our hearts.  We want to become fluent in the gospel, just like a new language so that we can think, love, and live shaped by the gospel of Jesus.  We want Jesus to be lifted high as Lord and we want this to start in our hearts.  We want to be intentionally and increasingly becoming a gospel-fluent people.

Forged in relationship. We want to put relationships first.  We are forged in relationships. This makes sense because God is love and relational and therefore, life grows from the soil of loving relationships.  We value relationship over role, ritual, and responsibility.  How we relate and who we are becoming is primary, what we are doing with our tasks is secondary.  We want to be a community where Jesus is at the centre and how we relate is shaped by the gospel. Because we put relationships first we want to have courageous conversations, speak truth, persevere towards reconciliation, extend honour generously, tear out roots of bitterness and offence ruthlessly, and choose forgiveness repeatedly.  We want to put relationships first.

We do things on purpose. We want to be intentionally intentional. We want to do things on purpose because God's intentions deserve our intentionality.  We want to know him, participate with him, and help others do the same.  God's mission is grand and worthy of our focus, therefore, we are unapologetically intentional about our actions and outcomes.  Amidst diversity and the leading of the Spirit, we embrace intentional processes and systems that help guide and grow us.  We want to swim upstream, intentionally joining Jesus in his ministry and mission.  We want to be intentionally intentional.

Growing together in Jesus; going together with Jesus. We want multiply disciples in communities on mission.  We want to be disciples of King Jesus, following him and submitting to Jesus being Lord of all, everywhere, all the time.  We want to apprentice in the ways of Jesus and this occurs in the context of real life relationships: life-on-life, life in community, life on mission.  Therefore, Missional Communites are a primary vehicle for us.  Discipleship is an intentional relational journey of learning to put Jesus at the center of all of life. We focus on obedience-based discipleship in the context of relationships. We want to join Jesus, multiply disciples, and become spiritual grandparents.  We want to multiply disciples in communities on mission.

Relentlessly pursuing the lost. We want to be sent to the one who is lost.  We know the church doesn't exist for itself but to love the world and therefore, we want to boldly share, generously give, passionately pray, and sacrificially serve.  We want to be hospitable and generous, loving the least, lost, and little of our city and world.  We want to be like the good shepherd that leaves the ninety sheep to relentlessly pursue the one who is lost.  We are lights to the city. We are CityLights. We want to be sent to the one.