Core Values
Why do We do What we Do?
Everyone worships. Worship is simply what we put first in our lives: where we devote our love, our time, our treasure, our talent. Whether it’s our stuff, our spouse, our children, humanity, false gods or – most often – ourselves… we all worship. God Himself worships. Although He is one God, He exists eternally as three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – in a community of perpetual worship and glory. In this triune community, all three are equal yet function in distinct roles and in submission to each other. It is out of that community that all creation springs, and He is worthy of all worship from what He created. Throughout history, Jesus Christ – God the Son – has been the singular way in which we get connected with God. Living Faith Church worships Jesus Christ, the center around which all of human history swings. We join the greater church in worshipful response to God’s initiation. While once we worshipped things fleeting, false or hollow, God has called us to worship Him. The shape of that worship – what we value, how we live, how we love – is governed and expressed by how God has revealed Himself to us through his Son Jesus Christ. As Paul stood in Athens, calling that city to worship Him, we live and work and eat and breathe in the greater Denver Metro area, conducting our lives in unceasing worship to embody Christ in every word and deed.
Our core values spring from who Christ is:
1. Christian Education
Because Christ is the very Word of God, revealing His wisdom, His unchanging truth and the very narrative of human existence, we value His Word and the Scripture He inspired. As Jesus declared His Word to be absolute, unchanging, exclusive and essential for life, we strive to be steeped in His Word so we might live and proclaim it as light in a dark place. Because God’s Word has been revealed through the narrative of history, we value frank, biblical exposition that speaks to our shared lives and produces sound doctrine that maintains authority over our daily walk.
2. Authentic Worship
Because Christ is Creator and Sustainer, speaking everything into existence and sustaining that creation through its seasons, we value both tradition and innovation as it fosters excellence in our worship, expressing ourselves through a liturgy of worship, word and communion open to technological and cultural innovation. As Christ was the source from which life sprang, and the vine which supplies lasting nourishment, we also seek to remain in the heart of the city where God has called us, multiplying by raising up fruitful families and proclaiming the good news Jesus has for the region.
3. Lordship of Jesus Christ
Because Christ is Master of All Things, Lord and King of the Universe, transcendent as Beginning and End of all creation, we value honoring God more highly than ourselves and recognize that everything we possess belongs to Him. As Christ is Lord and God, we take Him seriously and ourselves much less seriously. Since Jesus is Holy (set apart), we value living holy lives that reflect this. As He is Heir of all things, coming again to judge the living and the dead, we seek to use our time, treasure and talents wisely as they should be stewarded for His purposes.
4. Strong Families
Because Christ is a Member of the Trinity, in perfect relationship with God the Father and God the Spirit, we value a community that functions as one with different roles and gifts. As Christ models family in relationship with God the Father, we seek to live as a family of believers and raise biblical families. Since Jesus sends the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, we value unity as a body made one by His Spirit. As He serves as a member of the Trinity, we seek to be a church whose members serve rather than sit, relating as participants rather than consumers.
5. Biblical Leadership
Because Christ is the Head of the Church, we value a community built around Jesus as its cornerstone. Because Jesus is Prophet and Priest, we value speaking as intercessors within our culture to influence hearts versus controlling through power. Since Christ is described as “Bridegroom” to His church, we support biblical roles and sexuality between husband and wife that model this connection. As Jesus is Chief Shepherd of the church, we seek to model a biblical church body of elders, deacons and members as outlined in His Word that maintains accountability and discipline in accordance with His leadership.
6. Evangelism
Because Christ is our Savior, redeeming wicked lives and delivering us from hell through His death and resurrection, we value transformed hearts and repentance from sinful ways. As Jesus atoned for sin on the cross to provide salvation apart from any merit on our part, we strive for humble hearts which testify to this grace. Since Christ restores relationship with God previously broken in our depravity, we value lives that express the assurance of that hope as God’s Spirit dwells in us. As Jesus sacrificed Himself to serve as mediator between us and God the Father, we seek to model Christ-like examples that sacrifice for others
7. Community Impact
Because Christ is God “incarnate” (in the flesh), a humble yet confident servant with a mission, we seek to serve God’s mission in the time and place He has placed us, engaging our culture with relevant methods to redeem and transform it as a blessing to the city of Denver and beyond. Jesus lived as the perfect image of God, so we seek to be worthy image-bearers with the freedom in expression and contextualization we have been given. As Jesus Christ was provocative, we are free to be confrontational when the goal is transformational.
