Fishcreek Church of the Nazarene

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Our Ministries and their Leaders

Our Mission Statement

Reach the Lost

Love the Body

Serve the World

Our Values Produce Our Mission

Reach the Lost

God and Others

Grace Over Guilt

Biblical Teaching

Love the Body

Intentional Relationship

Unconditional Love

Serve the World

Serving Sacrificially

The Next Generation

7 Core Values Break-Down

1. God and Others

So we see that if we love God most, we will love others best.
I find this to be a convicting and uncomfortable truth: How we love others, particularly other Christians, reveals how we love God. The apostle John puts it bluntly: “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20).
Our love for each other is an indicator of the place God is holding in our hearts.
God is very good at designing things this way: our faith is revealed by our works (James 2:18), our creeds are revealed by our deeds (Luke 6:46), and our love for him is revealed by our love for others (1 John 4:20).
Since the greatest and second greatest commandments are involved in these things, we know they are important to God.
So perhaps the best thing we can do today is take an honest, lingering look at the way we love others, allow what we see to have its Philippians 2:12 effect on us, and ask God what he would have us do in response.

2. Grace Over Guilt

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
Guilt is basic to the human existence. Since no one is perfect, we all are tempted by guilt over our past mistakes.
Sin brings guilt. That means our need for grace is as basic to our lives as the existence of guilt.
God doesn’t want you to walk around feeling guilty.
That’s why God sent Jesus to the cross to die for all of your sins.
The Bible says, “By the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God which he gave to us in such large measure!” (Ephesians 1:7-8)
This is the most basic truth of Christianity: Jesus Christ has already paid for your sins. You only need to accept it. Because Jesus died for us, we’re free from condemnation, worry, and death.
Even if there were no eternity, it would be worth it to become a follower of Jesus in order to escape the guilt.
Romans 8:1 says, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus”. “No condemnation” means God doesn’t judge you for all you’ve done wrong if you’ve trusted Christ because Jesus took that judgment upon himself on the cross. God doesn’t have to judge you because Jesus was judged. He doesn’t have to condemn you because Jesus took your condemnation.
That means you don’t need the guilt.

3. Unconditional Love

Unconditional love is the source and foundation of the human transformation that makes the sweetness of unconditional love possible.
If God did not love us unconditionally, he would not penetrate our unattractive lives, bring us to faith, unite us to Christ, give us his Spirit, and make us progressively like Jesus.
But when he unconditionally chooses us, and sends Christ to die for us, and regenerates us, he puts in motion an unstoppable process of transformation that makes us glorious.
We see this in Ephesians 5:25–26.-“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her [unconditional love], that he might sanctify her . . . and present the church to himself in splendor” — the condition in which he delights.”
It is unspeakably wonderful that God would unconditionally set his favor on us while we are still unbelieving sinners.
The ultimate reason this is wonderful is that this unconditional love brings us into the everlasting enjoyment of his glorious presence.
But the apex of that enjoyment is that we not only see his glory, but also reflect it.
“The name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in him” (2 Thessalonians 1:12)

4. Serving Sacrificially

The Christian life—when properly understood—is a life of sacrifice.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done (Matthew 16:24-28).”
I am concerned we do not really embrace this mentality in today’s evangelical church culture. Many professing Christians have supposedly come to Christ, but remain dedicated to a life lived for themselves. Jesus fits neatly into a certain segment of their lives. He is carefully managed by many who claim to know Him. Jesus is often adored for the benefits He brings into their lives, but not worshiped and obeyed in a “to die for” kind of way.
Are we sacrificial people? What I mean is: Do we serve God until it hurts? Or do we only serve Him to the point that it fits neatly into our schedules? Are we fearful of “overdoing it,” or do our lives demonstrate sacrifice?
Are we so consumed with being wise stewards that we have lost the risk-taking nature of faith? Have we tamed our God? Have we politely put Him on a leash? Have we domesticated Him and softened the call to radical discipleship?
I ask you: Are we people of sacrifice?
The example of the believers in Philippi was one of sacrificial service. So great was the sacrifice of their service to Christ that Paul refers to his own ministry as merely a drink offering poured out on top of their ministry (Philippians 2:17-18). The selfless example of the Philippian believers reveals three qualities of sacrificial Christians.
Sacrificial Christians partner with gospel ministries (1:5, 19, 27).
Sacrificial Christians persevere through suffering (1:27-30).
Sacrificial Christians practice generous giving (4:10-19).

5. Biblical Teaching

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching …” (Acts 2:42). This tells me two things about the early church: (1) members were hungry for teaching; and (2) leaders taught.
We have a pretty good idea about what they taught. Based on the content of Peter’s Pentecost sermon as well as other passages in Acts, they exposited Scripture. (See Acts 2:16-21,25-28; 3:22; 7:2-50; 8:30f; 13:16-41; 15:15-18; 28:23,26-27.) They taught as Jesus taught them. He had “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:32,44–45).
Bible teaching was in the beginning—as it always must be—at the center of church life.
Let’s be clear about what we mean by “Bible teaching.” Teaching the Bible goes beyond using a biblical passage as a peg on which to hang good ideas. Bible teaching approaches the Bible in such a way that allows the biblical text to set the agenda and to speak for itself. What God has said in His Word is what we must teach.

6. Intentional Relationship

Today in our culture, we don’t have the need to “sell all of our possessions” to replicate the early church! This is no longer necessary because collectively we possess the wealth and other resources to provide for all who are in need.
In our modern context, we do still have a need, as the early church did, to express our commitment and be very intentional with the relationship we have with one another.
In our culture, we enter into covenant commitment for all sorts of things; when we get married, when we buy a home, when we purchase a car or truck, when we borrow money from a bank or credit union or credit card company.
How much more important is it to be intentional about the biblical relationship with each other?
Entering into a relationship, that is intentional, and based on the biblical framework found among New Testament believers, indicates our commitment to a common vision and shared responsibility for the work of ministry together, for the building of the kingdom of God and the glory of His name.
God calls His people into covenant, not only to Himself but also to each other.
He calls us to a life of sacrifice, generosity, service and radical commitment to the good of the body of Jesus.
This happy obligation is most readily pursued within the context of a particular body—a local church.
In light of this reality, covenant with each other is not merely a responsibility but a blessed opportunity to covenant with a particular people to live out the gospel together.

7. The Next Generation

Here are 5 values we identify for the next generation.

Give them unchanging truth, differently.

The Gospel doesn’t change, but how we apply the Gospel to our changing culture is vital. In Acts 2, Peter proclaimed the Gospel, quoting the Old Testament as he proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah. But in Acts 17, Paul stood before pagan philosophers, citing a hymn to Zeus and starting with creation. Why the difference? Peter spoke to devout Jews, while Paul preached to Gentiles. The next generation we seek to reach lives in a world like Athens, not Jerusalem. The grand narrative of Creation, Fall, Rescue, and Restoration offers the epic story of how Jesus’ work on the cross does more than get us out of hell; the biblical story centered in Christ affects every aspect of life.

Focus less on behavior and more on wonder.

I met a young lady in her 20s who represents many in her generation. She grew up attending church. In college, she reflected on her years in youth group. “I remember two things,” she told me. “Don’t have sex and invite a friend.” Behavior modification has marked much of the focus of ministry to the next generation.

Let me remind you that the Bible is not mainly a book of morality but of reality: it reveals to us who God is and what He is doing in the world. Morality matters, but that’s an effect of the gospel, not its essence.

In Acts, we see a new generation reached for Christ. Terms like astonished, awe, marveled, wondered, great fear, and others abound. Today, the next generation experiences these more in movie theaters than in Christianity.

Call them to surrender, not survival.

The problem does not seem to be that churches are teaching young people badly, but that we are doing an exceedingly good job of teaching youth what we really believe: namely, that Christianity is not a big deal, that God requires little, and the church is a helpful social institution filled with nice people focused primarily on ‘folks like us’—which, of course, begs the question of whether we are really the church at all.

When I speak to the next generation, I like to remind them how following Jesus doesn’t simply mean you have Christ in your life; it means He is your life. Young people at 15 sacrifice everything to win gold medals in the Olympics. Teens learn trigonometry in high school; they can learn theology in church. We need to stop giving bare-bones Christianity aimed at children and dish out a robust, life-altering message to young adults instead.

Jonathan Edwards observed the Great Awakening was propelled by and influenced mostly young people. Too many young adults see the Church as an agent aimed at behavior modification and conformity to a set tradition rather than as a living encounter with a resurrected King.

Teach them about vocation as well as devotion.

Showing how the Gospel impacts all of life and not only our spiritual lives is vital to this generation. “There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is Curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is Vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love.” -Bernard of Clairvaux

Emphasize community over the institutional church.

This is a generation starving for community. It’s a fatherless generation, one often connected more on the internet with virtual community than enjoying real community.

One of the primary reasons those in the next generation stay in church after their teens is because they develop meaningful relationships and develop a sense of community. They are twice as likely to be engaged in church if they have a close friendship with an adult in the church.