Staff Values
Guiding principles as we purse the vision of Grace Community ChurchKneel Before You Run
This value is intentionally listed first. Everything we do must begin from a place of desperation for and dependence on God. We have a race to run, but we must kneel in submission and devotion to God before we begin. Often ministry can become a distraction from our personal walk with the Lord. Soon we’ve sacrificed intimacy for productivity. Instead, our number one priority is to begin everything with prayer and submission flowing from a genuine heart for God.
Sharpen The Saw
An adage says, “Time spent sharpening the axe may well be spared from swinging it.” The mission of Grace is a massive undertaking. If we want to be effective for the long haul, we need to ensure that we are the most effective tools we can be. We must maintain our health-- spiritually, emotionally, and physically. This also includes the idea that we must constantly be learning and growing to continue increasing our effectiveness over time.
Parkour Hardcore
Parkour is all about adjustment, flexibility, and adaptation. We want our team to be agile and athletic, quickly and effectively responding to the unexpected and spontaneous. In fact, we want to move beyond being OK with change and eventually be able to leverage change as a tool that helps us accomplish our mission. Along with this speed and flexibility, it’s important for us to embrace rapid feedback and evaluation so we can be even more effective the next time around.
Love The Hill
Runners often dread hills along their route and most view them as a place to slow down. But a healthy, well-trained runner sees the hill as an opportunity to pass people and actually take ground. We want our team to function in this way. We should expect all kinds of challenges and opposition as we strive to accomplish our God-given mission. When those times come, we will choose to have a mindset that is motivated by challenge rather than dismayed by it.
Clean The Toilet
The heart of this value is the idea of ownership. Each team member needs to own every piece of Grace (right down to the toilets). This kind of ownership leads to excellence. If you see something and think, “Someone should do something about that,” then that someone is you! Always try to see through the eyes of a guest and never think, “That’s not my problem.” We must constantly be striving to improve the things we see around us.
Build an Army
Looking at the idea of “151,000 fully devoted followers of Jesus”, it becomes instantly clear that we must be committed to reproducing ourselves. We must constantly be striving to lead more and do less. None of us are the Lone Ranger. Instead, we will do the work of first building a team and then building into that team in order to multiply our skills and expertise.
LOL
Laugh out loud! Have fun. As we work, have fun. As we serve, have fun. We want to be a team that laughs together. This is something that we must be intentional about. Fun must be not only allowed for but planned for (both by giving it space and by planning to do fun things). During meetings, we want laughter to be commonplace. We want to be the kind of team that laughs frequently during meetings, that isn’t always serious and sour, that dances at each other’s weddings. This is just as important as the other values.
Protect This House
This speaks to communication and relationship. It’s all about unity and loyalty. Those are the things that protect us from the enemy. It’s easy to dismiss negative comments that we think or hear others speak. Instead, let us stop and say, “No! That is dangerous and cannot continue.” We will never allow triangulation (talking to a third party about our issue with someone). Instead, we will always go to that person individually first. Even further, we will hold each other accountable to do the same.
Take it on the Chin
As Grace team members, we’re not going to make excuses. Instead, we will own whatever feedback, criticism, or issue has arisen. We will take responsibility and act rather than trying to escape from ownership even in the face of problems and challenges. Even more, each of us will not only be open to feedback and constructive criticism, we will actively invite it.
Play Motion Offense
In basketball, motion offense is a fluid approach where the players are always moving and always aware of where each other are. It only works if the team is in tune maintaining complete awareness. We want our team to be anticipating each other’s moves and needs even before they happen. We will fight against silos and work to complement what other team members are doing.
