But being a fairly uncreative person keeps
me looking for good ideas all around me in all sorts of areas of life.
One of those areas is pastoring. I am not sure I know exactly what the
future holds for me, Becky and our family, but in chance that God would
move us into a senior pastor role somewhere, I am always looking and
thinking about what would be the core values of my church and ministry.

Recently I have been doing some reading and from that reading I
think that at least four core values I want to have are community,
depth, responsibility and connection. Community in that I want people
to connect in meaningful relationships. Depth in that I don't just want
to "do church" but tackle tough real life issues and not settle for
Sunday School answers. Responsibility in that I want my church to be
concerned for the needs of others in our community and in our world.
And finally Connection, I want people to be connected in mentoring
roles, for people to have someone who will walk beside them and teach
them because they have gone through something similar themselves. I am
sure there will probably be a dozen more core values, but these are
four that I see as non-negotiable. 1

1. Stetzer, Ed. Lost and Found page 67-68.