We're looking at developing your church core values in comparison to your personal church values. Your church core values are actually a synthesis of your personal core values with the personal core values of your church leaders and members. It's very important to recognize the critical nature of finding harmony and finding unity around the core values. It doesn't mean that every leader would say the same. That's just a primary sense that these represent why I want to participate in this church. Know what you will leave the group over. Know what you will leave the church over, if it's not there.

When you start thinking like that, you're not going to struggle so much with I got eight of these. You're going to pair it down to more like 2 or 3 that you’ll actually leave over. There might be 6 or 8 of these, but there are 2 or 3 of these, if they're not there, you're not there. This is what God's called you to do. What I'm saying right now is, don't make this mistake. If I'm a part of a church plant and they're not committed to church planting I'm gone. That's not who I am, that's not what I'm called to be.

The take away from this module is, do you know yourself? Do you know what those few things are that you walk away over? You have them. If you're like most emerging church planters, you haven't made it clear yet even to yourself what those are. That's really important to do that. There are two common mistakes that church planters make when trying to help develop their new church's core values. Number one: illegitimately trying to impose your personal core values on the new church.

Don't ask me to tell you specifically how you can know where that line is. I just tell you, you'll know. The chemistry is not there. It's just not working. You're continuing to try to impose something on people that they're really not open to, that's a huge mistake. Then, there's the other extreme: the passivity. Neglecting to communicate appropriately your personal core values to the church. It's a failure to recognize it when somebody pushes back. They just haven't had the opportunity you've had to be as exposed to these concepts. They're brand new.

That's why you come back to what I was saying earlier. Developing core values that are really core values and not just stated, takes a while. You will be pastorally wise when you realize that even when someone at first, even when you didn't find any commonality, you continue to listen well. Love well. Share the vision. You can't do it forever, but you will know whether they're receptive or not, in time. Do you know which extreme you're more prone to experience? If not, ask your spouse if you're married. They will normally tell you which one. 

Are you more prone to impose your core values or are you more prone to neglect to find common ground with peace at any price? Let me promise you, every one of you are in one of those two categories. The sooner you know which one you're in, the more you'll understand what real gospel-centered leadership looks like because it will take you out of your comfort zone and you will need Jesus at a deeper level, because you will be moving toward what you think is pushing you at a consensus and peace and trying to persuade or you'll be going the other way. You will be ministering normally out of weakness needing the Lord's strength. 

You've not completed your initial personal core values statement. Having gone through this process, even in a preliminary way, you've learned some of the practical ways to attain group core values. You're now prepared to lead others, especially your key church leaders, in the future through this process in order to develop your initial church core values. You can take this process that you just went through for yourself. You can actually take a group through this dynamic and move with intentionality toward consensus building from the beginning.

The development of your initial core values is only the beginning. It's a problem with all philosophy and ministry statements. Everything that we're developing here during this course, the greatest course is for church planters to think, "Oh yes, I remember that module on core values. Have you seen my list of core values? What do you think of it? Pretty good, huh?" This is not a static document. These processes actually never change. You realize that your core values although not normally in a dramatic fashion, but they will morph and they will shape, and they will change as the nature of the church changes.

As the ministry is developed, this process of developing core values is more dynamic than it is static. It's not just writing them down, but it's communicating them. Be ready to answer these kinds of questions. What are some ways that you plan to communicate your core values to your church attendees and members? What are some effective ways you plan to communicate these values to your ministry focus group, the people you are serving? What are some of the ways you plan to communicate your core values to new church leaders in the future?

There's a host of different methods and means of always keeping these values before people. Whether it's a small group ministry. Whether it's a part of worship. Whether it's a part of leadership development. Whether it's a part of basic discipleship. You use these resources to make your core values integrated and more systemic in your ministry as just an organic means of fanning the flame that will then manifest itself in the behaviors that are the what or the how that are answering the core value question of why.