Category: Core Values

I’m a firm believer that defining your core values is a foundational strategic necessity for any church or organization. I’ve already discussed this in-depth in my Core Value series. That said, I thought it’d be cool to share the core values that Elevation Church has defined for themselves. These have got to be some of the most unique, well written, values I’ve ever seen. They are interesting, inspiring and instructive. When I read them, I find myself pulled towards them and that church. It makes me want to learn more about them.

Understand, I’m not suggesting you copy these values and make them your own. I do suggest you develop your own values and consider modeling the style of how you write and communicate them after Elevation. Enjoy.

Elevation Church Core Values

• We Are Known For What We Are For 
  We will speak vision and life over our people. We will lift up the salvation of Jesus rather than using our platform to condemn.

• We Will Not Take This For Granted
  What we are experiencing is not normal. This is the highest calling, and we will remain grateful for God’s hand of favor.

• We Are All About The Numbers
  Tracking metrics measures effectiveness. We unapologetically set goals and measure progress through all available quantitative means.

• We Act In Audacious Faith
  In order to dominate a city with the gospel of Jesus, we can’t think small. We will set impossible goals, take bold steps of faith and watch God move.

• We Need Your Seat
  We will not cater to personal preference in our mission to reach this city. We are more concerned with the people we are trying to reach than the people we are trying to keep.

• We Are United Under One Vision
  Elevation is built on the vision God gave us. We will aggressively defend our unity
  and that vision.

• We Dress For The Wedding
  We will continually increase our capacity by structuring for where we want to go. Not where we are. We will remain on the edge of our momentum by overreacting to harness strategic momentum initiatives.

• We Are A Generation Of Honor
  We freely give honor to those above us, beside us and under us because of the calling and potential God has placed inside of them.

• We Are Ruth’s Chris, Not Golden Corral
  Simplicity enables excellence. We place a disproportionate value on creating a worship experience that boldly celebrates Jesus and attracts people far from God.

• We Lead The Way In Generosity
  Our staff and church will go above and beyond to give sacrificially to the work of God
  in our city.

• We Think Inside The Box
  We will embrace our limitations. They will inspire our greatest creativity and innovation.

• We Eat The Fish And Leave The Bones
  We will always maintain a posture of learning. We seek to learn from everyone and incorporate a variety of influences into our methodology.

I’m a firm believer in core values for your church or organization. So in today’s post I’d like to outline some ideas on how your strategic team might go about drafting your ministry Core Values.

• Set Your Expectations
  In my experience, the process of defining and clarifying your core values is both time consuming AND rewarding as a team. It is definitely a team sport though. Don’t go about drafting your core values alone. It’s meant to be accomplished in a team environment. So make sure you have set aside several hours to work on this project. You may want to consider two or three 3-hour sessions right away. Side-Note: Be sure to keep your meetings close together on the calendar. The more days/weeks between meetings, the less momentum you will build towards completing the project successfully.
   

• Get On The Same Page
  It’s important that everyone on your team has a basic understanding of why developing your core values is important as well as what core values are and are not. The aforementioned articles (above) would be a great place to begin. Be sure you spend time talking about these things as a foundation first, so you don’t end up doing so half-way through the process.
   

• Assign Homework
  Next, I recommend you ask each person on the team to take an hour by themselves to personally brainstorm what they believe the core values of your organization are. Be sure they are armed with the “What Core Values Aren’t” document when they do so! I suggest they either keep their list until you return together as a team or submit the list to one individual on your team. I don’t recommend each team member sending out emails to the rest of the team with their list. You want to have conversation about this stuff, but live, not digitally.
   

• Combine, Discuss, and Condense
  Now is when the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Be sure you have a good chunk of uninterrupted time to talk and have each team member share each value on their list as well as “why” they believe it’s a value that should be considered. As each team member shares, write the list down on a white board so everyone can see the list developing. This one meeting is probably one of the most important. If you don’t have a good degree of trust and openness on your team, people may find it difficult to challenge or question some of the thoughts and ideas being presented – which is an important part of the process.After everyone has shared and the list is developed, begin working on condensing the list down to as few primary core values as possible. Resist the temptation to have a ton of values. You’ll find that, with some effort, many of the values can be combined into a bigger category. For example, “caring” and “responsive to needs” can both potentially fall under the umbrella of ‘caring’. You’ll also want to test each value against my list of what a core value is NOT. Keep in mind, as well, that choosing to not keep a value doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not important to you or the ministry – but that it doesn’t fall into the primary DNA listing of values for your church. Ideally, you’ll be left with a handful of values – preferably less than ten.
   

• Rephrase Your Values For This Culture
  Unless you’re target audience is boomers on up, you probably don’t want to keep your list of values as is. I recommend you engage in another strategy session or two and rephrase each value in such a way that it will capture the attention of your ministry guests and attendees. For example, at Elevation Church they hold a value that in it’s simplest form could be phrased: ‘Teachable’. However, the way they explain it on their website is much more interesting, catches my attention, and draws me in. They say: ‘We eat the fish and leave the bones’. Or in Granger Community Church’s recently revamped core values they define ‘Team’ this way: ‘We Value Team: We is Better than Me’.
   

• Share Them and Live Them
  Finally, you need to discover ways to regularly communicate your values to your congregation, leaders, and even your guests. I suggest you post them on your website and literature about your church, preach a series about them and package it up and give it away to everyone who takes your members class, add them to your strategic dipstick list (the list of things you check on strategically on an annual or semi-annual basis), blog about them, talk about them, and do so regularly.Most importantly, make your values so important that they are non-negotiable. A negotiable value isn’t really a value, it’s an idea. If you have a value of integrity, make sure you and your team consistently think up ways to lead your ministry with integrity. If it’s about teamwork, don’t just talk about teams, build in your very structure standards that prevent people from running ministry all by themselves.

photo credit: Venessa Miemis via photopin cc

Patrick Lencioni once had a conversation with a business leader about his core values. The business leader boldly declared that “a sense of urgency” was one of their core values. When Patrick asked if his employees all met their deadlines, the executive responded with a profound, “No, their complacent as hell, which is why we need to make urgency one of our core values!”

As Patrick describes so clearly in his article entitled “Make Your Values Mean Something” in the Harvard Business Review (a great and quick read), it can be very easy to define values that are, in fact, not really values at all.

In today’s post I’d like to identify what core values are NOT.

• Core Values are NOT the same as Mission.
  
  Your mission should be one simple statement defining WHY you exist as an organization. Your values will support your mission by providing the ground rules for effectively walking out that mission every day. 

• Core Values are NOT the same as Vision.
  
  Your vision represents a desired future based on the mission of your church. Your values are different. They represent HOW you will carry out ministry between now and the fulfillment of that vision. For example, “be a multi-campus church” is a vision statement, not a core value. 

• Core Values are NOT Core Beliefs.
  It can be easy to confuse the two. Simply put, your values COME FROM your beliefs. For example, I have a core value that all ministry should be Bible-Based because I have a belief that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. Using the illustration in my post entitled “Why Core Values?”, I have a value that my preschool children will not watch certain evening programs because I have a belief that those programs will harm my child’s development.

• Core Values are NOT the same as personal growth principles.
  There are many powerful principles about how we are to live out our faith in the Bible. For example, we will personally grow if we love others, be fiscally responsible, work hard and give glory to God while we do, worship, pray, fast, read the Bible, stay connected with like-minded believers, not be unequally yoked, etc. These are all important aspects of the Christian’s life. However, they should not be confused with your church core values. 

• Core Values are NOT Strategies or Goals.
  Strategies and goals will, by necessity, change over time. Core Values will rarely, if ever, change. Don’t confuse a strategy for fulfilling a vision with your values. For example, ‘summer camps’ may represent a strategy for reaching young people in your church. However, I would not consider ‘summer camps’ a value. Perhaps in 5 years you will decide that mission trips will reach young people better than summer camps. That would be a new strategy. 

Your mission represents WHY you exist.

Your vision represents WHAT you think the future should look like.

Your strategy represents the PLANS you have set in motion to fulfill your vision.

Your values represent HOW you will carry out those plans at all times.

You will never see my wife or I watching the nightly news, select sit-coms, or murder mystery’s on TV at night with one of my preschool children present in the room. It’s simply not something we have ever done. Becky and I have chosen this standard together. It wasn’t hard. It’s one of the family values we share. I’m glad for this value, and will always stand by it for my family. I won’t impose that value on other families, though I may share why we have this value in the hopes that others might adopt it too. This value is part of our family DNA and shapes who we are and what we do in our home.

In the same way, churches have values. They may or may not be well defined, but they are there and they make a huge difference in how ministry happens.

I’m helping three churches develop their ministry core values. In one of our discussions, the question came up, “Why do we need core values?”.  I’m convinced that if a church defines their core values, and lives by them, they will serve as both a protection and a guide to church leaders in fulfilling their mission.

Here’s Why:

• D.N.A.
  Everyone knows that there are no two people exactly alike. Even identical twins are overwhelmingly unique from one another. The same is true for every church in the world. The mixture of leadership, people, culture, values, experiences, etc. ensure that there will never be another church like it. Identifying values helps to clarify for church leaders as well as attendees and guests just WHO you are. For example, a church with a core value of “Family Friendly” will not only attract families, but clarify to all that this is part of who God made this church to be.

• G.P.S.
  
  There are many paths that can get you to where you want to go, but not every path is the best or right path. While driving, you may prefer to stay away from toll roads or highways. Most GPS units will allow you to program that information in. As a result, the path (or strategic plan) created for you  will stick to those preferences. Additionally, when a roadblock forces you to detour, your GPS will recalculate keeping your programmed preferences. In the same way, core values ensure you don’t stray from ‘who you are’ while fulfilling ministry. For example, let’s say you’ve identified a value of ‘Accepting’ – meaning you will accept anyone in your church regardless of status, background, race, etc. If a group of mentally handicapped adults begin attending services and occasionally become disruptive, your value will ensure you find a way to accept them into your church without alienating or rejecting them.

• Guardrails
  A business consultant once told me that core values are the guard rails that will protect you while you move from where you are to where you’re going. It’s true. Well defined and implemented values will help ensure we don’t fall off or meander off the path. For example, I recommend you adopt a core value of “Integrity”. This means you will build into your culture certain standards and practices that will ensure that your ministry operates with integrity. Perhaps that might include higher standards regarding the handling of money or who counsels who, where, and when, etc.

• Behavior
  
  Values dictate behavior. I’ve heard it said that whenever a person strongly reacts to something it probably means their values have either been violated or validated. When a church selects and chooses to live by certain values, people have a blueprint for how they should act, react, and live out ministry in the church. For example, a value about reaching the ‘younger generation’ might impact the primary means by which the church chooses to communicate to it’s attendees.

• Buy-In
  Well defined values help others decide how involved they want to be in the life of the church. People want to know what they are getting into, and they want to know they can sink their teeth in deep. Values will help them make that leap. For example, if one of your values includes “Family Friendly” and I have a strong conviction that solid families help lead the church for the next generation, then I will be inclined to give a lot of myself toward the cause.

• Strategy
  Finally, your values will play a big role in strategic planning. You have no desire to create plans that don’t incorporate every one of your values, but sometimes that is what happens when values aren’t clarified. For example, a value of ‘team’ might communicate that you have no interest in people running a ministry by themselves. It’s critical that teams are in place everywhere, which will mobilize the church to ‘be’ the church. This value comes into play at the outset of a strategic discussion by asking the question, ‘How will we accomplish this as a team?’ or ‘Who will we recruit to be on this team?