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// Our Values

[ truth | authentic community | passionate spirituality | missional living ]

Truth
A church may be associated with many things, but at the heart of Christian faith is a message, a word. Our God is a speaking God. By his word he created all things. By His word he sustains the universe. It’s true that there is much we cannot know and never will know about our inexhaustible God. Although there is much mystery in God, He is not silent. He has spoken.

The apostle John describes Jesus’ incarnation by saying “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”(Jn 1:14). Jesus is God’s Word in skin. The author of Hebrews wrote “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb 1:1-2). Our speaking God has spoken finally and ultimately in Jesus. “For this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.”(Jn 18:37).

See how Jesus distinguishes His true followers from the pretenders: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”(Jn 8:31-32). Jesus' true disciples live in his word, know truth and have been set free by truth. The difference between life and death is truth (Jn 5:24). At the core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus is knowledge of and belief in the person and message of Jesus, that is, the gospel, the word of truth (Eph 1:13). Without truth, we have no saviour, no message, and no life.

Authentic Community
Our culture focuses on the individual, but God has always focused on community. The mission of God has always been to call out a community, a people of God, living in this world, but distinct from this world. Titus 2:14 states that Jesus died for us to “purify for himself a people for his own possession.” God’s mission isn’t to call individuals in isolation, but to call individuals to be in community and together follow Jesus as the people of God.

In the Scriptures, this started at creation when, though everything in the world was good, God stated that “it is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:18). Even the sinless Adam had a flaw: he needed community. He was made for it. Throughout the Old Testament, God was preparing and calling the nation of Israel to be the people of God, representing Him in this world. In Christ, there is now one people of God (Eph 2:11-22) united by the cross, centred on the gospel.

What kind of community is a gospel community? Jesus said “by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). True followers of Jesus will be unique in their love for others in community. We see a vibrant picture of authentic community in the example of the early church in Acts 2:42-47. Here we see the new people of God, devoted to Truth, community, love, care and sacrifice for each other, and joining together on mission with Jesus.

We want to be a church that experiences authentic Christian community. Not just hundreds of individuals attending the same event, but a gospel-centred community that exists 24/7, but gathers to celebrate and worship Jesus on Sundays.

Passionate Spirituality
A big part of our Christian faith is cerebral. We value truth and doctrine and Scripture. But Truth that terminates on itself is pointless. The goal of truth proclamation is not informational but transformational. Truth needs to evoke an authentic, vibrant, passionate, worshipful response. The Scriptures never portray the appropriate response to God as dispassionate, dutiful, sober obedience. We are instructed to delight in the law (Ps 1:2), to delight in doing God’s will (Ps 40:8), and to delight in God himself (Ps 37:4). We are commanded to rejoice in the Lord in all circumstances (Ph 4:4). Our entire lives are to be one of worshipful response (Rom 12:1). Jesus instructs us that obedience to his words leads to maximum joy (Jn 15:11).

As we encounter God’s truth, revealed in Jesus, we cannot remain the same. Truth leads us to a joyful, spiritual, passionate, worshipful, God-magnifying, satisfying, emotional, active response. We don’t just understand truth, but we feel it. Worship is a response to God that engages the mind and the heart (Jn 4:23).

This is such a theme in the New Testament, that to grow in maturity is not to grow in information, but to grow in passion and love for Jesus. We measure a growing disciple by their passion for Jesus and (flowing out of that) their love for others. We also recognize that we each express ourselves differently, and so we want to create an environment that promotes a variety of worshipful responses, not only corporately but in all aspects of life.

Missional Living
The call of every follower of Jesus is to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). We are not called by Jesus to be consumers and receivers, but to join the mission of God. We recognize that God has ordained our days and places (Acts 17:26), and has sent us as his representatives (2 Cor 5:18-20; Jn 17:13-19), to bring his message to all people. The church then, is not a service-providing corporation, but a gathering of people on mission with Jesus.

This means that we each need to live our lives with intentionality. Discerning the unique relationships and opportunities that God has given each of us, and then using those to build relationships, love and serve others, and to share Jesus. For this reason, we try and live and meet as much as we can in public spaces, cultivating relationships, loving and serving the city and sharing life and Jesus with everyone.

This mission-focused mindset affects our entire outlook as a church. We want our corporate Sunday Worship Gatherings to be as welcoming as possible, so that they feel more like the public sphere than a private club. We want our Community Groups to be very inclusive, genuinely welcoming and loving others, whether believers or not. We want every individual to intentionally get involved in their community and share life with others who don’t know Jesus. We want everyone at TAC to live with intentionality and to join the mission of Jesus in South Delta.