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Thursday, 01 March 2007
Core Values
At a recent conference at The Windermere Centre concerning the future of the United Reformed Church, we were posed the question by a group of professionals from an advertising agencey, 'What are the Core Values' of the United Reformed Church'? In other words, what is our identity and purpose?
The discussions which followed, you may be surprised to learn, were very focused and harmonious! There were no theological splits or arguments, lots of ideas, but through which I feel four clear themes emerged as our Core Values.
This list of values is not to say that they are unique to the URC, nor that we do them better than other traditions, but that they are precious to us and we feel, at our best, we do them well and with greater emphasis than most.
The Core Values identified are:
A Radical Welcome
- welcome, fellowship, no one turned away from our churches.
A Place to Think
- questions, doubts, fears and a safe place to exoplore
A Place of Change
- Reformed and Always Reforming is still our distinct driving force
A Passion for Justice
- Fairtrade, Drop the Debt, Make Poverty History - define who we are!
Implied within the four is our unique committment to work with other churches and partner organisations whenever possible, but we were also clear that ecumenical partnerships would no longer hold us back when our way forward was clear.
The United Reformed Church - Re-invented? No! Just Re-defined!
Come as you are!
13:40 Posted in Advertising , Catch the Vision , The United Reformed Church | Permalink | Comments (9) | Email this
Comments
Wow. That's quite a list. I wonder if our churches live up to any of that? I hope that we do. I'd love to be able to give everyone a big 'all welcome' banner and let the whole world know that no one will be turned away, but I don't know if we are even close to being there yet.
Do you think that the average man/woman in the pew shares these core values? Or are we in danger of being a church with a ministry which holds different values to it's members?
Posted by: Stewart | Thursday, 01 March 2007
Wow is right, it's an amazing list, but we're an amazing church ... THE REFORMERS!!!
Now, I'd be the first to admit, that some of our churches are not quite there at the moment, but a also think it will be easier than we think to get back to this agenda.
There is a growing possitive mood in the church where I serve, you could even say we're beginning to 'Catch the Vision'!
For me, firstly it's a question of leadership, if this is the message we teach and preach week in week out, it will catch on. Deep down it is what we believe, it is who we are, it just need reawakening with a bit of enthusiasm, purpose and hope.
The conference that came up with this list of core values wasn't clergy only, and there was real enthusiasm from all present to set out this agenda and be who we are!
Welcoming, Thinking, Changing and Reforming! That's what we do, that's who we are!
Posted by: The Unlikely Evangelist | Friday, 02 March 2007
In Scotland we've embarked on a process around about our 'intentions'. It's been an interesting journey so far, but a very useful one. The synod staff travelled around the synod with a workshop evening challenging the congregations to think about who they are, who they want to be and how they are perceived. I would agree that most of the people we met share the values you list.
Any ideas from the conference on how to resource this renewal?
Posted by: Stewart | Friday, 02 March 2007
The 'intentions' process sounds excellent and just the kind of preparatory work needed. I'm also glad to hear you are discovering our folk do share the same values.
There certainly are some BIG ideas from the conference, so watch this space. But for now, let's keep reminding our folk of our values, and preparing our churches for an exciting, hopeful future!
Posted by: The Unlikely Evangelist | Friday, 02 March 2007
Mike , that is an interesting list - and I would want to endorse all those values - but no where is there any mention of Jesus - surely a Core Value has to be to follow the way of Jesus - otherwise we are not a church ...
Posted by: Craig | Friday, 09 March 2007
I totally agree with Craig. In fact I was amazed not to see the name of Jesus there. I am also concerned at how likely is the transfer of the subject to individual churches. In my opinion, it is when each individual church looks at where it is going and where it could be going that true progress will begin.
Posted by: keith | Saturday, 10 March 2007
Many thanks for your comments, Craig and Keith. However, I'm equally surprised that you don't see Jesus in the list! Radical Welcome, Open Exploration, Challenge and Change of the Status Quo and Passion for Justice all SCREAM Jesus at me!
Maybe I'm being a little unfair and should explain the context of these discussions further.
This list was produced during a session led by three young men with no church involvement whatsoever. They work for an advertising agency, and we're helping us to explain our core values in language that non-church people would understand and relate too, ie people just like them, in order to start the basis of a marketing strategy for the church. (Remember, marketing is just the secular word for evangelism, is it not?) As a result they quite rightly and challengingly would not let us use ANY religious language, even words as 'simple' and 'familiar' and 'central' as Jesus!
Following Jesus is obviously a core value to US inside the church, (and let me assure you both Jesus was mentioned a lot in our discussions) but if Evangelism (in our context) was as simple as telling people about Jesus our churches would be full! The trouble is 'Religious' words carry too much unhelpful baggage for most people to be an effective starting point. Even if people respond to the word Jesus in a positive way, they are unlikely to associate it with the list of values we produced, or will switch of before engaging with the rest of the list.
The fact that these three young men all got very excited and enthusiastic about our list of values, is something (as a young man) I find overwhelmingly positive and is something I felt very powerfully. For the first time in their lives they had heard something positive and attractive about church. (This was a significant moment for me too) I would even say they heard the Gospel message (perhaps for the first time), because they didn't 'switch off' at the point religious language was used.
For me it poses the question fundamental to my work and this blog, is evangelism today about telling people about Jesus OR sharing with people the Jesus way of life that they might be inspired to follow? Learning specifics about Jesus then comes later.
Posted by: The Unlikely Evangelist | Saturday, 10 March 2007
Thanks for the additional information. Within the imposed context I can see where the group is coming from. I also perceive that when you say church you do not mean a building but a fellowship.
I think that one of the biggest money wasters in recent years is the huge quantity of green ovals inviting people into a church. They know no reason to step inside. So the most valuable and rewarding work is that done outside in the community. This I find reflected in the core values.
Posted by: Keith | Sunday, 11 March 2007
A very interesting list, which, in the terms of 2 thinkers (Schweiker and Hodgson), is "christo-morphic" (shaped by Christ, or shaped like Christ) rather than being necessarily Christ-centred: i.e. it is a "shape" of things we are concerned with, which are embodied in the person of Jesus, but which we are called to embody too. But one further question: You say that "marketing is just the secular word for evangelism, is it not?" - but I'm not sure. On the one hand, perhaps they are the same, because Jesus himself did "shape" the good news for particular people: it was "targeted" differently at rich young men compared with poor widows, etc, just as marketing "targets" products at specific groups. But on the other hand, there must always be critical distance between such terms: Marketing, in the end, is about consumption and money and therefore power, whereas Telling Good News is subversive, self-giving, and even cross-shaped. Andrew Shanks speaks of religious things which are directed to meeting the emotional needs of people as "superstitions", which is also how marketing works (though it also constructs our emotions/desires in the first place); instead, Good News goes deeper and is more challenging/ world-upsetting. I know you agree, but I'm just reminding us that words don't equate exactly, because the two worlds don't either.
Posted by: Graham | Monday, 12 March 2007