Our Mission, Vision & Core Values.

OUR MISSION:

BECOMING LIKE JESUS TOGETHER

LOVING: We affirm each person as a beloved child of God, created in His image to be in relationship with Him and to receive His unconditional love. As we receive God's love for ourselves, we extend it to everyone else, knowing that in loving our neighbor we are loving God.

GROWING: We seek to grow in relational intimacy, vulnerability and genuine community with God, our selves and one another. We seek to become lifelong learners, continually bringing our thoughts and views into alignment with the mind of Christ and the culture of His Kingdom.

SHARING: We share in common our belovedness and giftedness. Every one of us has something to give and something to receive. We also share in common our brokenness and need. Rather than denying this reality, we embrace it, believing that we are led by our brokenness into deeper love of God, self and neighbor.

OUR VISION:

WE ARE CALLED TO BE A COMMUNITY WHERE THE LOVE, HEALING AND HOPE OF JESUS IS TRANSFORMING OUR LIVES, BEGINNING WITH THIS NEIGHBORHOOD AND EXTENDING AROUND THE WORLD AS HE LEADS US.

Our main focus will be on growing mutually trans-formative relationships with children and youth and the adults in their lives. We recognize that it will only be God, working in us through the Holy Spirit that will enable this vision to become a reality.

CORE VALUES:

WE VALUE GROWING AND SHARING GOD'S LOVE IN TRUE COMMUNITY AND HOLISTIC MINISTRY.

These four words are essential to God's call among us and have been present from the very beginning:

Presence: A sense of Him in and around us, our neighbors sensing Him and us in the neighborhood "with them", and an awareness of being in each moment with God and those around us.

Authenticity: Real, true, and honest. Living in the dynamic tension of brokenness and belovedness.

Intimacy: Deep, abiding love relationship with God and a few others.

Service: Work, obedience and advocacy, cultivated by a heart listening to God and directed toward those around us.

Each word represents the work of God's Spirit in us. Each word requires the others to find fulfillment in the way we love, grow and share in our relationships with God and one another - intimacy and service are the more outward fruit, whereas presence and authenticity are soul nourishment that foster the fruit bearing. Each family member at South is encouraged to periodically evaluate their personal journey by these values. And by these same values, the spiritual leaders of the church family can evaluate our corporate ministry and relationships with one another.