We have a set of five core values that have shaped our culture from the very beginning of our journey together. Every major decision we make as a church is filtered through our mission, vision and these five core values…
- Collaborative: Calling for continued commitment to our connectional polity by the church at all levels; we shall cultivate an inclusive, converted community in Christ.
- Accountable: Addressing our established goals and actively seeking advice and evaluation, we will be aware that we always answer to God and to one another.
- Responsive: Recognizing our role as servant leaders, we shall respond to the voice of the church, fostering strong relationships with congregations, governing bodies, and other partners.
- Excellent: Exhibiting faithful stewardship through God’s empowering grace, we shall serve with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.
- Belonging: In Rock of Ages, belonging is considered vital and healthy. God created man with a need for belonging. By God’s design we need to have close fellowship with other believers. God commanded that we must not forsake assembling together (Hebrews 10:25). God did not create lone-Christians nor did God create any Christian to be complete. We have all been created as vital individual members of the body of believers (Romans 12:1).A critical part of spiritual maturity is recognizing that you as an individual are placed within a body of believers to fulfill your personal ministry and the purpose of the body; equally vital is our need to recognize that every member serves an indispensable purpose. While we look at status as the worth of ministry, God measures our work based on His purpose and all needs are equally important (1 Corinthians 12:18-25).One of the ways we fulfill the mission of Rock of Ages Community Church Ministries is to provide belonging to each member and create unity – yet without compromise of the truth of scripture. Jesus made it clear that the world would know we were His disciples because of our love for one another (John 13:35). The scripture makes it clear that we cannot say we love God if we are not expressing our love for each believer in the body (1 John 4:20). Love must be active – it cannot be passive. To say we have love within the fellowship we must provide belonging to each member.
Rock of Ages Community Church seeks to be a community of faith. Its members are united in the worship of God known in Jesus, the Christ, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Church commits itself to welcoming all persons, celebrating the diversity found in a congregation broadly inclusive of persons from different backgrounds of race, economic class, religion, culture, ethnicity, gender, age and sexual orientation. The Church pledges itself to education, reflection, and action for peace and justice and the realization of the vision of the heavenly banquet where all are loved and blessed.
