Old Union's Core Values

For the past several months, Old Union’s session has been talking about our church’s “core values.” These are the things that make us who we are as a church. They’re what brought us together as a church, they’re what gives Old Union the character that it’s had for generations, and they are things that we value, even if no one else does. In order to identify these core values, the session and selected members of the congregation answered questions like “What are some things that we would continue to do, even if we didn’t get any benefit from them?” and “What’s the same about Old Union now, a hundred years ago, and a hundred years from now?” Here are the three “core values” that we came up with.

A. SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH: At Old Union, we want to deepen our relationship with God, to make him a more important part of our lives, and to commit our lives more to his will. We gather to pray and to worship the Lord.

B. PROVIDE A PLACE OF BELONGING: Old Union is a family. Even though the community around us is changing, we continue to cherish the values of a “small country church.” Old Union is a place of welcome, compassion, caring, togetherness, support, and forgiveness.

C. COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND SERVICE: We are God’s ambassador in our community. We reach out to help people in need, and we seek ways to share God’s love with those around us. We don’t serve others to receive appreciation. We do it because it’s who God made us to be.

If these “core values” seem obvious to you, then you’re a true Old Unionite. Each congregation is unique and has a special place in God’s plan for the world. Different values would seem obvious for people in other churches.

We put time into identifying these core values because we need to be true to God’s calling for our church. At times we may go lose sight of what our church is all about, and we need to focus ourselves again on what really matters. And as we make plans for the future, we should be sure that we are building on what makes us who we are, and not try to make ourselves something different from our calling.

Take some time to reflect on these “core values.” How can you strengthen the way that our church expresses them? What is something we need to change, to stop doing, or to begin, to help us be more faithful to God’s calling for us? Please tell me or a session member what you think!

(Or, if you're a leader in another church and are interested in the process we used so that you can identify the core values in your congregation, let me know.)