Comments on: The Code: Reworking our Values

By: The Code | brendanwitton.com

The Code | brendanwitton.com — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:01:26 +0000

[...] One document that has been sparking some of my thinking today is “The Code” from Elevation Church (great church in Charlotte, NC). It really is their core values as a ministry but I love the way they approach it by talking about it being their ‘code’ (Craig Groeschel wrote a bit about it here). [...]

By: Will

Will — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 03:16:23 +0000

Craig,
We are a brand new Network Church in Harrah,OK with only about 40 partners, so the micro-church with a mega-vision really hit home with us as we watched this from the All Staff meeting. That is exactly where we are at right now! Thanks, man.

By: Craig Groeschel

Craig Groeschel — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:57:53 +0000

Gary, We had seven values that have been a public part of our ministry since day one. The rest are values or passions we’ve picked up along the way or simply put into words.

By: Gary Molander

Gary Molander — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:43:58 +0000

These are great values - counter cultural, and Kingdom-minded.

I’m wondering if they were values in your heart before the church even launched? Or were they values you grew into as the church has progressed? Obviously they’ve morphed over the years, and you’ve discussed different wording - which is very important. But is their core meaning something that’s always been in your heart, or did that come as you traveled the journey of church leadership?

By: Craig Groeschel

Craig Groeschel — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:07:56 +0000

Chris, Good question about the mega church.

With billions of people in the world who need Christ, I want our church to be more aware of those outside the church than being proud of the numbers we have inside the church.

If we think we are big, then we’ll think we’re successful. If we think we are successful, we’ll be tempted to lose our passion for our true mission.

By: Chris Rheeder

Chris Rheeder — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:58:30 +0000

This is good stuff. I especially like Stephen’s comment on perceived values versus actual values.

I’m wondering though, not having read the book, what lies behind value number 5: “We wholeheartedly reject the label mega-church. We are a micro-church with a mega-vision.” Is there a negative connotation to the term “mega-church” in America that I’m not aware of?

By: will mancini

will mancini — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:29:31 +0000

Thanks for modeling the way! Many throw out the concept of values based leadership altogether because there are so many poor examples in the church world. Or pastors photocopy vision lingo, because their fixated on the “product” rather than going through their own process. It’s refreshing to see these core convictions that guide decisions and reveal the strengths of the Elevation. “A river without banks is just a large puddle” - ChurchUnique.com

By: Stephen Blandino

Stephen Blandino — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:35:31 +0000

Great stuff Craig - I love the way you’ve worded your values. You’ve proven that the wording of a value actually increases the weight or the force of the value. Excellent!

Some churches never identify their values. Others confuse perceived values with actual values: http://bit.ly/duAf3S From those I’ve interacted with on your team, I can tell that all of these values are actual values.

Good stuff!

By: Jared B

Jared B — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:23:34 +0000

Thanks for the explanation Craig!

By: Craig Groeschel

Craig Groeschel — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:28:56 +0000

Alicia, So good to hear from you!

Tim, You asked about the process. We have taught and embraced our values since the beginning. We had one word values. What I tried to do was expand them to bring emotion and invoke action rather than simply being a word. I worked them over for about a month off and on and asked other staff members to review them with me.

By: Alicia Lewis

Alicia Lewis — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:18:46 +0000

Craig, I love & miss you! I can hear your voice so clearly in these values. It’s not enough to have a big vision, it must be clear and clearly communicated. You have always been great at that! Love watching LifeChurch continue to grow from Nashville.

By: Tim Dahl

Tim Dahl — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:46:35 +0000

What process, if any, do you go through to work/rework your values? Any thoughts?

Tim

By: Thinking about our Church values « Bandits No More

Thinking about our Church values « Bandits No More — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:38:48 +0000

[...] Craig Groeschel is thinking about and refining his church values. I find his comments worth listening to, so here they are, along with some comments of my own. [...]

By: Bill (cycleguy)

Bill (cycleguy) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:22:59 +0000

Doggone you Craig! Now you have gone and made more work for me to do! :) this is quite a challenge you have issued. We have a purpose statement centered around the letters PEACE. Are we talking about the same thing or is this something totally different? Good to have you back and look forward to hearing the rest (then I can copy and not have to work) :)

By: Craig Groeschel

Craig Groeschel — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:05:24 +0000

Steve, yes, we use written values for our family. We don’t cover them as much as we should, but they are helpful.

Steven F., Thanks for the idea!

All, would love to hear how you use values at your ministry.

More to come tomorrow. We have 13 listed.

By: Jared B

Jared B — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:02:35 +0000

I’m writing (typeing) these down!

We may have never looked at these in my college ministry…I thought we had, but we have really just gone over our vision. But vision without values ain’t vision at all! If you don’t know your values then how are you going to run with vision?

Dang…aint that a cup o’tea? This Thursday we’re going over our values in our leadership meeting!

By: Blake Sims

Blake Sims — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:42:21 +0000

These are some great values! Micro-church with a mega-vision FTW!

By: Alex Baez

Alex Baez — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:40:26 +0000

Craig,

Love what you are doing! All organizations have values - you learn them by your experiences with the organization. You are revisiting and making explicit what is evident to all who interact with you.

By: Steven Furtick

Steven Furtick — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:33:37 +0000

Wow…these are fantastic. So much so that now I’ve got to go improve ours. Thx a lot :)

By: Brandon Duff

Brandon Duff — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:29:58 +0000

Love those values….challenged me to look at ours.

What struck me about the LC values is that they are full of passion and action.