Defining Values and Resetting Priorities

To help us navigate these uncharted waters of starting a new church, we are looking to those who are "older and wiser" and have done this thing a few times or two. One of these resources, among several others, is a church called Northwood near the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Tx. David went out there for a training in Aug. (scheduled prior to us having any idea we were going to commit to be church planters and be moving to Columbia) and he and I both will be going out there again in Nov. for follow-up training (which we will elaborate more on later).

One of the tools David brought back with him from the Aug. training is a handbook that helps guide one through the process of thinking through and articulating the foundational components of a future church- aka developing a Church Planting Prospectus. One recent prayer request we've had is clarity in establishing our values. Values is the first component to be established in a Prospectus followed by purpose, vision, strategy, leadership, evaluation, budget, and action plan.

As difficult as it has been, it has also been very much of an awakening kind of experience to actually think through what it is we value (value defined as: a conviction regarding truth that determines behavior). It's been really unbelievable and humbling that as we have defined some of our core values we have also begun to see the ones that are reflected minimally in our overall lifestyle or daily decision-making. On one hand I hate this, but on the other hand I am thankful for this realization because it gives us a chance to make some changes.

One little change we are going to make, that I think will have big implications for us, is canceling our cable. NOTE: Not an easy or fun decision especially for a couple who is obsessed with The Office, among other fabulous TV shows. I know this seems like the simplest change, but what it will do for us is free up about $100 a month in an already tight budget and this financial freedom will allow us to spend time with other people (grabbing a coffee at Starbucks, taking someone out to eat, having a dinner party for people we are interested in getting to know). Why do this? Because one of our core values is that we believe in the importance of building relationships with people and engaging in people's lives and we want our lifestyle and daily decision-making to reflect this as much as it possibly can.

Don't worry- we are not going to turn into weird, culturally disconnected people who don't "believe in" TV- we are just simply taking a little hiatus. Thank God for internet!!! (I'm pretty sure David might be doing a separate post on this whole no-cable-thing and I think his tone might be slightly different from mine : )

Lindsey