We are in this Together - Values, Part 1

As I continue this week in pointing out some of the statements you will read on the Mission Wall in the HBA Mission Center, I want to begin focusing on a list entitled, Our Values. One might ask about the origin of this list of values. I will be honest, the list came out of a prayer when I came to HBA in 2008. I had been on board about two months when I asked the Lord to show me what He wanted me to focus on and pour my energy and passion into. What He impressed on my mind and heart was that I shouldn't focus on activities and events, but on the values that would determine what kind of ministries might be developed. A list of six values came out of this time of prayer and seeking the Lord. I will highlight them one at a time for the next six weeks. The first statement on the list ...

Fellowship: Building trusting and supportive relationships for Kingdom purposes.

Now, when Baptists talk fellowship, we often think of food. While food and friends sometimes accompany fellowship, there is nothing particularly Christian about eating and visiting. What we are talking about is building community within the association family. Note the words trusting and supportive. If HBA is truly going to be a missional community of cooperative congregations, we have to know each other. We have different methodolgies and passions, but as we share this journey together, we will support and trust one another for the sake of fulfilling the Lord's Kingdom purposes. Let us not isolate into individual congregations whose only overlap is that we use some of the same resources and send money to the same address. Let us network together, trusting one another, and supporting one another for the sake of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.