Family is a Core Value

Photo by Ivan

I started the year at FBC Bowling Green preaching a sermon series through Acts chapter thirteen.  The series was about the journey we are all experiencing together as a body of believers.  After that series ended I preached a series through the last part of Titus and it dealt with the aspect of our being unified together.  Yesterday I started a third sermon series this year and we will be going through varies passages from the book of Hosea and this sermons focus is going to be on the fact of how we are also a family together.  In a bullet point this year has looked like this:

• We are on a Journey Together
• We are Unified Together
• We are a Family Together

Today’s Thoughts by Scott is the introduction to our sermon series as well as to the sermon from Sunday.  At FBC Bowling Green our number one core value is family.  In fact our core value reads this way:

We value families, and we believe marriages between a man and a woman built through Christ-centered love, accountability and growth through discipleship in God’s Word result in strong families.  We believe parents are the primary teachers of our children in spiritual matters with the hope that one day they will be a part of the larger family, the body of Christ.  We understand in the world we currently live not every family has a spiritual foundation in Jesus.  As a result, we strive to encourage all members of Jesus’ family to teach others about our Savior (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 5:21-6:4; 3 John 4).

Our core values drive our vision statement.  Our vision statement has four parts, but I am going to share with you the first part.  It reads:

We see a church who is Christ-centered as it teaches traditional biblical values to its families through the preaching of the Word.

Underneath each of our four vision statements we have three qualifying sentences to drive home the details of that vision statement.  The three qualifiers to this vision statement are:

The church we see believes in marriage between a man and a woman built through Christ-centered love, accountability and growth from the Bible.

The church we see believes in creating and sustaining traditions that bring glory to God.

The church we see believes in encouraging all believers to grow in their relationship with the Lord through the Holy Spirit.

Our vision statement drives our mission statement.  Our mission statement is the one sentence memorable phrase the we desire for every member of FBC Bowling Green to have memorized.  Our mission statement is:

FBCBG is Christ-centered, gospel driven, joyfully united, and prayerfully obedient.

You will have noticed in the family core value the word “Christ-centered”.  You will notice in the first vision statement the word “Christ-centered”.  You will finally notice in the mission statement the word “Christ-centered” is there as well.  All of our core values drove our vision statements and our vision statements drove our mission statement.  As a result, if we live out our mission statement, then we will be acting in harmony with our vision statement which is driven by the very core values we deem as important at FBC Bowling Green.

At FBC Bowling Green we value families.  We do not live this fact out perfectly, but we are striving to get better at this fact.  Hopefully, you are connecting with a spiritual family somewhere.  If you live in the Bowling Green, FL area and do not have a church home, then we invite you to come partner with us.  We would love to have you as a part of our family.

If you have found this blog to be helpful, please forward it in Facebook or retweet it in Twitter.  If you have a comment you would like to make regarding this Thoughts by Scott, please feel free to live your thoughts.   Thank you.