Values

Values are incredibly important because people will follow values and what they believe more than vision. Your values will determine your direction and how you get there.

What are your golden rules?

Values can also be thought of as your golden rules. It’s the how and why of what you do. Things that are important to you will define your church and people will buy in and get behind this because they are aligned with your values. Another way to work out your values is to think about what is it that makes you righteously angry when you see it happen? For example, seeing homeless people might drive you to set up a ministry to help or knowing the importance of spiritual formation of children could lead you to invest in your children’s work.

Values also drive culture. Culture can be defined as ‘The way things are done around here’ and every church has a culture. Your current culture and the culture you wish to have your church to have may be different, and your values will help unify people and steer your culture in the right direction.

Values that include people

Patrick Lencioni is a catholic management consultant from New York, who has written many books about organisational health. In his book, The Ideal Team Player, he wrote about values to look for in people when recruiting them for different roles. He talks about being hungry, humble and people smart.

Hungry – Does the person want to do it? Are they ‘hungry’ to see change or deliver the thing you are asking them to do?

Humble – Is the individual humble or arrogant? Are they putting themselves forward for the right reasons or for self-promotion?

People smart – Can this person read the room and know when to put themselves forward and when to hold back?

If someone has only one or two of those characteristics, it can cause unwanted consequences. Our values will unify people, and define the way that we do things. Spending time on our values and communicating them to everyone (new and old) will help people to buy in and get behind your church.