Our core values are what we call the guidelines for carrying out our mission. Everything we do and every decision we make gets filtered through these values. We like to look at them as things that make us who we are, our DNA. Please let us know if you have questions about any of these or if you want to have further conversations about them, contact us here.
BEFORE GOD
We bring our genuine lives before God in prayer and worship instead of a false, cleaned up version of who we would like to be. Any and all ministry we take part in is to be an overflow of our relationship with God. We prioritize our relationships with God over the work of running, serving and attending church.
We refuse to bow to religious idols or preconceived notions about what it means to follow Jesus, including unbiblical restrictions on the way we dress, the style of our worship and the way we conduct our lives.
WITH ONE ANOTHER
We uphold the OV Code of Honor and strive to be people who have transparent and authentic relationships with one another - avoiding gossip and making peace with all people whenever possible. Our interpersonal relationships come before the task of running programs or ministries.
God created humankind in his image and likeness. Therefore, we desire to honor that image and likeness in every person regardless of race, sex, age or ability; friend or stranger, Christ-follower or not.
AS A CHURCH BODY
We long for unity in the Body of Christ in the City of Oxford and around the world. We are committed to working with other Christian churches and parachurch ministries to transform the City of Oxford. We do this in the face of theological or stylistic differences in order to honor one another, blessing and partnering with the unique assignment each of us has from God.
WHY WE WORK IN TEAMS
Doing ministry alone can be dangerous, resulting in discouragement, disappointment, and attacks from the accuser that ultimately might result in burnout. Jesus never did the work of ministry all on his own. Instead, he almost always had friends around him and he sent his disciples out two by two. We understand his Church to be an undertaking that requires us to work in teams. Teams exist to support each member and coordinate in order to share the load, encourage and pray for one another.
Empowerment is an important factor in building teams. To us, that means giving people opportunities and space to utilize their giftings while providing clear guidance, feedback, and encouragement along the way.
HOW OUR TEAMS WORK
When we set out to do something new, we do it together in order to collaborate toward an expressed, collective vision by way of action-oriented goals. Healthy teams are made possible by trust and transparent communication between teammates.
Our teams are to have designated leaders who point the group toward the collective vision by providing encouragement, accountability, and oversight, delegating, and partnering with the gifts and talents of each group member.
DISCIPLESHIP
Discipleship is central to the message of Jesus. Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus train and empower his followers and encourage those around Him to lead well, rather than keeping all the work of ministry to himself. That does not imply a “hands-off” approach to empowering people. Instead, empowerment means we enter in with others to see them grow and develop.
Leadership, to us, means walking alongside others, giving them opportunities and space to utilize their gifting while providing clear guidance, feedback, and encouragement along the way.
WHO WE EMPOWER
Speaking of doing the work of ministry and participating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Movement, said, “everyone gets to play”. We believe every person has a destiny that God intends for them to walk in. That might look radically different in each of our lives. We take seriously the charge to equip people to do the work of Jesus in a wide variety of callings and placements in the world, not just inside the four walls of the church building.
We welcome everyone in our doors, but our commitment does not end there. We have a deep conviction that each person is significant in the Kingdom of God. We are committed to recognizing, calling out, training, honoring and empowering the authority of every believer in our midst regardless of age, race, sex or ability. That includes kids! We are strong believers in the saying, “there is no ‘junior Holy Spirit’”.
IINTENTIONALITY
We believe that everything we do is to be done as unto God. It is critical that, as individuals and a church body, we work to be good stewards of every resource and relationship we have access to.
Good stewardship never compromises grace and love. Instead, caring to do everything wholeheartedly facilitates great value for other people and careful consideration of what God has entrusted us to look after.
STEWARDING OUR LIVES
Because we desire to be good stewards, we anticipate continuous improvement of our practices in ministry and our personal lives. Regardless of our age or experience, we always want to be pressing into more. A mindset of stewardship does not allow perfectionism to keep us from taking action. We are of the mindset that trying new ideas might not always be seamless the first time but we can always improve as we go.
It is our understanding that by stewarding our relationships well, we make it easier for people to come to know Christ. We recognize stewardship and empowerment may exist in tension with one another when someone steps into a new role or tries a skill for the first time. We always choose to coach our people toward increasingly better stewardship of their giftings in Christ.
WHY WE FOCUS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
God the Father sent Jesus, the Son. During his time on the earth, Jesus promised to send the Spirit of God, who he called “the Helper” to his people in order to advance the kingdom and build the church.
For a long time and in many parts of the Church world, the gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit have been neglected or considered to have ceased. We choose to focus on him in our core values because we need the Holy Spirit’s voice and gifts in our teams for direction and discernment, as well as in every area of our personal lives. The direction of the Holy Spirit will never contradict the scriptures.
“DOING THE STUFF”
Like Jesus in John 5:19, we only want to do what the Father is doing. John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Movement, famously said, “faith is spelled R-I-S-K” and affectionately referred to partnering with the Holy Spirit to advance the kingdom as “doing the stuff”. Therefore, we watch for opportunities to partner with the Holy Spirit even if it feels like we might fail. We hold a “naturally supernatural” lifestyle in high regard. By naturally supernatural, we mean that when we are “doing the stuff”, we can be relaxed, comfortable and real. We never have to do or say anything weird for the presence of God to come in the room by way of His Holy Spirit.
We maintain an expectant attitude toward the Holy Spirit for breakthroughs in our personal lives, power in his ministry, encounter in our worship and direction in decision making for ourselves as individuals, families and as a church. In a variety of settings including our corporate ministry times on Sunday mornings, in our equipping classes, in discipleship, and with our families, we are looking for opportunities to grow in relationship with the Holy Spirit.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Jesus frequently spoke about the kingdom of Heaven during his earthly ministry and instructed his followers to, “preach, saying ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 10:7). We understand the kingdom of heaven to be the spiritual power and authority of God that is to be experienced the way Jesus’ followers experienced it in the Bible.
We believe the Bible is a story of two kingdoms in conflict; the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the accuser. Therefore, we interpret events in the world around us through the “lens” of that conflict with God’s kingdom emerging triumphant in the ultimate end. Our desire is for others to experience the kingdom in their individual lives, in their families, and in the Oxford community.
KINGDOM UNITY
As a part of our kingdom vision, we recognize that Oxford Vineyard is just one of many groups pursuing and participating in the kingdom of God. Therefore, we value the contribution of every Jesus-confessing church working together to advance that kingdom. We seek to advance the kingdom first, not just build our own individual church. We are focused on building up the whole body of Christ with disciples who are carriers of this kingdom authority. We strive to maintain a heart-posture of service, relational integrity, and unity among the churches of Oxford.