core values
As found in our About page, Eden exists “To cultivate and embody an intentionally intercultural family as an expression of God’s creative healing for our communities.” We believe that the power of God is overwhelmingly creative and constructive, not destructive. As such, we have formed these Core Values statements, which spell out the word CREATIVE, in order to best describe our unique call and commitments as a local church working to fulfill our denominational and biblical call: “to make Christlike disciples in the nations.”
Our denominational Core Values and beliefs can be found by clicking here.
The U.S. Surgeon General says, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation” is a “public health challenge that requires the nation’s immediate awareness and action”. This is taken from the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community.
For Eden, the best way we can express healing and connection is as a family, a family of intercultural in-betweens navigating this complex world with what unites us in our journey, Christ as our north star.
As a church, we are united in Christ and in His community. As the word suggests, we are Com (together with or in) unity and communicating unity, as we see is Christ’s will in His prayer in John 17. All discipleship efforts seek to build this unity and belonging while also encouraging disciples to take the Gospel and impact the communities surrounding them in their daily lives.
Scripture: John 17, Hebrews 10:24-25, Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
In both Matthew 5 and Isaiah 58, God teaches us to live a life in right relationship with Him AND with those around us.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Therefore, we reconcile the community to God and to each other, parents to children, brothers and sisters to each other, in order to live according to the ministry to which we are called—to build community (as we expressed last week) and restore that diverse unity or community to flourishing relationships.
Scripture: Luke 23:24, Romans 5:10, Romans 11:15, Colossians 1:20-22, Philippians 2:5-8, Acts 7:26, Ephesians 4:3, James 3:18
In all of our interactions with the communities inside and outside of the church, we seek to serve the cultural needs of our communities and engage them in a heart relationship with Christ. We recognize cultural needs and, as we see Paul describe in 1 Corinthians 9, “[we] have become all things to all people, that by all means, I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel. …” (1 Cor. 9:22b-23a)
As part of our church DNA, we see and participate in the diversity of cultural expressions of worship, serving God with all that we are– heart, mind, body, soul, culture, and community. We believe that God is greater than any single culture can encapsulate, and we seek to expose and reflect His image found in His vast and vibrant creative works of art. We believe this can only find meaning when cultures are actively engaged with each other and responding to God’s healing and restorative work. This specifically means that we seek Jesus in each person and culture, regarding no single culture as more Christian nor as more expressive.
Additional reference: Acts 17, Revelation 5:9-12, Genesis 12:3, Leviticus 19:33-34, Deuteronomy 24:17-18; 27:19; 31:9-13; Isaiah 56
In the Church of the Nazarene, we talk a lot about holiness, but there can be misunderstandings as to what that means. Nazarene theologian Diane Leclerc frames it by saying, “Holiness is not just the absence of sin but the presence of love. A right heart, then, is a full heart— a heart full of love, brought by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The full heart, then, acts lovingly.”
The story of the Good Samaritan is a story of love lived out in unexpected people and places. We strive to follow Christ’s example and demonstrate love to all people at all times and to live God’s transforming love in active ways in our homes, communities, and beyond.
As an intentionally intercultural community of faith, we recognize the inherent dignity of all people as image bearers, and we seek to fulfill the biblical mandate to embrace the immigrant, the orphan, the widow— in summary, all in need of God’s love and His community’s active care. We maintain that part of this active love is to offer spiritual support and, according to the next core value, therapeutic, whole-person healing, to all regardless of current circumstance. We are not too busy, to scared, nor to “holy” to serve those who walk through our doors in the hope of reflecting the love Christ displayed on the cross. What’s more, our actions resulting from these beliefs are an integral part of what it means for us to worship “in Spirit and in Truth.”
Scripture: Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 25:35-40, Matthew 22:37-40, Leviticus 19:33-34, 1 John 4, 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, 1 Cor 13
Therapeutic healing is healing that effects real and consistent healing. Involved in the biblical concept we define here as “therapeutic healing,” is first the very wholeness of personhood as seen in God’s actions through the Trinity and, specifically, the incarnation.
In the life of Christ, we see His healing power enacted in the physical, but also in the relational, social, spiritual, mental, etc. Mark 12 says, “30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.”
The healing action that produces such a result must be a daily surrender of our whole selves for the healing of our whole selves and those around us.
Scripture: Isaiah 43:19, Revelation 21:5, Psalm 147:3, Miracles of Jesus in the Gospels, John 10:10, Isaiah 58
As we live into the Great Commission and the Nazarene mission of “creating Christlike disciples in the nations,” we help each other to find identity in Christ and Christ-likeness.
We believe that God has created us for a good purpose, as we find in Ephesians 2:10, which says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We also believe that part of forming this identity means confronting the “self” and opening to examination and authentic transformation that reflects who He created us to be.
We believe in not only celebrating the beautiful differences and diversity, but that in God's creativity, we dream WITH Him about who we are created to be and are not seeking to place ourselves and others into convenient boxes and categories, but to live out the fullness of life in Christ, with all of who we are because of His creative work in our lives.
Scripture: Genesis 1:27, 1 John 4
1 John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us, and his love is made perfect in us.” More than acting out the love seen above, we must live a life as a testimony to who Christ is and to the God who lives in and through us. As we live a life of holiness, we lead others into that life of holiness, and God’s love and power transform lives through His holy presence lived out in the lives of believers.
When we talk about these core values, we're talking about things we believe are essential for the church as followers of Christ. The Church that is saved by Christ, the Church that is necessarily Holy and intrinsically connected in, through, and defined by love—this “tribe” we invite others to belong to– is a mobile tribe and an inclusive tribe.
It’s incarnational by nature (Christ’s mission made real in and through us) and by the model seen in Jesus Christ Himself and, because of His example and His command, all who believe must be active in incarnational ministry. Holiness must be life-inspiring and life-giving. It must be vibrant or it cannot be holiness. The Spirit is not the Spirit without its “ruach,” a moving, life-giving wind.
Colossians 3:12-14, Hebrews 12:14, Matthew 5:48, 1 John 4
It is only in a holy communion with God that we can rejoice always, as Thessalonians 5:16-18 suggests. Only through the eyes of the Father can we learn to celebrate the return of the Prodigal (Luke 15:11-32). In Isaiah (Isaiah 12:5) and in the Festivals of the Old Testament, celebration, faith, hope, community, vision, and gratitude are all part of fulfilling the testimony of God to the surrounding nations and the whole world. As such, our celebration becomes a generative experience of God’s joy overflowing in and through our lives in His redemptive and grateful community.