Sabbath Recorder - January 2016 - page 15

Next Month: Focus
SR • January 2016
15
Rob Appel
Executive Director
Last month I wrote about the General Conference
sessions in July 2015 and the General Council sharing
the “Vision Map.” This document laid out for the reader
and viewer four distinct areas that the General Council
believes define and move forward Seventh Day Baptists
as we advance God’s Kingdom. The four sides are:
Mission — The reason for our existence
Core Values — Commitments that everybody
lives by that are nonnegotiable
Focus — What is the most important thing we do
day in and day out
Culture — Society we must create to realize
our potential
For over 300 years, SDBs have been commissioned by
Jesus Christ to use our gifts and resources to share His
gospel. Today, we continue to advance His mission in
North America in a unique way. We believe that this
Vision Map generally demonstrates the way in which
God has been and will continue to work through us to
make new disciples and transform us into greater
Christ-likeness.
During the next four months I will be attempting to
explain the four sides of the Vision Map. This month
we will lay out the Core Values.
Core values are our guiding principles. In his book,
Leading from the Sandbox
, author T.J. Addington explains
Core Values this way:
These guiding principles clearly
delineate the road we must follow and concrete guidance
along the way. (Yes, pun intended) These are our Core
commitments that we all agree we can live by. In doing
this we will also identify our nonnegotiable areas. To get
clarity on our guiding principles it may be helpful to ask
these questions:
• What are the nonnegotiable items that apply to our
Conference of Churches?
• Around what things must we have absolute alignment
by everyone?
• What principles, if followed, will keep our Conference
on a safe path?
• If you had to describe the most important principles of
how we do what we do, what would they be?
Below are the guiding principles that the General Council
came up with to describe the Seventh Day Baptist Core
Values.
CORE VALUES
Bible and Spirit Led
The Bible is the Word of God and our standard for our
faith and practice. We expect the Holy Spirit to inspire
and lead us as we fulfill our mission.
7th Day Sabbath
We are a people who lovingly observe the 7th day
Sabbath (Saturday) as a day of blessing and rest.
Local Church Focus
Our membership is made up of local churches who have
the freedom and responsibility to worship, educate, and
share the Gospel. We provide support to and through
local churches.
Our Heritage
We exist because our forefathers were faithful in
preserving our unique heritage. We will continue to
remember our past to inform our present and plan for
the future.
Although the General Council stuck with these four Core
Values, many others were discussed. We have many
areas that we would “fall on the sword” for, but these
four areas, we believe, explain who we are and what we
believe guides us all.
CORE VALUES
Commitments
that everybody lives by —
Our nonnegotiable
SR
1...,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,...28
Powered by FlippingBook