Emmanuel Mennonite Church

Core Values
The following core values, grounded in Christ’s life and teaching and influenced by our Anabaptist heritage and perspective, shape the way we live out our mission of inviting and encouraging each other to be transformed to live like Jesus.

Authentic Worship
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30; NIV; first portion of Jesus’ Great Commandment)
“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” (John 4:23-24; The Message)

Christ Centered Biblical Interpretation and Teaching
“You have heard it said … but I say to you …” (Matthew 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43; NIV)
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20; NIV)

Daily Discipleship
“Then he (Jesus) called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34; NIV)
“No one can truly follow Christ unless they follow after him in daily life, and no one can follow Christ in daily life unless they truly know him.” (Hans Denck, an early Anabaptist)

Intentionally Intergenerational, Caring Community
“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5; NIV)
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Colossians 3:12-14)

Gracious Hospitality & Stewardship
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2)
“Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it.” (1 Peter 4:10; The Message)

Missional Living
“The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these’.” (Mark 12:31; NIV; second portion of Jesus’ Great Commandment)
“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you’.” (John 20:21; NIV)

Shalom – The Bible’s Word for Wholeness, Salvation, Justice and Peace
“The LORD’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field. The fruit of that righteousness will be peace (shalom); its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.” (Isaiah 32:16-17: NIV)
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)