Vision & Values
The vision of asaph
Gather • Protect • Heal
Gather • We gather the people of God and honest seekers through worship, small groups, and enjoyable events to enhance relationships, build community, and share the Good News of Jesus across racial and cultural lines.
Protect • We grow God’s kingdom by protecting them with the teachings of Jesus and ministries which produce disciples.
Heal • We bring healing into people’s lives as we pray for them and walk through difficult times in their lives alongside them.
The story of asaph
Our Vision has a bit of a story to it. Our Elders and Pastors prayed for more than a year, and discussed monthly what they were hearing. This was the basic question we were asking: “Lord, how do you want to use us as a church?”
It was a struggle. We wanted to have a “slick” vision like the “cool” churches. In effect, the Lord told us, “I don’t want you to be slick, I want you to be real and Mine.”
He led us to one Hebrew word: Asaph.
We discovered there were more than 30 different ways to translate it. (Ancient Hebrew has significantly fewer words than we have in English, so many of them have multiple uses depending upon their context.)
One use of asaph: The sons of Jacob “gathered” to hear their father’s final instructions (Genesis 49:1). The patriarch Isaac in his old age was “gathered” to the Lord (Genesis 35:29).
In the book of Isaiah, asaph is used to describe God as having our backs, a rear guard, our “protector” (Isaiah 52:12; 58:8).
Further, asaph is used multiple times in 2 Kings 5 to speak to the Hebrew people about the “healing” of a foreigner. God loves to erase racial boundaries.
Those different meanings of asaph stood out to us like targets on an archery range. We were certain the Lord was saying, “aim there.”
In prayer and through the Lord’s leading, we decided to build Faith Church’s ministries around those three God-inspired directives: Gather, Protect, Heal.
Values
The members and leaders of Faith Church are committed to:
Bringing every idea, every program, and every problem to the Lord with hopeful expectation.
Inviting others, greeting them with hospitality, and accepting them with friendliness.
Offering everyone grace, finding a way to overcome differences, and the willingness to recall our own shortcomings when tempted to judge others.
Helping people meet and experience God in worship.
Seeing people grow individually and to seeing the Kingdom of God grow through our efforts.
The truth of the Bible, and will base our decisions, actions, and judgments upon its teachings.
