Preaching Through the Seven Guiding Values

SCOTT NICE, PASTOR CHRIST REFORMED CHURCH, TELFORD, PA;
CCCC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

I took the opportunity [in 2019] to preach through the Seven Guiding Values of the CCCC. Each Sunday for six consecutive weeks (I combined the third and fourth into one sermon) we examined in a topical fashion:

• Believing Prayer and Intercession,
• Healthy Pastors,
• Healthy Disciple-Making Churches and Healthy Church Multiplication,
• A Community that lives out Shared Life and Shared Mission,
• A culture of Biblical Peacemaking and Reconciliation and,
• A Membership that is reflective of the Harvest Field.

It was a fruitful exercise for flock and Shepherd alike! Let me explain. It challenged my preaching, forcing me to preach topically instead of expository/verse-by-verse. I /we saw the interdependence/relationship between each of the values. Seeing how Believing Prayer and intercession makes for healthy Pastors, healthy Shepherds (Pastors and other leaders in the Church) make for healthy flocks. A Healthy flock is a growing one. Making both disciples and reproducing new “bodies” of believers in new communities. This is only possible when churches are living in the Shalom of God (Peacemaking/Reconciliation and wholeness in Him), sharing life on life and laboring, striving, working  side-by-side for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. As we engage in this calling (which is uniquely the Church’s), we will see our membership grow and reflect the community we live in.

Preaching this series compelled me to think through these values; wrestling through the various texts and understanding their importance first for myself, and then for my congregation. I was challenged in my own decision-making criteria, realizing that there are values that I didn’t always take into consideration when planning and vision-casting. It helped both me and my congregation to understand that these values are important to us as a Conference, because they are a value to God!

I commend to you, my fellow CCCC Pastors, if you haven’t done so already, to take the time and purposefully preach through the Seven Guiding Values. I promise it will be a fruitfully time of labor, for yourself as well as your congregation.