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Archives For November 30, 1999

What We’re About

Charles Kiser —  August 4, 2008 — 5 Comments

One of the products of the last several months of groundwork and planning has been the initial development of our identity as a church. Mission, vision, values — this is the language of identity.

To a certain extent, much of the groundwork we’ve done is tentative. As the church grows and comes to life more fully it will give body and character to much of the initial dreaming and articulation we’ve done. We’re prepared to adapt (adaptation, in fact, is part of our values set).

When I look at our values I think of time spent in the Mission Alive Strategy Lab nearly two years ago, hours spent in front of a whiteboard with Ryan, Claudia and Julie, searching the Scriptures, conversations with mentors, coaches and other church planters, and even asking our Dallas friends and neighbors what they thought. These values have been a community project.

What you’ll see below is our take on the whole mission/vision/values task. You’ll notice that it’s not much. Part of our bias in developing this kind of thing is that less is more. What is the use in crafting this language if it will sit in a document somewhere on our computers and never be used? We wanted our values to be simple and memorable. Our values sum up what we’re all about.

These values will be our roadmap for future decisions. They’ll be the way we organize our job descriptions as the staff grows. Even our children’s ministry will find its place living out these very same values.

Ultimately, all of our values flow out of the story of God as Father, Son and Spirit that we find in the Christian Scriptures.

You’ll notice that each heading is one of our major values; underneath the headings are sub-values, if you will, or further explanation as to how the major values come to life in our community. Accompanying each value is a short statement that brings the value down to earth. When people ask “What are you guys about?” we’ll say, “We’re people that live for something bigger than ourselves” or “Storyline is a church where you can make real friends.”

Here’s an excerpt from material published on the website (which will be fully up and running next week…hopefully that will be the next blog post!):

Storyline Christian Community lives to discover its place in God’s story through dependence on God, mission, life change and genuine relationships.

Dependence on God — God manages our lives better than we can.

  • Trust: The best way to live is in a trusting relationship with God

Mission — We live for something bigger than ourselves.

  • Reproduction: followers make new followers and churches make new churches
  • Hospitality: extending a warm welcome to strangers
  • Justice: befriending the poor; helping the helpless; caring for the earth
  • Adaptability: the courage to create new things and the willingness to adapt

Life Change — God is fixing us.

  • Character: thinking, acting and feeling like Jesus
  • Expression: reflecting God’s image with our unique gifts and abilities
  • Generosity: extending our resources — time, money, abilities — on behalf of others
  • Simplicity: finding more in less

Genuine Relationships — We make real friends.

  • Authenticity: being real about who I am with others
  • Acceptance: embracing people as they are without judgment
  • Collaboration: working together where everyone has something to contribute

What do you think? What do you like? What feedback would you give? Again, we’re all about adaptation.

In Story of God, Storyline, Values
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It’s Official: Storyline Christian Community

Charles Kiser —  May 19, 2008 — 18 Comments

Well, many of you know we’ve been laboring away at a name for a couple months—and what a long, arduous process it has been.

We started with a couple weeks of brainstorming, through which a couple potential names emerged (image and epic, if you wanted to know). We took them to our Dallas friends and asked them what they thought and received consistently negative feedback.

So we decided to go back to the drawing board.

Our struggles motivated us to enlist the help of an ad/marketing agency called Isphere. Chris Gaines, Isphere’s President, is a member of the Richland Hills Church and a creative mastermind. Take a look at some of his company’s work with Richland Hills at www.dangerousmessage.com. We knew after a lunch meeting with Chris that he would provide invaluable help and input to our process.

As of this morning, with encouragement from Chris and other friends, we’ve landed on Storyline Christian Community.

Why Storyline?

I’m hoping others will ask that same question. I know it’s weird and different, and that’s part of the intrigue. That’s partly why I love it. Because when you ask, I can tell you:

Storyline is a word for plot. It refers to the way a story moves, the direction it’s headed. All of our lives move along a storyline. Our storylines intersect with other people’s storylines.

What if there was one storyline that overarched every human’s personal storyline? What if there was one grand narrative that all of us were part of?

That’s exactly what we believe is going on in the world: God is weaving a storyline together out of all of our stories. And it’s up to us to choose whether or not our personal storylines intersect and merge with God’s.

What exactly is God’s storyline? Simply, that:

  • God created the world and humanity for the sake of genuine relationship with what he made;
  • humanity decided to go it’s own way and brokenness ensued in humanity and the world;
  • God takes on human form in Jesus of Nazareth and through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection God provides a way for humanity and the world the be healed;
  • one day God will bring about the total restoration of the world and humanity that began when God raised Jesus from the dead;
  • and in the meantime, the community of people that find healing in Jesus comprise the Church and they exist to invite others into the same kind of healing and partner with God for the sake of the world’s restoration.

What a story! This is the story that gets me out of bed in the morning.

Why Christian Community (and not Church)?

Like the early church, we chose functional words to describe who we are. The word “church” (Greek: ekklesia) was actually a word the early Christians borrowed from their Greco-Roman cultural warehouse. This word for church frequently referred to a government legislative assembly.

So in the same spirit, we are a Christian Community. We are Christian because we live by the spirituality of Jesus, the Christ/Messiah; and we are a Community because we are a network of relationships, not an institution.

At the same time, we’re not averse to the word church. It’s a well-known word in our culture (though packed with lots of baggage). We are a church. We are church starters. And we are, by God’s grace, a part of the universal Church. We are in no way ashamed of that.

[Side note for Greek nerds: Dr. Allen Black at Harding Grad School cautions against pulling theological meanings out of the etymology of ekklesia—as in the church as a “called out” people (ek = out; klesia = called). Making that kind of meaning would be equivalent to saying that a butterfly is a fly whose wings are greased with butter. Ridiculous. The etymology totally misses the actual import and reference of the word. Sorry—I’ve been holding on to that little gem for a long time.]

What’s funny is that my first official presentation for this new church at a Mission Alive Strategy Lab was arbitrarily called “Story Church.” We’ve come full circle in many ways.

Tonight the Kisers and the Porches are going out on the town to celebrate the victory of arriving at a name. We will think of you as we enjoy our crème brulee.

We’ll keep you posted as we develop a website at www.storylinecommunity.com (and .org, and .net—we purchased them all!)

Next week I’ll share what a typical house church gathering has looked like thus far.

Thanks for your prayers.

In Nerdy Greek, Story of God, Storyline
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