GBC Core Values: Part Three

Written by: Josh Mathews

The five Core Values of Gresham Bible church are:

• Knowing God deeply in his word

• Praying fervently for God’s purposes in the world

• Making God known by spreading the gospel locally and globally

• Fostering unity and building up the body through genuine community

• Expressing a growing love for Jesus in a life of worship

In the first two posts in this series (you can read them HERE and HERE) we introduced these core values and looked more closely at the first two values, Knowing God deeply in his word, and Praying fervently for God’s purposes in the world. In today’s post we’ll consider Core Value number 3, Making God known by spreading the gospel locally and globally. 

Core Value #3: Making God known by spreading the gospel locally and globally 

When we talk about knowing God we are talking about relational knowledge. As we grow in our intimate understanding of and relationship with the God of the universe, we can’t help but be struck with awe and praise for what he’s done for us in his Son Jesus. The climax of Scripture and the heart of what it means to know God is the gospel, the profoundly good news that Jesus died for our sins and rose again from the dead, conquering sin and death.

And as we grow in our knowledge of this gospel truth, we can’t help but pass along that good news to others around us and throughout the world. Core Value #3 is intentionally linked to Core Value #1.

The wording—that we value “spreading the gospel”—is also intentionally broad, in order to communicate a value for gospel ministry that includes both proclamation and action. Spreading the good news of Jesus means we tell people, using words, about him. And it also means we love people with Christ’s love, seeking to live in a way that displays mercy, kindness, and justice in a manner worthy of the gospel. We strive to speak and act, in our local community and throughout the world, with explicit reference to the broad story of redemption that spans Scripture and culminates in the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

This core value is based on some of Jesus’ final words to his disciples before he ascended to heaven. In Matthew 28:18–20, the final verses of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says this to his disciples:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This charge to the disciples extends to the Church around the world, and to us at Gresham Bible Church in particular. We are commissioned with the task of multiplying God’s kingdom and making disciples of Jesus. At GBC there are many ways we try to implement this value. Here are a few of them.

• Local Outreach—Serving Dexter McCarty and its students, teachers, and administrators; Engaging in various work projects in the community; Supporting the YoungLives ministry.

• Global Outreach—Supporting missionaries in Slovenia, Basque country, and Mexico.

• Church Planting—Membership in the Waterhouse church planting network; Regularly supporting Hub City Church plant in Albany, Oregon.

This task of making disciples and spreading the gospel is not only done through these “official” ministries, and it’s not only up to pastors, staff members, elders, deacons, and ministry leaders to fulfill the great commission. We are all called to make disciples, and there are many ways that each of you can get involved in the work of making God known by spreading the gospel locally and globally.

Here are some ideas:

• Give to support missions and local outreach endeavors, like YoungLives.

• For some of you, go overseas. This could be either a short-term trip like the Bolts, or it might mean going to another country long-term.

• Be a part of Local Outreach efforts. Giving of our time to serve those in our community can provide significant opportunities to demonstrate and speak of Christ’s love.

• Reach out to your own neighbors. Develop relationships with them so you can point them to Jesus.

• Make God known in the workplace, by working hard at your job as unto the Lord, and by looking for opportunities to tell people about him.

GBC Core Values: Part Two

Written by: Josh Mathews

The five Core Values of Gresham Bible Church are:

• Knowing God deeply in his word

• Praying fervently for God’s purposes in the world

• Making God known by spreading the gospel locally and globally

• Fostering unity and building up the body through genuine community

• Expressing a growing love for Jesus in a life of worship

In the first post in this series we introduced these core values and looked more closely at the first one, Knowing God deeply in his word. In today’s post we’ll consider Core Value number 2, Praying fervently for God’s purposes in the world.

Core Value #2: Praying fervently for God’s purposes in the world.

At GBC we want to be a church body that is increasingly characterized by prayer. There are several reasons prayer is an important part of the Christian life and the life of the church.

First, Scripture instructs us to pray. In Luke 18 Jesus tells a parable of a widow who repeatedly and persistently pleaded with her city’s judge to give her justice against her adversary. After ignoring her request at first, the judge eventually gave in to her requests. Luke tells us that Jesus used this parable to teach his disciples “that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Many other verses instruct us to pray; for example, Rom 12:12, Eph 6:18, Phil 4:6, Col 4:2, 1 Thess 5:17.

Prayer is important because the Bible commands us to pray.

Prayer acknowledges our dependence on God. We don’t control our lives and the circumstances we are facing. That is why we pray. In 1 Chronicles 14 we find a clear example of one of Judah’s kings, Asa, relying on the Lord and praying. A massive army from Ethiopia has come out against Judah, and Asa and his army are drastically overmatched. Asa cries out to the Lord, praying,

“Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude.”

 And the Lord delivers them from their enemy.

Prayer is important because it is a contrite confession of need and dependence on God.

Prayer is an expression of faith in who God is, a recognition of  his character. When we pray it means we believe that God is powerful and able to answer our prayers, that he is wise to know what is best, and that he is loving and good to care for us and do what is best for his glory and for our good (Rom 8:28). In Asa’s prayer, before he asks for help and voices his reliance on the Lord, he begins his prayer with this declaration about God’s character:

“O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak.”  

Prayer is important because it is a trusting acknowledgement of God’s character.

Prayer is a means by which the Lord accomplish his purposes, in our lives, in the church, and in the world. In Acts the early church is repeatedly described as devoted to prayer (e.g. 1:14; 2:42; 6:4). These fervent prayers are what the Lord uses to empower the rapid and miraculous expansion of the church and God’s kingdom throughout the rest of Acts.

In his book, Power through Prayer, E. M. Bounds says this:

“What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.”  

Prayer is important because God uses it to work in and through his people in the world.

There are many other things we could say about the importance of prayer. I’ll conclude this post with one point of clarification and a few practical ways we might make prayer more prominent in our lives.

When we pray, our prayers should include more than just requests. We tend to think of prayer as asking God to help us or give us something. However, the prayers we see throughout Scripture include praise, thanksgiving, and confession, along with supplication, or request. The Psalms provide numerous examples of all these different aspects of prayer. David often cries out to God to deliver him from his enemies. Yet, surrounding these requests and pleas for help, the psalms are filled with praise and thanksgiving for who God is and what he’s done for his people, along with confession of sin as well. And in Paul’s letters, his prayers typically begin with thankfulness for the good things the Lord is accomplishing.

So what kinds of things can we be doing? How, practically, can we grow, individually and corporately as a church, in the area of prayer?

• Come to prayer meeting on Sunday mornings at 9:30. A group of us meet for prayer every Sunday morning in the room on the end of the west hall at Dexter McCarty.

• Have a plan for prayer. The prayer bookmarks, which are available on the information table, are a good tool for this. On one side of the bookmark is a brief template for prayer based on the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6, along with a few references to other passages on prayer. The other side gives space to write out a plan, listing certain things or people to pray for on each day.

• Use the church directory. It is a good tool for praying systematically for others in the church. Also, there are some tools in the front of the directory that give good examples for how to pray. One benefit of these examples is that they emphasize praying for people’s spiritual health, which helps us avoid the tendency to pray only for physical needs for people.

• Set aside time to pray with your spouse, with a Christian friend, or as a family. Like Bible reading, it’s helpful to make a habit of praying. And praying with other believers helps with consistency, and it cultivates Christ-centered relationship.

• Pray together with your small group. Some groups share requests and pray for each other throughout the week. Others set aside a chunk of time to pray during small group itself. Some do a combination of these two. One way or another, seek to make prayer a part of your small groups.

• Come to prayer meeting on Sunday mornings at 9:30.

GBC Core Values: Part One

Written by: Josh Mathews

The five Core Values of Gresham Bible Church are:

• Knowing God deeply in his word

• Praying fervently for God’s purposes in the world

• Making God known by spreading the gospel locally and globally

• Fostering unity and building up the body through genuine community

• Expressing a growing love for Jesus in a life of worship

This blog post is the first in a series of posts outlining these values.

 There are distinctive traits that characterize our church more specifically—things like simplicity (mere church, not a lot of programs or large financial commitments) and a heart for justice (diversity, care for the unborn, adoption and foster care). You can take a look at more of these distinctive marks HERE. 

And you've probably also heard us talk about Growing, Giving, and Going, which are the three expectations in which all members of GBC agree to participate.

Those distinctives and membership expectations matter, but the Core Values are more fundamental. They identify the principles we consider to be most important in the life of our church. What we do flows from what we value most highly. That’s what these Core Values are. These are the five things we believe are essential to what God calls us to do and to be as his church.

And we want to think about these and be reminded of them often. That’s why they are on the church website, on the front of the bulletin, and up on the screen on Sunday mornings. That’s why they;ll be addressed in upcoming sermons, and why we’re dedicating a series of blog posts to talking about them.

As we go over them one by one, we’re going to think a little more about what they mean for us as a church. The hope is that this will help us think more also about how we can apply them—how we can work at valuing these things more highly, in our homes, in our communities, and in our church.

Core Value #1: Knowing God deeply in his word 

While all five values are at the core of our church, this one is first for a reason. Generally speaking, our deepest desire is that all we do would flow from who God is. We believe strongly that, in order to know how we ought to conduct ourselves as God’s people, we must grow in our knowledge of who God is. This is a value we work hard to uphold, and we do so in several ways. Here are a few of them:

• Our preaching is expository: We strive to have the main point of our sermons, preached on Sunday mornings, derive from the main point of the biblical passage.

• We encourage involvement in regular Bible reading: This happens through the GBC Bible read through and other avenues.

• We make every effort to allow Scripture to guide our decisions: Though the Bible doesn’t speak to every issue specifically, we seek the Lord’s revelation of himself and his wisdom as it relates to finances, staff, leadership, and all aspects of ministry.

• Our Children’s Ministry curriculum has a strong biblical emphasis: We want our kids, and our youth once we begin a Student Ministry, to develop biblical literacy, and to learn the importance of knowing God through his word from a young age. 

We are called "Gresham BIBLE Church" for a reason. We believe that in Jesus we have the ultimate revelation of who God is. He is the incarnate Living Word of God. And we believe the Scriptures, the Old and New Testament, are the primary means by which we know Jesus. The Bible is the written word of God, graciously given for our benefit.

There is much more we could say about Core Value number one, but I’ll just add one point of clarification. 

To be clear, when we talk about knowing God, we’re not just referring to an intellectual or academic knowledge. While theology and biblical understanding are important, the kind of knowledge we value highly is much more than that. We don't value simply knowing about God. It is a relational knowledge we desire - an intimate knowledge of God, characterized by life filled with and guided by the Holy Spirit, bearing the fruit of righteousness, and continuing in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. It's not just head knowledge, it's heart knowledge, and it leads to holiness and worship. It's a knowledge that grows out of love and manifests itself in a godly wisdom that applies to all aspects of life.

We want our church to be a church that knows God deeply through his word.


Please feel free to comment below, on this post and the others in this series. We would love to hear from you. How have you seen this Core Value demonstrated in our church? How have you personally contributed to this value, or how could you make it more of a priority in your life?