Grace -- Everything that we do at New City Covenant is rooted in the foundational work of the grace of God. Our love for one another is based not on our personal merits, but on the grace of God. We serve one another because Christ first served us. Everything we have and all that we do is in response to grace. (Eph. 2:8-9)
Rest -- We are busy with work, with our families, and with countless other commitments. Sometimes trying to be spiritual can feel like just one more checklist of things to do. Connecting to God personally is rooted in rest. We receive grace from him, and delight in his unmerited love and favor towards us in Christ. We build times of rest into our personal and communal rhythms. (Ex. 20:8-11)
Rhythm -- We value deep personal connection to God, but we recognize that this doesn’t happen by default. The worries of our life and the temptations that we face draw us further and further from God. In order to maintain a deep and meaningful relationship with God, we structure our personal and communal life around rhythms. We encourage people to write and keep a personal Rule of Life. By engaging in personal disciplined activity, we consistently put ourselves in a place to connect with God and receive his grace. (1 Cor. 9:24-27)
Community -- Though sin has isolated us, every individual is invited to be reconciled at once to God and to God's family on earth, which is the Church. God Himself is community: Father, Son, and Spirit, and we cannot have fellowship with, fully experience or reflect our Lord to the world unless we are in committed community with all who belong to Him. God saves us to and through Christian community. (John 13:34-35)
Discipleship -- To be a disciple is to be a learner, a person committed to personal growth and change. Being a Christian means we are in the process of continual transformation into the likeness of Christ. This sort of learning and growing isn’t the kind that primarily happens in a classroom or from reading books. It’s the kind of learning that looks more like apprenticeship than student, and that’s why it has to happen in the context of Christian community. Discipleship happens as we learn from those who have gone before us in the faith. (Matt. 28:19-20)
Multicultural -- We value diversity because God does. His kingdom is comprised of people from every ethnic group, national identity, social class and gender. The world around us seems to put up dividing walls between individuals and communities based on our differences, but Christ has torn them down. In Christ, and in the church, no person and no group is given privilege above another. Each and every human being is valued as created in the image of God, and cultures are valued as reflecting God’s nature as well. In Christ, we share a common bond that unites each of us across a plurality of cultural differences, which allows us to love one another and celebrate our differences. (Rev. 7:9-10; Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:14; Col. 3:11)
Generosity -- Jesus said where our treasure is there our heart will be also. He also said it is better to give than receive. We believe him. We place a high value on giving of our time, our talents and our treasures to others. As we do, we believe we not only will bless other people with a fuller experience of life but we ourselves will experience fuller life through the act of giving. (Acts. 20:35, Luke 12:34, 2 Cor. 8:1-7)
Evangelism -- The central message of the New Testament is the proclamation that Jesus is God and that his Kingdom has come. God’s reign has begun, and the old way of doing things, ways of sinful systems and personal transgressions, are being pushed back. Injustices are being put to right and people’s lives, previously full of hurt and pain, are experiencing healing and transformation. Evangelism happens when Christians share the message that everyone is invited to enter into this story of redemption and renewal. No matter what your past, God wants all of us to enter into his Kingdom and be made new. We think this is profoundly good news and we feel compelled to share it with others. (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
Compassion, Mercy, and Justice -- God wants lost people found and hurting people helped. We engage in acts of compassion and mercy towards individuals and communities, because God seeks the lost and cares about those who are hurting. Compassion addresses the hurt, justice addresses the cause of the hurt. When we fight for justice, we do what we can to break the systems that continue to afflict. (Micah 6:8, Matt. 25)