Core Values

• Waiting on God
  Giving God our whole heart and soul in utter dependence upon his sovereign and good leadership in all things for the glory of his name above all else.  This is more than simply praying, this defines our foundation of spiritual life – that the church is a community waiting on and following the Living God.
  
  Andrew Murray says, “Waiting on God, unceasing and entire dependence upon Him, is, in Heaven and earth, the one only true religion, the one unalterable and all-comprehensive expression for the true relationship to the ever-blessed One in whom we live…Let us resolve at once that it shall be the one characteristic of our life and worship, a continual, humble, truthful waiting upon God.”
  
  Psalm 33:20-22, “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.  May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.”

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• Authentic Community
  God has always existed in perfect community – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – and his desire is for us to be the church with genuine “I’ve got your back” attitude.  We never forsake one another and we are real with each other and God in order to pray for and encourage those who consider Aestus their spiritual community. We resolve to cultivate community where anyone at anyplace on their spiritual journey – including those that don’t yet believe in Jesus – will belong as a means to facilitate them believing.
  As Scripture says, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).
  
  In Jesus’ prayer recorded in Scripture (Jn 17), he implores the Father to make the church one even as he and the Father are one – that’s pretty tight community

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• Adventurous Faith
  We seek to live with a faith that refuses to coexist with fear and eagerly seeks the greater pleasures in Christ over those offered by this world.  This faith makes the church dangerous because with Christ as our supreme delight, we have nothing to lose in this world.  We strive to live by a faith that takes risks for the Kingdom and believe in the depths of our souls that we are called up into the Great Story of God.  Therefore our lives and routines have meaning and purpose.
  
  A.W. Tozer writes in Pursuit of God, “A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality…that which has existence apart from any idea any mind may have of it, and which would exist if there were no mind anywhere  to entertain a thought of it. That which is real has being in itself. It does not depend upon the observer for its validity.”
  
  Paul, in 2Corinthians 4:18 says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal [i.e. real].”

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• Missional Ministry
  We strive to minister the grace and forgiveness of Jesus through going into the world rather than waiting for the world to come to the church.  We therefore are radically generous, passionately kind, and intentionally live in the tension of being accused as drunkards and gluttons and eating and drinking with sinners because that’s exactly what Jesus did and we think he’s always right.
  
  Missional ministry means taking our “sent-ness” seriously.  Taking hold of every opportunity to be involved with the city of Kent and the culture of our area – not separating from it – in order to introduce Kingdom values and a demonstration of the gospel.  We therefore resolve to spend a large amount of time around not-yet-believers in creative and a variety of contexts.  We believe the church was created as a sent entity as Christ was sent to us.
  
  ”Just as the Father has sent me, so now I send you…” 
  ~Jesus Christ (Jn 19:21)

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• Passionate Living
  Jesus himself promised to give us life to the full (Jn 10:10) and has called us to die to self for the promise of a life that exceeds our wildest imaginations. Living passionately, pursuing the fullness of life and joy that God has for us in Jesus will also be cultivated by allowing the delightful things of life to reflect back to God the praise of His worth.  Great food, great wine, beautiful sunsets, white-knuckle roller coasters, sweet conversation, whatever we love and whatever brings us joy will be turned into praise. As well, we will no longer be satisfied with short-term joy, but will seek the greater happiness that comes from sacrificing comfort for compassion, greed for generosity, selfishness for kindness, knowing that God has promised that “it is better to give than to receive.”  Therefore we will be passionate and zealous about seeking the greater life in Christ.
  
  To quote A.W. Tozer, “We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need no longer seek Him…The experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints in rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture…In the midst of this great chill there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, ‘O God, show me Thy glory.’ They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.”
  
  Lord willing, we will be counted among such seekers.
  
  Psalm 34:8 sums it up well, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”

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• Holistic Spirituality
  God intends for all of our life – every aspect of it – to be holy and offered to him as worship.  We do not divide life into a false dichotomy of physical and spiritual.  Jesus ate and drank and worked and cleaned and slept and went to the bathroom.  None of these lowly and earthly behaviors compromised his spirituality or diminished his deity.  Therefore we believe that art and music and gardening and food and work and rest and play are all viable avenues of worship as we offer ourselves as living sacrifices unto God.  Through this holistic spirituality we will experience the manifold ways in which the Living God will communicate his grace and power to us.

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• Transformational Truth
  Very simply put: the Speaking Voice of God is active and powerful to transform all who hear Him.  We resolve that to enter His presence and surrender our hearts in full passionate worship is to wait upon God to transform us and make us more like Jesus.  Hours of study and meditation that yield no transformation are not from God, but a conniving trick of our enemy to convince us we have acquired the right information about God and do not need His universe-creating power to transform us.  We resolve to be a learning community, always hungry for God to further transform us as well as a community through which God will transform others.
  
  The truth of Jesus Christ and the sovereignty of his Name is the source of prayer and the end of prayer.  Boldly proclaiming this truth as God has revealed it in the Bible will unashamedly be a non-negotiable value.  The gospel was never meant to be “safe” and un-offensive.  On the contrary, it is a scandal, a stumbling block, the stench of death to those who are perishing and the fragrance of life to those who are being saved (2Cor ).  Never will truth be compromised to placate people who desperately need to hear and believe and obey.  Truth is transforming and life-altering.  John boldly tells us that to say we believe God’s word with no change to our lives is a lie (1John 2:4).  A true encounter with God’s truth will result in a changed life.

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