Our third core value is Relationships.
Relationships are the cornerstone of our ministry. We believe relationships are vital in order to have radical hospitality and accountability
In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus says “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
It is by no accident that Jesus tells the two greatest commandments are about relationship. You cannot love the lord your God or your neighbor without a relationship. Nor is it by accident that Jesus Christ put God first. If your relationship with God is not right, then loving your neighbor will not be right either.
We at the flock believe in relationships and believe that the following concepts are essential to radical hospitality and loving accountability.
1. First and foremost we must have a healthy relationship with God in order to have healthy relationships for radical hospitality and accountability. – The better our relationship with God is, the better our other relationships are. When our personal relationship with God is healthy, we focus less on ourselves and more on other people. We learn how to love other people because we understand God’s love. We understand about accountability and growth because we have grown in our relationship with God. This does not mean that we cannot serve others until we have a good relationship with God. Sometimes we grow in our relationship with God by serving others.
2. Without building relationships, Radical Hospitality is nothing more than a transaction – If we have radical hospitality but do not build relationships in the process then we have made hospitality nothing more than a transaction, a swapping of services. The people in need get what they want and we feel better because we helped someone without getting too dirty. The problem with this is that both of these are temporary. The good feeling you have goes away and the people in need come back for more. If we are to truly help people then we must get dirty. We must build relationships. That is exactly what Jesus came to do and commanded us to do.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
3. Without a good relationship, accountability is judgmental, condoning, and arrogant –
“Christians are so judgmental” is one of the biggest complaints that un-churched people. This happens when we try to hold someone accountable in the wrong ways. In order for accountability to be most effective, we must have a relationship. A relationship where we hold each other accountable and we both have everyone’s best interest at heart. If people do not know that you love them, then accountability is seen as judgmental even if you are holding them accountable because you love them and want what is best for them. If we have a healthy relationship, we can effectively use accountability to help each other grow in our walk with the Lord. The second thing that must come with accountability is to conduct it with love and gentleness. This can only properly be done when we truly love the person and purely have their best interest at heart. That is why a good relationship is a must in personal accountability.
Galatians 6:1-2
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
4. Relationships are messy but necessary to conducting transformational ministry – I have heard it said that Jesus came to get messy, that is why he was born in a stable. Anybody who has worked in ministry will tell you it gets messy. When you help someone in need, many times, what you are really helping are the symptoms and not the true issue. In order to truly help someone, we must get to the root of the problem and address it. That can only be done through building relationships. Real transformation happens when we experience the love of Christ.
1 Corinthians 13:4-13
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”