CORE VALUES

Worship
We desire as a body of believers to see God glorified as we worship Him in our whole life, including scripture study, prayer, music, etc. A primary way that we can do this is to teach God's Word in its entirety. We recognize the importance of "watching our lives and doctrine closely" and that we must persevere both for our sakes and the sake of those who hear the Word proclaimed (1 Timothy 4:16). By so doing, we will put Christ Jesus first in our lives and protect ourselves from being blown here and there by every wind of teaching (see also Colossians 1:28 and 1 Timothy 1:9). In addition to the Word we must, as a body of believers, be devoted to fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer with one another (Acts 2:42ff).

Missional
Scripture teaches, "That there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God" (Romans 3:10-11). We believe that every believer is called to be a missionary to their own sphere of influence. Therefore, we have accepted the responsibility to train and equip every believer to know the components of the Gospel message and to be actively seeking the lost. As Jesus gave us an example when He sent out the 72 disciples (Luke 10:1), we desire to minister in teams of two or more when possible.

To aid us in reaching our neighbors (Luke 10:20-37) we ask each one of our Small Groups to build a bridge to the community by regularly serving outside of Timberline Church. In addition, we desire to minister to those inside and outside Timberline Church by offering biblically based courses focused on marriage, parenting, finances, time management and other culturally relevant topics.

We want to see every believer at Timberline Church to mature to the point where they are committed to spiritual growth, hospitality, intentionally sharing Christ's love with non-Christian friends and seek to make room for one more person in everything they do.

Finally, we expect that God will call some of our number to full time service. We will support these brothers and sisters financially and with short term teams whether local or international.

Discipleship/ Leadership Development
As a part of Christ's church it is our responsibility to encourage everyone toward spiritual maturity and to equip some for leadership. To us discipleship is much more than knowing correct doctrine. Too often biblical doctrine is taught merely as a fact to be known rather than truth to be lived. It is our desire to see life change, as evidenced by the "fruit in keeping with repentance," Matthew 3:8, as an ongoing process in every believer at Timberline Church.

Therefore, we are committed to having an intentional discipleship pathway where each person:
1. Submits themselves to a discipler who teaches how to follow Jesus
2. Learns the Scriptures
3. Imitates Christ's life and example in ministry
4. Finds and teaches other disciples for Jesus

Finally, we are committed to staffing for growth and believe we should always look within our own body first when adding new staff (Ephesians 4:11-16).

Loving Relationships /Authenticity
We want Timberline Church to be known as having a "come as you are" atmosphere where people can find help with their struggles. It is our desire that everyone feel loved and accepted. We also recognize our responsibility before the Lord to be authentic, encourage growth and maturity, speak the truth in love and, where appropriate, exercise church discipline (Matthew 18).

We are committed to helping strengthen all families by teaching Biblical principles on marriage and parenting. We value and love children and view shepherding them to be as important as ministering to adults.

Stewardship of Resources
We recognize that all of our time, talent and treasure belong to God and are a gift to us. We strive to focus on essential ministries that maximize Christ's mission. We value:
1. Consistently casting the Timberline Church vision
2. Clear, concise, communication between church leadership, church ministries and the congregation as a whole.
3. Teaching God's truths about stewardship of finances
4. Helping every believer discover and use their spiritual gift(s).

We desire to give away our time, money, faith, and lives to fulfill God's purposes (Colossians 3:17, 2 Corinthians 8:7, Ephesians 6:19-20 and Romans 12:1).