Distinctives
These organizational distinctives answer the question:
"Why would a Christian leader want to be a part of Messenger Fellowship?"
1) Intimacy with God: Messenger Fellowship seeks to provide a support-community for Christian leaders who desire to cultivate an intimate relationship with God as the core of life and practice.
2) A Relevant Gospel: Messenger Fellowship is committed to providing resources and coaching that help leaders equip people to relevantly express God and His Gospel to the culture.
3) The Radical Middle: Messenger Fellowship is committed to championing a “Word-and-Spirit” model that will be most effective in reaching people in the future, and creating spaces of safety for the people of God.
4) The Ways of God: Messenger Fellowship is committed to helping church leaders and marketplace leaders discover the healthiest approaches to reaching their goals and develop the healthiest environments in their spheres of influence, by understanding God’s “best practices” - the patterns and designs that He has revealed in Scripture.
5) Kingdom Alignment: Messenger Fellowship is committed to envisioning leaders with the paradigm of Trinitarian Community, because it is in living out God’s model that God’s Kingdom is truly grasped and lives are lived in joyous relationship with God and others!
values
1) The Lordship of Christ: This is the summation of all other values, and is the cornerstone of Messenger Fellowship. Messenger desires to embrace a culture that acknowledges Christ’s Lordship at personal, corporate and strategic levels. This includes the essential place of the Scriptures in the lives of believers and in the leadership of the church. Messenger believes that the Bible is primarily God’s letter to the church and we are in turn God’s love letter to the lost world. Messenger further emphasizes the role of obedience to the Word of God and the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and welcomes the ministry of The Holy Spirit in a manner that is faithful to the original intent of Scripture.
2) The Glory of God: Messenger affirms the first tenet of the Westminster Catechism which states: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Messenger values every expression of worship, prayer, fellowship, outreach, and every good work that demonstrates God’s glory in the earth. Messenger strives to be aware of activities or methodologies that in any way detract from the glory of God.
3) The Local Church: The local church is the primary means that Jesus has ordained to fulfill His purposes on the earth. Messenger embraces the local church as a fountainhead of ministry, in its place of nurturing, equipping and mobilizing, as well as, in the impacting of the culture in which it has been planted. Messenger also believes that trans-local ministries can be birthed out of the local church and provide immense value to the advancement of the Kingdom.
4) A Theology of Grace: Messenger Fellowship believes that salvation is a gift from God and that man does not initiate it nor aid it – it is simply a work of God’s grace. Since a believer comes into the Kingdom by grace, Messenger believes that our continued fellowship with God and others is an extension of that same grace. It is this overwhelming confidence in the grace of God that causes Messenger to believe for the restoration of broken lives, to minister in humility and the fear of the Lord, to honor each person God has created and to commit our lives to the fulfilling of the Great Commission.
5) Unity in the Midst of Diversity: It is evident to Messenger that God is the author of both diversity and unity. Messenger recognizes the priestly prayer of Jesus that was offered in John 17 for unity as being essential for Christian leaders to embrace. Fellowship within the Body of Christ has too often been built around issues of race, culture, economics, doctrine or vision.
Messenger Fellowship hopes to offer a spiritual environment without the encumbrances of everyone fitting in the same mold. One of Messenger’s deepest desires is to build our fellowship around the greatness of Christ’s work within each individual, and a commonly held commitment to fundamental values and beliefs, while celebrating the diversity of leadership within God’s Kingdom- a diversity that is multi-racial, gender-inclusive and inter-generational. Embracing many “streams of diversity” offers enrichment and wholeness to the greater body of Messenger Fellowship and makes Messenger critically dependent on the gifts and contribution of every Associate.
6) Servant Leadership: It is clear to Messenger that all aspects of life are sacred and that true Kingdom living is the integration of the real time leading of and fellowship with the Holy Spirit in every area of life. All models of leadership should, first and foremost, come from Jesus, who declared that He did not come to be served, but to serve. Messenger recognizes the various leadership styles in the church today, but also affirms those whose foundations are rooted in the spirit of servanthood. Messenger believes that leaders should see themselves as the ones who lay down their lives for others and create environments where others can thrive. Messenger Fellowship further seeks to model and develop leadership in all domains of society focused on stewardship and building people rather than building enterprise or reputation.
7) The Primacy of Worship and Prayer: Messenger Fellowship seeks to lead believers toward wholeness, purpose and fulfillment in Christ through a “Word and Spirit” balanced life. Messenger believes that worship and prayer touch the very heart of God, and are the source and secret of any and all ministry success. Worship and prayer play a central part of all gatherings of Messenger Fellowship, both in corporate expression and in personal ministry.
8) A Relational Community of Leaders: Messenger puts a high regard on the biblical injunction to walk in community, and believes that the whole church, including all leaders, should be in significant relationships with other believers and other leaders. Leaders must not try to go it alone, or see themselves as elevated or removed from accountable relationships within their local churches, ministry teams, cities and nations.
Issues of how authority is delegated and exercised have been the source of much controversy in the church. Messenger believes that authority is best exercised on a relational level, invited by others not imposed on others. Practically, this creates safe environments in which leaders are given permission by others to speak into their lives; where there is the exercise of control or judgement towards one another in peer-leadership settings. Messenger seeks to lead by example and influence out of relationship in an atmosphere of honor and humility.
9) Commitment to Reformation, Renewal and Revival: Messenger Fellowship is grateful to God for all He has done throughout history in bringing restoration, renewal, refreshing, revival and reformation to His church. Yet, Messenger also believes that this is a work that must continue in this generation and beyond. In light of this, Messenger attempts to serve as a faithful prophetic messenger to stir and awaken The Church as Christ’s bride to be everything that He has called her to be, and for her to fulfill her God-given destiny in the days in which we are living.
10) The Completion of the Great Commission: Messenger Fellowship is committed to doing everything possible within our mandate to reach all people everywhere with The Gospel of Jesus Christ, disciple the nations, stand in continuity with God’s plan for Israel, and affirm God’s redemptive gifts and purposes in every ethnic group. Messenger delights in and actively looks for ways to team with other churches and ministries for the advancement of God’s Kingdom in the earth.
“Messenger Fellowship is awesome.”