LBCF Core Values

Community, Connection, Transformation, Mission

Community: Only in community can we experience the fullness of God’s love, for only in community can we experience the fullness of forgiveness and reconciliation, of receiving healing and hope, and of giving ourselves with abandon to God’s purposes.

We take loving each other very seriously! This includes encouraging one another, serving one another, refraining from gossip, and having honest and authentic conversations that lead to deeper relationship.

At LBCF, we remember the words of Jesus from John 14:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Connection: God has made us to connect, to be known, to belong. These are our deepest desires as human. Only in connected and vulnerable relationship is this sorts of life-changing connectedness possible.

Connection destroys hopelessness, isolation, and loneliness, and imparts hope, passion, and courage. God’s great desire is to connect with those He has created (Genesis 3:8). It is His great love of relationship and intimacy that makes God a missional God and a pursuer of authentic relationship and connectedness. Since we are made in God’s image, it’s in our DNA to long for this same kind of connection with God and with each other.

Transformation: God’s love changes lives. Bottom line. The good news of Jesus’ love cannot be received without shaking up our lives in profound ways. Like all humans, we tend to resist change and wallow in the pitiful contentment of our selfishness. Yet God’s love won’t let us settle for such meager fare.

In fact, God’s goal is to conform us to be like Jesus. This means repenting of our selfishness and self-focus and learning, by the grace of God, to live as Jesus lived. This life of transformation often calls us into more than we think we can handle. Yet God always proves that, in His grace and mercy, He provides all we need for a life of godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

Mission: God is a missional God, and He calls us to be on mission. Mission simply means a life of pursuing, serving, and loving others, as Jesus did.

God is a pursuer. As Jesus’ story about the prodigal son demonstrates (Luke 15:11-32), our God is ever vigilant, ever pursuing those He loves. Many of us don’t think about God that way and have a hard time even understanding a love like that. Yet God continually reveals that’s exactly who He is.

Incredibly, as God brings us into His family, he asks us to partner with Him in His work of redemption. He longs to restore all things to Himself, and he calls us to join Him in the reconciliation of all things. We are a people on mission, to each other–fulfilling Jesus’ command to love one another, to our city–fulfilling God’s call to be rebuilders of broken places, and to the world–fulfilling God’s command to make disciples of all nations.