#Values: Values are definitions of what we hope will identify us. These articles are mainly intended for those who want to join us in this project—whether to pray, donate, or collaborate.
Our worship, beyond music, will include all practices that draw us closer to God’s grace and power, in creative and relevant ways.
Beta Values #10: Meaningful Worship
In worship, we will respond to His Word, the Sacraments, and the Spirit in obedience and love, learning from the different streams of Christian spirituality throughout history.
Beta Values #12: Transformative Worship
We want to be a healthy biblical community, guided by His Word, and not distracted from the witness of Christ, spiritual growth, and mutual care. We aim to live by the principle that people and relationships are more important than programs, being a Christlike community.
Beta Values #14: A Healthy Community
In worship, we gather to encounter God in ways that everyone can understand—both those within and outside the community.
Beta Values #11: Intelligible Worship
We want to be a place of love, joy, and peace that reflects God’s character and His desire for all to return to Him: men and women, boys and girls, of all ages, social groups, and cultures.
Beta Values #13: A Spiritual Home
Alongside face-to-face relationships—especially in small groups—we will use technology to fulfill our mission.
Beta Values #15: Digital Tools
Worship is recognizing God and responding to Him with our hearts. That is why we usually express it through our prayers and songs, which can be understood as “amplified prayers,” as Augustine of Hippo beautifully put it: “The one who sings prays twice.” However, worship is not limited to our “lips”; it extends to our entire lives. The Bible constantly reminds us: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8). This means our worship not only involves acknowledging God’s character but also responding with our hearts and actions. For example, if we recognize that God is love, we express our love for Him and live accordingly, by loving our neighbor.
This principle is reflected in the greatest commandment, which urges us to love God with our whole being (Mark 12:30–31). To better understand this, we can break it down into several parts. To love God “with all the heart” means to love Him sincerely, from the depths of our being. Even today we use expressions like “I say this from the heart” to denote something genuine. The next three elements refer to different aspects of our lives: soul, mind, and strength.
With all the soul: This relates to our feelings and emotions. Loving God with our soul means expressing our love to Him, worshiping Him, and responding to His presence—especially in communion with Him during our worship gatherings.
With all the mind: Loving God also means seeking to know Him more deeply. Just as in marriage love is strengthened by truly knowing the other, our relationship with God grows as we study His Word and learn who He is. A simple way to illustrate this would be to imagine a spouse who forgets their wedding anniversary. If we do not know God, our love will remain superficial.
With all the strength: Love is shown through actions. It’s not enough to say we love God—we must show it by obeying His commands, especially by loving our neighbor (1 John 4). As Jesus taught, our works must reflect His love and lead others to glorify God (Matthew 5:16).
So, while music is an important and contextual expression of our worship, it is a mistake to reduce worship solely to singing. This is especially relevant when our worship does not reflect the love of Christ in our community. 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that love must be the foundation of our gatherings. In the following chapter, Paul explains that this love is evident when our meetings aim at spiritual growth—not just for those already part of the community, but also for those who are not yet. This growth happens especially when everyone understands what is going on as we gather to worship God.
Therefore, the focus of our public worship must be that God is at the center and that our lives are being conformed to His image. If the church is the body of Christ, we must be a community that reflects Christ. While this may seem obvious, it must be continually remembered, because like any human community, churches are also vulnerable to distortions caused by sin.
Finally, we must remember that we live in a rapidly changing context where analog and digital realms coexist. As a community, we must learn to see the digital realm not only as a space for generating community or as a tool for spiritual growth, but also as a mission field—without neglecting the importance of face-to-face relationships.
Translation is the Church’s birthmark and also its missionary reference point: the Church would be unrecognizable or unsustainable without it.
— Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion is Christianity?
“The New Testament reminds us that the visible church is not the ideal church, for the church is a divine-human society that participates not only in the divine love of its founder but also in the flaws of its human nature—it is always in need of renewal. God takes the same risk with the church in redemption as He did when granting people freedom in creation. Just as God the Holy Spirit used Paul’s hands for ‘extraordinary miracles,’ so He can use His church today. The results will be the same: the word of the Lord will grow mightily and prevail” (Acts 19:11, 20).
— Book of Discipline, Free Methodist Church, 2023
New Wine and New Wineskins ¶6860 Since we consider evangelistic effectiveness our highest priority, we affirm that apostolic activity in the harvest fields will give rise to many different forms and trajectories of new disciple groups. In submission to Jesus’ teaching on the need for new wineskins for new wine, we choose to trust our apostolic leaders, allowing for innovation and organizational flexibility in the growing frontier of the Free Methodist Church, and avoiding rigid institutional boundaries that could hinder the rapid expansion of the Kingdom. We trust that, over time, godly disciple-makers and church planters will help many of the new disciples and groups to embrace the distinctive realities of the Free Methodist Church under God’s direction. In accordance with ¶6850, all parties involved will seek to establish and strengthen bonds of fellowship and connection, while also recognizing evangelistic effectiveness as the highest priority.
— Book of Discipline, Free Methodist Church, 2023
“When we choose to incarnate, we find ourselves between our own world and someone else’s. We are called to remain faithful to who we are without losing our essence, and at the same time, enter into the world of another. However, we can be confident that just as Jesus’ incarnation and death brought great life, our decision to do the same will also result in resurrection life and much fruit—in us and in others.”
— Peter Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Church