Our CULTURE
Our CULTURE code keeps us on track with who god would have us be and what god would have us do.
How We Approach God
Seek
First and foremost, we seek God’s face, His Kingdom, His will, and His ways. We want to know Him more than we want anything, and personally and as a church, we make our friendship with God our top priority. We seek Him in the word, in our worship, in prayer, and in service, both together and as a church.
Surrender
Jesus is Lord means that He is the master of our lives, our church, our families, our past, and our future. We surrender our dreams, our time, our personalities, our money, our bodies, our children, our day to day lives, our plans, our everything to Jesus. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives through us.
Serve
To be considered great in God’s kingdom, we must become servants of us, and just as Jesus came not to be served but to serve, we do the same, We make service to others a staple part of our lives because the primary wat we serve Jesus is by serving others. We serve in the church to see lives transformed by God’s word, we serve our neighbors to show them the love of God, and we serve the nations so that everyone alive will have the opportunity at the freedom found in Jesus Christ.
Sacrifice
There is no greater love than to one who lays down his life for another. Just as Jesus was sent by God to sacrifice for our sake, we sacrifice so others can know Jesus and the joys of His kingdom. We often lay down our lives for others, not considering only ourselves, but often considering others greater than us.
Action Values
Gather
We gather together in church services to seek God’s face and grow spiritually, in homes to pray and fellowship, and in our communities to serve others. We also see gather as a verb meaning to bring our neighbors to Jesus so He can transform their lives. We do this by bringing people to church and through our outreaches to our neighbors and the nations.
Grow
We commit to grow individually and as a church. We grow to know God more and more. We grow in our relationships and families. We grow in our calling, our finances, our emotions, and our bodies. We also see grow as a verb to grow the body of Christ by actively bringing people into our family. We are an inclusive people, dedicated to bringing more and more people from all different backgrounds into the family of God.
Give
We give as individuals and as a church family. We give of our times, talent, and treasure. We are generous, always ready to be a blessing and a help to those the Holy Spirit leads us to give to. We also see give as a verb meaning to offer to Jesus our neighbors and the nations. That means that we each do our part to see people both locally and to the ends of the earth come to know Christ!
Go
We go into all the world, preaching the Gospel, serving the suffering, and making disciples. As individuals, we go into our world to show them the love of Jesus. As a local and global church, we go into all the world, planting new works in the areas where the Holy Spirit leads us. We also send, when the Holy Spirit leads, others to the places we ourselves can’t go. We also see go as a verb meaning that every part of our church should have the end goal of going to the ends of the earth. Our worship ministry should go, sending worship all over the world, our children’s ministry should share all of its programs with the rest of the world, and our sermons and media should go. Just as we physically travel to spread Jesus’ Kingdom, we also send what we create out to accomplish the goals of the Gospel.
Our Core Virtures
Courage
Honor
Faith
Holiness
Hope
Humility
Love
Honesty
What We Are As a Church
Missional
We are, and will always be, a missional church. For us, that means multiple things. First, it means that the Great Commission is our main mission. The Great Commission is the mandate to preach the Gospel of Christ’s Kingdom and make disciples of all Nations. The Gospel to our neighbors and the nations will always be a vital part of who we are. Missional also means living our lives in ways that make people want to know Jesus. We see everything as missional, from how we spend our money to how we run our families. All can either hurt the Gospel or help it, honor God or make people curse Him, and that’s why living missional lives means living holy, productive, purposeful lives according to God’s word. Missional also means communicating in a way that the culture we are speaking to can understand. That’s why being missional is often communicating ancient truths in modern ways. Styles may shift slightly from culture to culture, but the Word of God remains the same. We use today’s tools like lights, cameras, social media, and microphones to clearly communicate the ancient Gospel, making us effective in the day and age God has set us in.
Modern
The Word of God is living! The Word works just as much today as two thousand years ago. We use modern tools, some modern terms, modern styles, modern dress, modern illustrations, modern applications of the Word. We develop and create cutting edge modern tools and creations to see the Gospel go forward. We do not live in the past (although we thank God for it and learn from it daily), but believe that God wants to do great work in us and through us today! One of our goals at Hasten Church is to be a bridge to the modern church and the Great Commission. That means we want to reunite the two, making the modern expression of the body of Christ once again the driving force for the Gospel to go into all the world. Modern and Ancient!
Multiethnic
In Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, it is clear that God’s goal through Christ has always been to create one Kingdom of all different types of people under one King, JESUS! That’s why we see God promising the though Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed AND we see people of all tribes and tongues united together in worship in the book of Revelation. Unity in diversity is who we are. We are and will always be a church of different skin tones, backgrounds, nationalities, and pasts joined together as one people at peace with one another declaring the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and worshipping our Great God!
Multinational
The church was never meant to be defined by a single group of people meeting in a single place. That is the little (c) church. The capital (C) Church is a worldwide family of believers. We are spread through generations and across all continents. Hasten Church is both local and global. No matter where you are in the world, we consider you a part of our Hasten Church Global family. Our goal is to bring people into the church from all over the world using media, and to plant multiple different locations around the world to join together as a family and work together to see all nations comes to Jesus!
Multiplying
The main mission given to the Church by Jesus Christ was to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations. That means we are to multiply across the world, teaching others all Jesus has taught us. At Hasten Church, multiplying means three things. One, it means making believers by preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to those who do not follow Jesus. It means making disciples by teaching the Word of God. And it means to make new witnesses through training. These witnesses are those set apart for the Gospel to go into all the world, plant new churches and works, and make disciples of all nations. Some of these witnesses will be those who start new Hasten locations in different parts of the world.