2. We accept that more mistakes will be made as a result of pioneering new ideas, plans, practices and programs. Rather than punish or pull back we choose to celebrate and even honor our mistakes as essential steps in growth and development.

3. Grace liberates us from the need to pretend to be something we aren’t. Grace is what allows us to be genuine, authentic, honest, real. Authenticity cultivates credibility that facilitates healthy dialogue with each other and the unchurched.

4. Whatever we do we do as unto the Lord. Therefore, we strive for perfection – as far as humanly possible. This does NOT mean “glitzy,” which reflects neither humility nor authenticity. Rather it means going the extra mile to deliver premier ministry consistent with our core ideology. It means honoring Christ in every thought, practice, and program. We will sacrifice doing more for the sake of doing better. To God be the glory.

5. We will trust and empower our people with the freedom to take initiative, explore new ideas and possibilities, and improvise as necessary to accomplish mission – aware of the human potential for great good. We will also place healthy guidelines and restrictions within which innovation and improvisation are permissible and review all actions taken to ensure alignment with our core ideology – aware of humanity’s innate fallen, self-centered condition.

6. Agape is the demonstration of patience. In witnessing we will cultivate credibility, friendship, and trust with the unchurched as in preparing soil before planting the seed of the Gospel. The harder the ground the more patiently we will cultivate. The colder the climate, the longer we’ll patiently wait until conditions are such that the seed has a chance to grow. Good things take time. We will spend more time on and with people.

The goal is a fruitful harvest. Rushing the process demonstrates impatience – with God, self, and the unchurched. We cultivate, plant, water, and tend. God produces the harvest.

7. Because Agape is our greatest challenge, developing proficiency and mastery will receive highest emphasis and demand more attention in terms of Christian spiritual growth. At the same time we affirm the vital role played by other Christian institutions for learning the breadth of God’s revelation in the Bible.

8. In foot washing Jesus said, "I have given you an example that you should do what I have done." Self-sacrificing love doesn’t come naturally and is often unpleasant -- if not outright nauseating. We joyfully welcome and celebrate the opportunities to do the stink work nobody else wants to do as powerful testimonies to the life-changing love of Jesus Christ! "Stink Stories" will be widely circulated and celebrated. Footwashers will be honored as heroes for Christ and M:NA!

9. We believe salvation is through Christ alone. Therefore the priority for mission and evangelism is self-evident. God loves his lost sheep every bit as God loves us. Out of love Jesus modeled the courage to freely associate with sinners, church outsiders, and the rejected. And he paid a price for it from the existing religious establishment of His day. If need be, so will we.

It is self-centered, unmerciful, and unfitting as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ to ignore the challenge of mission simply because it is hard, uncomfortable or it might make waves. People matter too much.

To quote Fuller Theological Seminary’s Dr. Eddie Gibbs:

“For Christians to engage people who are earnestly seeking alternative (to Christian) explanations that are more convincing and comprehensive requires a commitment to listen patiently and discerningly. It necessitates an unconditional acceptance of those who are content to live in ambiguity, and it requires the humility to communicate in open dialogue with those who hold a pluralistic worldview.

The confidence of the witness must be in Christ alone and not in religious institutions or in the impregnability of a Christian apologetic. Any hint that the witness is motivated by a desire to enhance an institution or to monopolize conversation will cause the people with whom he or she is in contact to turn away uttering expletives as they go!”

Amen!