Vision Statement? This is too much to condense!

In understanding what it takes to be a member of Journey, I have looked into my "book" I received at discovery.
Jeff pointed out the other day that we often say (within our group) JOURNEY did so & so for me, or this part of my life is so much better thanks to JOURNEY.
He challenged us to remove the word "Journey" and subsitute "Jesus." It was pretty ironic how easily it seems to fit.
But anyway, back to my real point, in our team meetings, he has stressed the importance of having a "Vision Statement." Doesn't sound that hard, huh. But it is.
So have read and re read what it is I believe, as a Journey member and leader, and more than that, a Christian, and have come up with these basic values. From these, I hope to get some feel for what the "vision" should be, at least in my mind.

The Basic Journey Values, based on my experience, from April 2007-now:

(and I'd like to think you could do what Jeff says, and subsitute Jesus instead of Journey, and make them Basic Jesus Values, for anyone, at any church)

You need to have Commitment to accept Biblical Authority
It is God's instruction manual for our lives. And not just “parts of it.” All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and helps us to do what is right, guiding us on the correct path. 2 Tim 3:16

Love Wins
Our motivation for serving God and His church (his people) is love. We don't serve out of guilt or obligations. Or at least we aren’t supposed to. Love drives us to passionately serve God. Love always wins the battle!

Relevance
At Journey Church we strive to always be relevant by using what is cultural and related to everyday life to say what is timeless (the truths of God's Word). Jesus was relevant to society and to his hearers. We as a church must fight to be relevant to those that we are trying to reach.

Others
We must become passionate about reaching people through relationships. We believe that life is lived best when experienced together, learning, growing, celebrating, and spending time with one another. God has commanded us to be a part of bringing people into his family. We believe this is best done through relationships with the un-churched, no matter how hard. Christ made it very clear to us that outreach is a priority. Journey Church looks for opportunity to get involved and be a presence in the community. "What can we do to help?" Should be our motto.

Welcoming
We realize that everyone is at a different place in their spiritual journey. God has not called us to judge others, but accept them and welcome them. Jesus modeled this during his earthly ministry, and it isn’t our place to say who should and should not come. We are ALL sinners.... Sometimes Carolyn says "We're all screwups." Lou says "We are the rejects." But we are screwed up rejects with the right ideas in mind.

Transformation
God is not just interested in our conversion, but in our transformation as well. We believe that we were created to live deeply with one another, to carry each other’s burdens and share our positive experiences, and even share our possessions, to pray for and confess our sins to each other, to suffer and celebrate together. It’s in these sacred relationships and honest, loving communities that God transforms us. Transformation happens easiest in community.

Shaped To Serve
God deliberately shaped and formed you to serve him in a way that makes your ministry unique. Jeff has shown us “guides” so to speak about finding our spiritual gifts. God expects every believer to get involved in ministry, and we believe that every believer is a minister of sorts, and should seek to find an area to serve, no matter how insignificant it may seem. This builds the local church as well as those who serve. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Eph 2:10

Investing In the Next Generation
At Journey, we believe that we have a responsibility to invest in the lives of both our little kids and youth. They are the future leaders of the church, therefore we want our youth to become tomorrows leaders.

So, from that, we do not want to be defined by our activities or programs or methods or branding or anything other than the values we share. Do we have all the answers to living a successful life? No way. But we do know that God has bound our hearts together around our values. When you look at us, know that we long for these values to be evident in everything we do together, even if we do fail. We value loving God and pursuing Him wholeheartedly.

We value being a diverse, "family," dedicated to treating one another with respect and affection, knowing every human being is perfectly loved by God, even if it's hard to understand why sometimes! We value fun, celebrating life experiences, and living it to the fullest. We are real people experiencing a real God. We value our Spirit-filled journey of experiencing and responding to God, producing joy, peace, rest, revelation, beauty, creativity, safety and authenticity.
How do I tie all that into a "vision" statement? Maybe I should leave it up to Ryan!
Or TJ.......
This has turned into one long, rambling post. Kind of lost the purpose somewhere in there, didn't I?

Unrelated to the "vision," has anyone else's spiritual gift of ministry affected you lately? Even if it was a simple "I'm glad you are here today?"

I was deeply affected last night by (hope he doesn't mind me using his name....) Mark Tucker. Mark attends church services with us all the time. Although he is very cordial and greets everyone, he isn't chatty like some of us.... (yes, I mean me). I was FLOORED last night to hear his thoughts during small group. He was spouting off information faster than Jenny and I could write it down. Things to ponder on that I would have never thought of, or thought to question.

So whether he knows it or not, Mark has a wonderful spiritual gift. It's the gift of being quiet. When someone is quiet 90% of the time, when they finally DO speak that 10% of the time, WE LISTEN.