Shalom Community Values

Shalom Community Values.

Christocentrism:
“I AM THE WAY - Learning The Way of Jesus, Living life intentionally through The Way of Jesus.”

We consecrate to living with Jesus as Lord of our actual daily lives.

Christocentrism is about being centred on Jesus: utterly committed to Jesus being the centre of our faith, not as a set of theological principles but as a living person, yearning to be in harmony with the character and the person of Jesus “ Jesus at the centre of our faith, our hope, our hermeneutics, our missiology, our ecclesiology, our eschatology, our soteriology, our ethics, our apologetics, our anthropology, our sociology, our politics, our economics, our families and community.”

Community:
“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”.

We consecrate to become an incarnational Community. A living expression of God's Word.

There's four aspects of community we're working with...
A hermeneutic Community respecting and revelling in individuals and their wisdom, understanding, and insight, through their communion with the Holy Spirit, but rooting the responsibility of biblical interpretation and application in the judgement of the collective, and the historical patristic Community of Faith (first seven Councils of the Church). Christ, the Good Shepherd, still speaks to and through His children, but He never contradicts what He has already given through Holy Scripture, and His Ecclesia.
A eucharistic Community recognising that the practice of sharing bread and wine as the very Body and Blood of Jesus portrays the paradigm of sharing lives, resources, finances, time, energy, etc. with each other and also the intimate sharing of Eternal Life or Divine Life with the Trinity.
A missional Community where the gospel is good news to the poor, the widows, the orphans and those who experience alienation in society.
A peaceful Community hungering and thirsting for peace, gentleness, inner rest and wholeness, as Jesus was gentle, in every circumstance, toiling tirelessly as “shalom activists”, wholly committed to non-violence and the overcoming of evil with good.

Freedom:
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”. - Gal.5:1 -

We consecrate to the freedom that ensues from walking in communion with love not fear.

FREEDOM from sin, death and hell, yes, but also freedom to love, compassion, mercy, life and the Kingdom of God; committed to continually probing our values and exploring them most deeply so that God may write his words on our hearts, we might walk with him and be his people and he might walk with us and be our God, through the vibrant impact of the Spirit within and between us; and, like Jesus, being so drenched in The Word that our lives are then lived spontaneously of those words written on our hearts, the breath of God that is our breath, not bounded by the pressures of social expectation or rule-keeping as messianic anarchists or Christi-anarchists; and rejecting any sense of coercion from secularized society.

Mission:
“Go make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. I am with you always, even to the end of the age”.

We consecrate to communicating the Father's love, will, and Kingdom, as Jesus did.

Recognising that evangelism is important but not the sum of mission. Community involvement, reconciliation ministries, peace making, social justice, political impact and environmental action are also all vital and need to be held in tension with each other, inspiring, enabling and supporting both the individual and the greater Body.

Shalom:
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto unto you.” - Jn.14:27 -

We consecrate our lives to the Shalom of God through the availability of contemplation and resultant obedient action. We listen with intention to obey.

Exploring what Shalom is:

Shalom is the Hebrew word that is commonly translated into English as 'peace'. Perry B Yoder suggests that there are three 'shades of meaning' of shalom, which may be more helpful in discussing the matter:

The Holy Spirit:
“When the Spirit comes...you shall be my witnesses”.
We consecrate to seeking Communion with the Holy Spirit.

We choose to live lives that are invigorated completely by both the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit with utter parity, and without measure; recognising the eschatological tension of living in the now-but-not-yet that is the presence of the Spirit; rejecting the contemporary heresy of the “supernatural” because for Jesus there was no barrier between heaven and earth, the spiritual and the temporal, and so there was nothing that God chose to do that was “above nature”.