The D2 Core Values
E2 = Embrace and Extend
Embrace God’s Love, Healing, and Word: What is God’s intention toward us? From the beginning of man, God has been pursuing us. Because of His great love for us, He refuses to hold anything back…even His Son (John 3:16). What hinders us from embracing His love? Often it’s a distortion of this truth that keeps us from receiving. People and circumstances have lied to us, and by believing them, we have bypassed the truth that God is for us and desires relationship with us.
Hurting people are all around us and as followers of Jesus we have not escaped the pain, disappointment, and trials that are common to the broken world in which we live. In Luke 4 Jesus says He came to care for the broken hearted, heal the wounded, and restore what has been broken (Luke 4:19). Unless we understand and embrace the healing that Jesus offers, we remain stuck in our spiritual growth as a disciple of Christ.
The Bible is the only infallible rule of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16). A road map. A love letter. It’s our guide to how we relate to God and others. The Word is God revealed to us and as we embrace His Word, Scripture equips us for every good work.
We cannot extend what we have not embraced!
Extend God’s Love, Healing, and Word: As we love others well, we extend God’s love (John 13:35) and reveal His glory to the world. To love well, we must be rooted and established in His love. We become an extension of that love as we invest in the spiritual, emotional and physical well being of others.
To the believers in Corinth, Paul writes, “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” (2 Corinthians 1:5). Has God ever used an exhausting or painful situation to teach you something about Himself or your relationship with Him? Our pain, no matter how terrible and inconceivable, is never wasted in the hands of our sovereign God. He always recycles it to equip us to extend God’s healing to others who hurt.
The Word is active and alive. It opens our eyes to see wonderful things. As we extend God’s Word and disciple others, the Holy Spirit produces transformation and growth.
R2 = Relate and Reproduce
Relate in Authentic Community: From the beginning of creation God said it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). All of life must be lived out in the context of relationships. Our fulfillment in this life is dependent upon the health of our relationships—God and others. Disciples must be in relational environments where they can experience true community with others.
Reproduce Disciples: We desire to be intentional in walking with other people. We always want to be intentional bout multiplying ourselves and our Home Groups. We desire to develop leaders and more. As disciples, we must be reproducible in order to effectively influence others. So, the question is not “Am I a dynamic teacher?,” but “Am I producing other disciples in my teaching?” Not “Am I doing ministry?,” rather, “Am I developing ministry leaders?”
S2 = Serve and Send
Serve in Our Sweet Spot: Jesus said He came to serve and not be served (Matthew 20:28). He has given us spiritual gifts, passions, abilities, and experiences and He desires for us to serve in our sweet spot of ministry (1Corinthians 12:28). Jesus has called us to engage in good deeds as we serve orphans, widows, and foreigners in our community and world.
Send Disciples to Our Community and the World: Just as God sent His Son Jesus into the world, He sends us into that same world. We were created to influence all nations. From Genesis to Revelation, God’s intentions are clear. We were created to enjoy God’s grace in relationship to Him, so that we may spread His glory to the ends of the earth. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commands and commissions us to “go and make disciples of all nations…”
We believe if followers of Jesus embrace and extend His love, healing, and Word; get involved in relational pathways where they are producing and reproducing disciples of Jesus; and serving in their ministry sweet spot as God sends them out into His world they will become disciples who are developing other disciples.
