Merge Core Values
Unashamed Worship
(John 4)"Nothing brings the glory of God down in the church, nothing brings greater awareness of the presence of God as quickly and as powerfully as when God's people unashamedly worship God's great Son." James MacDonald. We believe when we make much of Jesus...big things happen. We long to lift high the name of Jesus because our minds are informed of the gospel, which makes our hearts inflamed for His glory. We also believe worship is more than just what you do on Sunday mornings. For this purpose Merge aims for a lifestyle of worship to express our gratitude for the hope we have found in Jesus.
Unselfish Service
(Matthew 20, Ephesians 6, 1 Peter 4, Philippians 2)We believe the best way to build community inside Merge and influence outside of Merge is through service expressed in the love of Jesus. Long before people want to hear what you have to say, they need to experience your motives for treating them in love. The people at Merge long to be a community of service that provides a soft place to land when you get knocked down and a great place to leap from when you are going on adventures of the God size.
Unceasing Prayer
(Luke 18, Isaiah 55)Prayer is not about getting God's muscle around your plans. Prayer is about getting your heart around God's desires. At Merge we are committed to the unceasing prayers of God's Kingdom on display in us, through us and around us. We want to pray in such a way the result is that "Only God" could have done what has happened. The more we realize that God is a loving Father the more willing we are to cry out to Him in all areas of our lives.
Unafraid Witness
(2 Corinthians 2, Acts 1:8, Mark 18, John 7, John 16)A witness tells the story of what they experienced. Jesus is very clear in Acts chapter 1 that the role of the believer is to live as a witness of what Jesus has done for them. This is why at Merge we are unafraid in telling our story of how Jesus has changed everything in our lives. This is put on display in the words that come from our mouths and the actions we choose to make daily.
Unapologetic Proclaiming
(1 Corinthians 2, 2 Timothy 3 and 4)Preaching is proclaiming. The proclamation of Merge is that God loves us through Jesus! We believe this is what the Bible teaches so we are committed to preaching and teaching the Word of God over the word of man. For this reason a majority of our preaching ministry is designed traveling verse by verse through entire books of the Bible. We are unapologetic, not in the sense that we have chosen to be abrasive or rude in our teaching. But rather that we unapologetically preach the gospel of Jesus as revealed to us through the Bible. We celebrate what we learn in the Bible because we find there is great truth in these words from God's heart to ours.