At Harmony Church, we have 3 main values that we adhere to. These are things that we just don’t talk about, but try to filter everything we do through. If there is something that we do that doesn’t further one of these values, we just don’t do it. Plain and simple. And this fits in with our mission here at Harmony: we want to see people whose lives are Gospel-centered, in Community, and on Mission. There’s a brief introduction to each value below, followed by some of the examples of practicing this value.
Gospel
What It Is
The Gospel is the Great News of Christianity that, to save us from His own wrath, God stepped into human history as a man named Jesus, lived a perfect life for 33 years (a life we could not live), died the most incredible death of all time (a death we should have died), and rose from the dead after 3 days (something we could not do without Him). The “Great Exchange” was made on the Cross: because Jesus lived a perfect life, He didn’t deserve to die. Instead, He took our place. We are now seen by God to have lived a perfect life. What an incredible announcement! If it’s true (we believe it is), it changes everything.
How it Changes Us
We no longer live in rebellion (a spiritual middle finger to God) or religion (trying to save ourselves), but instead we relinquish authority over our lives and salvation, serving the one, true King Jesus instead. We now love others not because of what they do, but simply because they are. We gather in community on Sundays, and throughout the week, not because it’s what Southerners do, but because we want to celebrate the Good News with others who have heard it. We live our lives with intention (called being on Mission) so that others will hear this Great News as well.
Community
What It Is
Community is the beautiful thing that happens when Gospel-centered people come together to celebrate the Good News of Jesus. But it’s not just a gathering of people. That doesn’t define community. Community, put simply, is people doing life together, honestly and authentically. That’s what we strive after at Harmony Church. We don’t want to just gather people for the sake of gathering people. We want those people to open their lives to one another so that we can better show Jesus in our city.
How it Changes Us
Because Community is a value at Harmony Church, we place high value on creating environments where people can get to know one another on both shallow and deep levels. We provide a fellowship time at our Sunday morning gatherings, along with Home Groups that meet for meals and Bible study throughout the week. Home Groups are the primary environment for getting to know one another and to study/apply the Gospel together. We currently have two Home Groups (see the Community tab at the top), and are looking to start another group soon.
Mission
What It Is
Mission is the reason for the Church today. We have been given a mandate by Jesus to tell the entire world about the Good News of the Gospel, and we exist in Greenville to see that accomplished in our city. We want to live our lives with intentionality and to provide ‘third-places’ where non-Christians and Christians can mingle and talk about faith issues. We call these Wells, reminiscent of where Jesus met the woman with multiple guy-friends in John 4.
How it Changes Us
In addition to living our lives with intentionality, we have established working relationships with organizations in the city, including Uptown Greenville (link) and 3rd Street School, a public preschool for at-risk and low-income children. We also have started brand new ‘organizations’ that gather both Christians and non-Christians. Two of these groups include God & Guinness, a gathering of people that discuss faith topics over drinks, and the Greenville Tweets group, which provide a context for discussing social media in the city.
