Vol.16 No. 2, 2002
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What are Core Values?
The primary vehicles for our mission and service are:
- F@W Magazine
- Retreats, trainings and conferences
- Books and other resources
Dated and Approved at Spring Board Meeting 5/2002
@Work is the quarterly newsletter of Faith At Work, Inc. for all F@W
donors to inform and encourage relational ministry in daily life. Editor: Doug Wysockey
Layout/Design: Bill Johnson.
C
ore ValuesScott Peck
There has been much talk of core values in the last few years. For awhile now people like Stephen Covey have been encouraging us to better integrate our priorities with our daily life. (Using the requisite ‘Values Based Daily Planner’ and attending the ‘What Matters Most for Palm Organizers’ Workshop, of course.) Despite the commercialization, I believe it is important work to do.
One of the primary benefits of understanding our core values is that it keeps us on track. I for one am an immanently distractable person. I can be in the thick of one project when I will remember something else that needs to be done. Immediately I drop project #1 and start working on project #2. That in microcosm is what tends to happen on a larger scale without a sense of what is most important to us.
Good vs. Good
This bouncing from one thing to the next is an understandable temptation. Usually it is not a movement from something important to something trivial. Rather we often have to choose between two or more good options. There are so many significant things out there that need to get done. But trying to do all of them will guarantee not doing any of them well. In her book with the unfortunate title Jesus CEO, Laurie Beth Jones makes this comment:
“Pause for a moment and consider the things Jesus did not do. Here is someone endowed with limitless power from on high. He could have done literally anything. Yet he did not build a temple or a synagogue. He did not write or distribute books. He did not even heal all the sick people in the world.....His mission was very specific.” (P. 14)
(Amazingly Jesus managed to do this without taking the ‘What Matters Most for Palm Organizers’ Workshop. Italics and sarcasm mine.) Our core values do help us decide what we are going to do.
The Core Values of Faith@Work
Core values and beliefs are where vision begins. Core values and beliefs are like an ether that permeates an organization –its decisions, its policies, its actions–throughout all phases of its evolution.
(James Collins & William Lazier)Any organization’s history is loaded with clues to their core values. With this in mind, at a recent Board of Director’s Meeting, we looked at a few of the pivotal events in F@W’s history to see our core values at work. All this was used to help us do some strategic visioning for the future. What is emerging is a new initiative called the Mutual Ministry Project. You will hear more about this exciting initiative in upcoming issues of @Work and F@W Magazine. For now, be sure to check out our core values and pictures from our history on the linked pages. These are the values that have guided F@W for decades; these are the things we love.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:21)