A Quick Note About Values:
It is a one thing to declare your values to the world, it is a completely different thing to actually put those values into practice. At Merge we don't want to be just hearer's of the Word but also doer's. For this reason we keep these values on the front of our minds as motivators to stay on mission as a biblical community.

1. God LOVES You!!! (Romans 5:1-8)
Our motivation for doing anything as a church community resonates from believing this great truth. Without it every effort we make would be in vain. God loves you so much that He sends Jesus into this world to rescue you from the consequences of sin which leads to death. He is inclined to act on our behalf where we could not act for ourselves. As a result we live in such a way that is a witness to experiencing this extravagant love. God loves you even when everyone else may think you are unlovable.

2. Jesus is not a BIG DEAL, He is THE DEAL!!! (John 6:38,
Matt. 5:17-18, Hebrews 4:15-16, 7:25, 9:26)
When it comes to us having a right standing with God, Jesus is the crucial character that makes this relationship possible. By fulfilling three vital roles (Prophet-who speaks for God, Priest-who serves for God, King-who rules for God) we can have eternal security and present joy; who is able to sustain us through all of life's many roller coaster adventures. Because of this revelation, we make who Jesus is and what He has done the ultimate pursuit of our lives. We can say that Jesus is our everything.  But the proof of that is when our whole lives are dedicated to following His ways and not living with a Jesus compartment when we are around the church folk.  His price for our rescue is so great that we cannot just minimize it by throwing Him a spiritual bone every so often.

3. We are NOT ASHAMED of the Gospel (Romans 1:16-17)
Something really interesting happens in Jesus parting words with His disciples. In those words He will impart mission into their lives as He tells them to spread The Gospel into all places of the world by serving as witnesses of what He has done. The role of a witness is simply someone who comes in and tells what has happened in their lives from their perspective. For this reason we have been entrusted with this Gospel message in which we are not ashamed to live as witnesses of. Our desire is to develop relationships in which we can earn the right to tell the truth about what has changed our lives that has taken us from death to life.

4. The Great Commission is NOT a suggestion (Matthew 28:16-20,
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
We believe that once we see who Jesus is and what He has done and receive Him as our Lord and Savior..this now should trump every other pursuit in life.  This trumps our careers, our friendships, our marriages, our families.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ should be the navigating force in our lives. So when He says to live as a light and spread this message, He is not talking in theory but in action. At Merge we want to live as the people who has been entrusted with this great and important message to everyone we come across.

5. A place of Grace (Titus 3:3-7)
A church of grace is filled with people of grace, changed by a God of grace. Since we are flawed people we believe in a soft place to land when life is difficult, hurts are real and repentance is being pursued. At Merge we want to create the kind of relationships and environments where grace is real so people can experience the grace of God expressed through His kids. We do this because we have been shown His grace in His Son and for us this has taken us from condemnation to freedom.

6. A place of Love (Colossians 3:-17)
1 Cor.16:14 is one of the most penetrating verses in the Bible when it simply instructs us to..."Do EVERYTHING in love." Everything we are called to do in the Bible as believers is motivated as a reflection of what God has done for us in Jesus.  We are to forgive because we have been forgiven, we are to be compassionate because we have been shown compassion, we are to love mercy because we have been show mercy, we are to shine with the light of Jesus because we have been shown the light of Jesus. When it comes to love this is no different.  We are to show love because we have first experienced love from God through Jesus. So our pursuit is to relentlessly keep this thing called love on our tongues, in our minds and on our hearts.