How you do what you do
You've now defined your mission (what you do) and your vision (where you're headed). This lesson tackles the third piece of the puzzle: your values—the core beliefs and priorities that guide how your church behaves, makes decisions, and carries out everything it does.
Here's the most important thing to understand about values before we go any further:
Values are not statements. They are standards.
That distinction matters more than it might seem. A lot of churches have values printed on a wall or listed on a website—words like "authenticity," "community," or "excellence." But if those words don't actually shape decisions, behavior, and culture, they're not really values. They're decoration. A true value is something your church actually holds itself to, especially when it's inconvenient.
Why Values Matter
Values aren't just nice ideas—they do real, practical work inside your church:
They create alignment across ministries. When everyone from the kids' ministry to the worship team to the greeters understands the same core values, they naturally start pulling in the same direction, even without constant top-down direction.
They guide decision-making—especially hard decisions. When a tough call comes up (and it will), values give leaders something solid to stand on instead of making it up in the moment.
They shape culture. What gets celebrated and what gets corrected in your church says more about your actual values than anything printed on a banner.
They clarify identity to your community. People outside your church pick up on your values quickly, whether you've named them or not—through how they're treated, how decisions are made, and what your church seems to care about.
Ask Yourself
Before you can write a value statement, you have to get honest about what's actually true in your church right now. Sit with these questions:
What behaviors do we naturally celebrate and highlight?
What frustrates us most when it happens in our church?
What do we want people to experience the moment they walk in the door?
Your honest answers to these questions will reveal your real values faster than any brainstorming session will.
Aspirational Values vs. Actual Values
Here's where a lot of churches get tripped up. Not all values are created equal, and it's easy to confuse two very different categories:
Aspirational values — what we wish we were. These sound good and reflect good intentions, but they aren't consistently lived out yet.
Actual values — what we really are. These show up reliably in behavior, decisions, and culture, whether anyone's watching or not.
Your job in this lesson is to identify values that are true, active, and differentiating—values that are genuinely present in your church right now, not just values you hope to have someday. (Aspirational values aren't bad—they can become goals for growth—but don't mistake them for values you can build a communication plan around yet.)
The 3 Levels of Value Implementation
A value isn't real until it shows up in three specific places. Think of these as the test for whether a value is actually a value, or just a word on a wall.
1. Behavior
Does this value show up in what people actually do?
Ask:
What does this value look like on a Sunday morning?
What does it look like in leadership meetings?
What does it look like in conflict, when things get tense?
If a value only shows up when things are easy, it's not really a value yet—it's a preference.
2. Systems
Do your systems and processes reinforce this value, or quietly fight against it?
This is often where churches discover the gap between what they say and what they actually do. For example: if your church says "People matter," but a first-time guest fills out a connection card and never hears back—that's not a communication oversight. That's a systems misalignment. Your systems are telling a different story than your stated value.
Ask: where are the gaps between what we claim to value and what our actual processes produce?
Here's a helpful way to remember this:
Values are not what we say
Values are what we do consistently
Values are what we reward and correct
If a behavior contradicts your stated values and nothing happens as a result—no correction, no conversation—that stated value isn't really operating as a value in your church yet.
3. Language
Finally, values need to be spoken—regularly, not just once a year at a vision-casting event. If a value isn't talked about, it fades from memory even if it's technically still true.
Where should your values show up?
Sermons
Announcements
Social media
Leadership meetings
The churches that sustain strong values over time are the ones that keep talking about them in ordinary, everyday moments—not just formal settings.
Putting the Three Together
By now you should be seeing how mission, vision, and values connect into one complete picture:
Mission = Who we are (and what we do now)
Vision = Where we're going
Values = How we do it along the way
Mission gives you purpose. Vision gives you direction. Values give you the guardrails and the character that shape how you pursue both. A church strong in mission and vision but weak in values will eventually lose trust—people will sense a gap between what's said and what's lived. Getting all three right, and communicating all three clearly, is what builds a church people can trust and rally behind.
Exercise:
Exercise 1: Spot your real values
Answer honestly in your notebook:
What behaviors does our church naturally celebrate or highlight?
What frustrates our team most when it happens?
What do we want people to feel the moment they walk through our doors?
List 5–8 words or short phrases that emerge from your answers. These are the seeds of your real values.
Exercise 2: Sort aspirational vs. actual
Take your list from Exercise 1 (plus any values your church has previously claimed, printed, or stated). For each one, mark it as either:Actual — consistently true right now, evidenced by real behavior
Aspirational — something you want to be true, but isn't consistently lived out yet
Be honest here—this exercise only works if you resist the urge to mark everything "actual."
Exercise 3: Test against the 3 levels
Choose your top 3–5 actual values. For each one, answer:Behavior: What does this look like on a Sunday, in leadership, and in conflict?
Systems: Is there a system in our church that currently reinforces this value? Is there one that quietly contradicts it?
Language: How often is this value actually spoken out loud in sermons, meetings, or communication? When was the last time it was mentioned?
Exercise 4: Find one misalignment
Identify one specific place where your stated (or aspirational) values and your actual systems don't match—like the earlier "People Matter" / no follow-up example. Write down:What's the value?
What's the system gap?
What's one small change that would close that gap?
Exercise 5: Draft your Value Statements
For each of your top 3–5 actual values, write a one-sentence value statement that names the value and briefly explains what it looks like in action. For example: "People Matter — we prioritize following up with every guest within 48 hours, because no one should feel forgotten."Exercise 6: Plan your Language habit
Choose one value from your list. Write down 3 specific places you could intentionally speak that value into over the next month (a sermon illustration, a social media post, an announcement, a leadership meeting). Put dates next to each one.
