Muncie Alliance Church Values

God's Word

God's Word is given to the church as an infallible guide to know and experience God. We, the Muncie Alliance Church, value teaching and preaching through the entire Bible taking into account the entire counsel of God and the context in which each verse is found. The Word possesses the power to transform lives creating a healthy, relatively low-maintenance community. We choose to teach through the Bible instead of topically because:

• Correction and balance in the church is achieved as we are forced to learn and be confronted with the full counsel of God. A church risks a dangerous spiritual imbalance if pet doctrines and favorite passages are taught repeatedly and unpopular or difficult truths are left out too often. Preaching through Scripture allows God to bring about spiritual balance instead of resting that responsibility upon the pastor's shoulders.
• Points of Scripture come out more dramatically in its context and help us make analogous personal application points. Biblical history and culture set up a contextual backdrop for each verse and point to deeper meanings that could be missed or misunderstood when the Word is read superficially or apart from the surrounding text.

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

Jesus said to his disciples, "It is to your advantage that I go away. Unless I go away the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you," (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit is the provision of empowerment for the church to fulfill its mission in the world (Acts 1:8). We therefore value and lean upon the Spirit, not the programs of man (Zech. 4:6). Instead of being driven by programs that the staff organize and expect the MAC community to carry out, we want to foster the work of the Holy Spirit through individuals. We view MAC as a lay movement and trust the Holy Spirit in God's people to stir them, raise them up, gift them, and empower them to carry out God's plans.

In this grassroots approach to ministry within the church, God's people have the opportunity to follow God into a new area of ministry. His people can be a critical force to organically bring change through His church. As His new plans begins to take shape, it may appear fragile in the natural from a lack of organization or funds, but when we, as believers in Christ, trust the Holy Spirit and walk by faith He brings His purposes to completion every time.

The Worship with Believers

As we grow in our understanding of God's love and provision we desire to draw close to Him to express our love and adoration to Him in worship. We value coming together to corporately worship through song, teaching, obedience to the Word, and in the giving of our resources, time and selves.

The Mercy of God

As we experience God's mercy and forgiveness, we desire to extend His mercy to other lost and hurting people and to provide a place for people to become whole in the community of faith. As we extend mercy, people will sense the freedom to be real—they won't have to hide their sin. As they unearth their shortcomings, they can experience God's mercy, forgiveness, and restoration, which bring about spiritual healing (1 John 1:9).

The Grace of God

As we come to saving faith through God's grace, we realize our continual need for the ongoing grace of God in every area of life. We cannot earn spiritual standing with God; instead it is by His unmerited favor lavished upon us that we can be saved from spiritual death and live a life pleasing to Him. In addition, He blesses us because He is gracious towards us, not because we lived in such a way as to deserve His blessings. In gratefulness of these truths, we desire to live holy lives out of our love for Him instead trying to achieve holiness by simply following rules.

The Care of the Community

We value the caring community that was on the heart of Jesus—a community built by the work of His hand, not by a human organization. We are a community "of living stones," "a city on a hill," "the body of Christ," a truly supernatural community that God has brought together, and every true believer is already a part of this community (1 Peter 2:5, Matthew 5:14, 1 Corinthians 12). As we give ourselves to this community we have the opportunity to grow and bring growth to others, as in Ephesians 4:16, where "...every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

The Outreach Mission of the Church

As we understand the commission of the church (Matt. 28:19-20) and the investment that God has made in sending His Son into the world, we value reaching out to our world in love. This call and vision is so important to us that it affects the way we pray, give of our resources, and invest in the training and in the sending of people into our neighborhoods, where we work and to the world beyond.

The Equipping and Training of the Church

The responsibility of church leadership is to train God's people in the work of ministry (Eph. 4:11-13), and therefore we seek to equip and train those who God is raising up to fulfill His plans for the church. We believe in the priesthood of all believers and aim to minimize any gap between pastor and laity (1 Peter 2:9). We view MAC as a movement rather than an institution, and therefore place less emphasis on institutional training for our staff and for those we send out on mission. Instead of requiring educational degrees, the staff works alongside those stirred by the Holy Spirit through encouragement and hands-on instruction until they are ready to handle positions of leadership.

The Building and Sending of Teams

As we read how Jesus trained and sent His disciples out in teams, we seek to have a team approach to ministry. Teams provide strength, support, accountability and encouragement to those sent out from MAC. In addition to communicating the message of Christ, the team also has an opportunity to show a living example of people on mission, sacrificing together for a purpose—a visible community to model the life of Christ.

The Pairing of Business and Ministry

For practical and intentional reasons, MAC values coupling ministry with business. Besides freeing up the church's finances to support other areas, staff benefit from being bi-vocational because their worlds increase beyond the church walls and they better understand the pressures of the working community they serve. Business and ministry also plays a central role in our training internship. The coffee roasting business emerged as a way for interns to support themselves (and in the process learn about business) as they learn about God's Word and ministry. Finally, this value also defines and shapes the way in which we launch new churches both domestically and internationally.

The Importance of Home Groups

We value home groups because they create a space to mobilize more of the laity into leadership opportunities. Additionally, smaller groups give the chance for pockets within the body to form deeper, more transparent relationships that are vital to the entire body's function and growth. Of course, whenever people are learning, there are messes; and with multiple home groups there might be multiple messes. However, in failure lessons are learned and the benefits of home groups greatly outweigh the possibility of disorder.