Ransomed Heart Ministries .:. Our Tenets

OUR TENETS

Our tenets will give you a good glimpse into the way we are choosing to live and work together
in the mission of the Gospel. You'll better understand who we are and why we do what we do. Furthermore, if we disappoint you in some regard, these tenets may explain why we don't do some of the things we don't.

Clarity of Mission
There is so much to be done. It's a given that we can't do it all. (This will, no doubt, disappoint some who expect more from us.) But we know what our part, our role/mission is, and upon
that we focus our resources and plans (Because of our clarity and focus, we refuse to be or do that which is someone else's mission in the Body).

We are a message-centered ministry. That message is about the restoration of the heart -
walking with God, from a ransomed heart, in the Larger Story as men and women.

Irreversible Change
Our events, resources, and ministry decisions have the goal of irreversible change. It's not education, though that certainly happens, it's not inspiration, though that may be a result;
it's - not encouragement, though we hope it happens... It's irreversible change - transformation of hearts and lives.

Walk with God - Follow the Wild Goose
Early Celtic believers referred to the Holy Spirit as the Wild Goose, a name rightly describing
the unfettered, free, and wild nature of God [John 3:8]. We submit our decisions to God and
listen for His affirmation or counter-intuitive direction.

Forced Growth by God
As a ministry/organization we resist growing. We don't want to be big, manage regional offices, and have a legion of employees, a large building, multiple departments, and an overhead that enslaves us. We would rather see others catch the vision and carry it into their world as they walk with God. We will grow as God forces us to grow.

Stay Small/Tribal - Fluid
A popular leadership book entitled From Barbarians to Bureaucrats captures a bit of our fear. There are plenty of bureaucrats! We want our focus to be our mission, not the organization.
We plan to remain small, mobile, flexible, and intimate. . . tribal.

Crawl, Walk, Run
We view our development as an organization in stages: crawl, walk, and run. This assumes a progression over time that requires patience, anticipation, and dreaming/planning/hoping.
We are not, now, all that we will be.

Trinitarian Leadership
Instead of a hierarchy, Ransomed Heart is led by a community of leaders sharing their gifts, perspectives, and the weight of their lives in a unified voice and direction.

We Live And Work With The Deep Belief That Our Hearts Are Good
We are a New Covenant ministry that believes God's promise to "take away our heart of stone" and to "give us a new heart" has been accomplished by the work of Jesus Christ. We have good hearts. We appeal to the deepest and truest parts of one's being, believing that as a Christian
our deepest and truest desires are for that which is true, honorable, holy, pure, and beautiful. (For more on this we suggest you read chapters 4 & 5 of Waking The Dead.)

Care For Our Own Heart (not sacrifice our own heart for the ministry)
We will care for our hearts and those of our family. We may say "no" to a genuine opportunity, believing it is necessary for our own intimate relationship with Christ, for those we love most, and for real life to flow from us. We want to give from abundance in Christ, not out of our desperation.

Operate By Both Wisdom And Revelation
We live and work using the wisdom we've gained and listening to God, who at times may guide
us in counter-intuitive directions.

". . . Choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom."
(Acts 6:3).

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." (Ephesians 1:17)

Humility, Love, and Forgiveness
All we have has been given to us as a gift from God... we remember this and pray that all our dealings with people, whether they be for us or against us, would be marked by genuine
humility, love, and forgiveness.