Brandon Cox shares Grace Hills' core values as examples to church leaders. If you’re a Lead Pastor, write your own values out of the overflow of your hopes and dreams for what a great church staff looks like.

At Grace Hills, one of the most important things we ever talk about is our Code – our Core Values. We talk about these values in every membership class and in most staff meetings. They've done more to guide our growth than anything else we've written down.

Recently I began reflecting on where our church’s staff needs to go as a team and it occurred to me that while our church, as a whole, understands who we are because of our Code, our staff may not have a strong identity as a team because I've never clearly and succinctly articulated my own values for those who join our ministry in a leadership role.

So I wrote out the ten values I hold most dear when it comes to church staff members. And they are…

Grace Hills Staff Values

1. Jesus is the One who fuels genuine passion, so we stay close to Jesus, we honor Jesus in all we do, and we make time with Jesus first priority.
2. Integrity is required for leadership, so we honor our covenant and remain accountable to our leaders, and put our families before ministry.
3. We lead by serving people, and we serve by leading people, so we value the soul of those we lead more than valuing what they can do for us.
4. Values are easier caught than taught, so we will go first and lead by example in the things we expect of the people of Grace Hills.
5. My real role is developing disciples and servant-leaders, so we spend time with people in real life and we give ministry away whenever possible.
6. The mission launches every Sunday and gets carried out all week long, so we create ministry opportunities outside the weekend worship gathering.
7. Excellence brings God glory unless it becomes an idol, so we strive for excellence but we move forward even when excellence is not yet in reach.
8. Failure is a sign that we've taken a risk in faith, so we will take risks and celebrate failure and learn from it rather than playing it safe.
9. Teamwork is more valuable than specialization, so we help each other out as a team, pitching in to make everyone around us more successful.
10. Ministry is a privilege many would want to do for free, so we work hard to honor and earn the right to be in our role.

Feel free to borrow ideas, but I don’t recommend adopting this list as your own. If you’re a Lead Pastor, write your own values out of the overflow of your hopes and dreams for what a great church staff looks like. I’m sure we’ll tweak these over time, but this is a good start.