Our Values
“In Essentials, Unity; in Non-Essentials, Liberty; in All Things, Love.” —Augustine (354-430 AD)
Communion with God •
Fellowship with Each Other •
Ministry Together
We believe that the purpose of the church is to be in the business of forgiveness and reconciliation. God demonstrates his love towards us in the forgiveness offered to us through Jesus’ death, and he reconciles us to an intimate relationship with himself through the resurrection.
Our role both as the church and as individuals is to participate in the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5.18). We do this by sharing the story of God’s intention to restore us into a whole relationship with him and one another through the Love of Christ. This is reconciliation:
Being restored to God •
Being restored to one another •
Being restored together
The Anchor Fellowship is home to people from Protestant and Catholic backgrounds, people of many different denominations, as well as people who have no history with the Church or who have been hurt by the Church. We feel this is a great strength of our fellowship, though we understand that our diversity presents unique challenges.
Our core values are Communion with God, Fellowship with each other, and Ministry together. This looks like living life together, learning how to become more and more like Jesus while developing deep and meaningful relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our commitment to living life together is not based on having the same theological points of view. It is not our denominational creeds but our redemption that holds us together.
Doctrine and theology are often the source of unnecessary division within the Body of Christ, and while we vigilantly guard against heresy, we strive to maintain unity in our fellowship.
We accept that we are not perfect. We understand that at times we will fall short, offend, and behave hypocritically. So we will not be content to remain where we are, but, instead, we will press on toward maturity in our faith, growing more responsible with our callings and our discipleship of others.
We at the Anchor participate with God in this ministry of reconciliation with this threefold mission:
Communion with God:
Communion with God as our Father (Galatians 4.6) speaks to our identity and reveals the source and purpose of our love. Communion is a response to God the Father’s love for us (1 John 3.1, 16). Communion is relationship: the exchange of thoughts, emotions, and intimate communication. We are united with God (Romans 6.5) as his beloved creation, and we are consecrated and transformed by this communion. We remember this communion with the sacrament of communion weekly, an active remembrance of God’s love for us shown in the sacrifice of Jesus for us (1 John 3.16).
Fellowship with each other:
We are called one body and Christ is the head (Colossians 1.18, 3.15). In the New Testament, our relationship as the church to Christ and as the church to one another is referred to as koinonia, meaning partnership (1 Corinthians 1.9-10). We are created to partner, share in the life of Christ with one another. We partner together to exchange empathy, sympathy, gifts, struggles, and intimate relationships with one another (Philippians 2.5-8). We are able to build trust with each other and repair trust that has been broken through confession, repentance, and forgiveness. This is extended out of the fellowship that we have with God (1 John 1.3).
Ministry together:
The primary ministry we have is to serve others, from the Greek word diakonia, meaning to offer service (Galatians 5.13).To reconcile people to God through Jesus so that sin does not count against them or name them any longer. This is the work of the kingdom and all are welcome to participate with God in this ministry alongside one another. The Holy Spirit sends us out to serve and welcome others, just as Christ has served and welcomed us (2 Corinthians 5.18).Our core values drive these actions within our community:
We seek to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.
We commit to a growing intimate relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We choose to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
We do not believe in disposable relationships; we strive to know, understand, and belong together as one body.
We believe worshiping God brings healing, empowerment, freedom, identity, hope, and calling.
We dedicate ourselves to serving ALL people.
We believe that God speaks and moves through all generations.
We become a refuge for disenfranchised believers and non-believers, giving liberty & freedom to deconstruct and grow a genuine faith in God.
We believe that God wants to hear every person’s story in Nashville, and we strive to listen to and share those stories.
We understand that we are made to be creative and believe that God is experienced through the creative process.
