Expect to change
This phrase defines the driving motivation for our church values. Our values come directly from the wisdom of God’s word so that we have the security we are steering our lives in the right direction.
Mission:
To LEAD the Highland Lakes community into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Message on Mission
Vision:
Create community churches even unchurched people desire to attend, encounter Jesus, and experience transformation. Message on Vision
Strategy:
Sharing Jesus with the world that desperately needs Him, equipping faithful followers, and then sending empowered believers into the world. Message on Strategy

Core Values: The Fruit of the Spirit
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22,23)
The success of our church mission exhibits itself through the character of the people who are our church. Our mission reaches success when our core values “the fruit of the Spirit” manifest themselves in each family member.
Love:
A Spirit-filled life leads to love. “Because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5) A love focused on God in response to our great salvation, a love focused on others who want to hear His gospel, a love focused on our spouse, family and the church.
Joy:
The Holy Spirit dwelling within us allows us to understand the satisfaction from accomplishing God’s will. We have the ability to evaluate our lives from what is eternal which provides joy through the daily struggles.
Peace:
The victory is ours. We have won and death is conquered. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7) However, we must still deal with each other on this earth and do so remembering our battle is against Satan and not each other.
Patience:
We clearly hold the prize before us, eternity with the Father. However, we experience a delay while we use the fruit of the Spirit to teach others the saving message. We live patiently waiting the prize. We live patiently with our family, friends, co-workers and church. Our patience, with others, grows as our faith grows in the eternal prize.
Kindness:
The climax of creation is the human race. God believes the human race is worth the sacrifice of His Son. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32) Similarly, we respond to the fear, hostility, pain, isolation and emptiness of those without the comfort of God’s salvation with kind acts of mercy. We also extend to the church and our families kind acts of service.
Goodness:
Our interactions within our sphere of influence are characterized as consistent with the nature of God. People know that when they approach us we will not respond with selfish motivations but will respond with the grace of God. We are generous in our response to people.
Faithfulness:
The dwelling of the Spirit empowers us to remain faithful to our proclamation that Christ controls our lives. “But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.” (Galatians 5:5) This faithfulness exhibits itself through the building of our relationship with Christ through worship and devotion, faithfulness to our families through fidelity and commitment and faithfulness to Christ’s command to help others do the same.
Gentleness:
Aristotle described gentleness as “the mean between excessive proneness to anger and incapacity for anger”. Jesus models this attitude well from the gentleness He exhibited to people searching for truth while still living in sin and cleaning out the Temple of money exchangers who disregarded the sanctity of the Temple. Similarly, a person of gentleness responds without anger to people but reacts strongly to sin.
Self-control:
We strive to pursue God’s will not our own as we make the multitude of daily decisions on how to walk with Christ. “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (I Corinthians 9:25) Decisions of pursuing holiness instead of lust and sin, decisions about purity vs. impurity in our marriage relationships, decisions about how to respond to our children when they act out and decisions on how we respond to the people God brings into our lives.