Our Values

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Swan Lake EFC Core Values

The foundation of our core values: God’s Incredible Grace.

  • God has forgiven and accepted us, so we can forgive and accept each other. “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” (Rom. 15:7)

The capstone of our core values: Honoring Christ.

  • Everything we do will bring honor to our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. “…so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 15:6)

Our desire as a body is to honor Christ and freely offer God’s

forgiveness and acceptance in the following ways:

Teaching & Submitting to God’s Word

Accurate, clear, Spirit-empowered teaching of Biblical truth provides essential nourishment for spiritual transformation. We need to understand and apply the unchanging message of the Bible so we can grow in spiritual maturity and effective ministry. (Eph. 4:11-12; Col. 3: 16; 2 Tim. 3:15-17).
We submit all aspects of our plans, lifestyle, and ministry to what the Bible teaches. We seek to emphasize the essential doctrines and ethical issues (those on which Scripture is unequivocally clear), while allowing the “gray areas” (non-essential issues on which the Bible is silent of inconclusive) to remain gray. (Ps. 119:105; Rom. 14; Heb. 4:12; Jas.1:22-25).

Worshiping God in Spirit & in Truth

When we gather for corporate worship, we allow the Holy Spirit to engage our minds and hearts in exalting God as he truly is. We were created to glorify God. All that we do should ultimately be an act of worship. Therefore worship is our highest priority and controlling purpose when we gather corporately and in our personal relationship with God. True worship sustains and energizes us for life and ministry together. (Ps. 100; John 4:24; Rom.12:1; Eph. 5:19-20).


Faithful, fervent prayer:

  • Prayer is the backbone of our church. We will faithfully lift each other up in prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ. A prayerful body of believers will be a powerful influence for Christ in our world (Eph. 1:15-19; 3:14-21; 6:10-20; Phil. 4:6-7; Col. 4:2; Jas. 5:13-18).


Bold, risk-taking faith:

We recognize the value of changing methods and the “new wine” that flows from God. When God calls us to new ministry opportunities, we will attempt great things for God, expect great things from God, and discover God is real and at work among us (Josh. 1:6-9; Mt. 9:14-17; 14:27-29; 21:21-22; Heb. 11).


Healing and strengthening families:

  • Families are foundational to our church and our ministries. As a congregation we will build strong families by adhering to Biblical principles and roles as we submit, love, respect, obey, honor, and train (Eph. 5:21-6:4).
  • Our ministries will recognize that God designed the home as the primary place for spiritual training and growth of children and seek to provide healing to families that face challenging structures and struggles in our society (Dt. 6:4-9; Mt. 19:1-9).
  • We also affirm singleness as a valid (and sometimes advantageous) status for a season or a lifetime (1 Cor. 7:32-35).


Authentic, loving relationships:

Because genuine love for each other is a distinguishing mark of Jesus’ followers (Jn. 13:34-35; 1 Jn. 4:7-21), we are committed to cultivating relationships that:


Reaching out to a lost world:

  • We desire to understand and follow the great commission of Jesus. We value practicing this command in many areas of our lives as believers, using the gifts God has given each of us to win others to Christ in our community and throughout the world (Mt. 28:19-20; Ac. 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; Col. 4:5-6; 1 Pt. 3:15-16).