Our Values

The underlying principles that shape and guide everything we do at St. Thomas

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Honesty

Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” We believe that growth in the spiritual life requires us to be honest with where we’re starting from. The extent to which we are not honest is the extent to which we will not grow. This is the foundational value for us at St. Thomas. We seek to be honest here and provide the safety for others to do the same.

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Rest

We live in God’s story, which is bigger than us, started before us, and will continue after us. And we are very aware of our place in this story as people who can’t “do it all” on our own. We value sustainable rhythms, stability, and long-term perspectives over anxiety and hurriedness in the moment. We are committed to not being in a rush about anything as we recognize that all good things take time.

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Tradition

Humans have been following God since the dawn of time. Our lives of prayer, worship and devotion have a long history and, as much as possible, we desire to have our perspective and practices connect with that history. Whenever we gather, we know there are millions of other Christians throughout time and across the globe worshipping God with us. That cloud of witnesses encourages us to keep pressing on until we are shaped into the likeness of Jesus.

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Love

Jesus said that the ultimate testimony of our discipleship is our love. He showed us what this looked like on the Cross - where he entered into our sufferings, bore our burdens, and poured out his life for the life of the world. Look we're not perfect, but we’re a community that is trying to figure out how to love in this way. We believe Paul when he says that if we don’t have love then we are nothing.

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Community

Jesus’ ministry on earth was with and for every kind of person. Everywhere he went, he drew followers, often from unlikely populations. That’s the community we join when we follow Jesus. In practice, this means, we need each other to live a complete Christian life. We prioritize listening carefully to each other and being accountable to each other in order to more fully experience God’s kingdom. 

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Growth

We rejoice over initial conversions while also recognizing that the call to follow Jesus is one that will continue for a lifetime. Jesus is after our hearts and nothing short of that will do. We desire to help people grow in their faith by supporting their ongoing spiritual formation through every experience of life, both good and bad. This is a journey for the long haul which is rooted first and foremost in a commitment to a Life of Prayer.