Core Values
In HBF we have 5 core values that we believe take into consideration the high school years and help young people to glorify God and enjoy him forever (Westminster Catechism). These 5 values are:
1. Love God Living the Christian life in a personal relationship with God.
The counter to this is to live the Christian life as if it were a bunch of rules and regulations to follow. Christianity isn’t a religion as much as it is a relationship. We do not want your Christian lives to become dry and stale, we pray that each HBF member grow to meet Jesus personally through Bible study and have a living and dynamic relationship with Him. This relationship is driven by knowing the love of God. It is about living our lives, every aspect of our lives, in worship to the only One that deserves it.
How do we hope to do this? Ultimately we accept that this work is God’s work. HBF’s role is to prepare an environment in which God can work in the hearts of young people. HBF’s focus is to prepare a safe place for any high school student to come, study the Bible, and inquire about the Lord.
2. Wisdom Cultivating a clear and defendable Biblical worldview.
What is a worldview? Basically, a worldview is a perspective or viewpoint from which a person sees and interprets the world. We pray that high school students define themselves and their worldview through the Bible. This is important in the context of high school being the defining years of a person’s life. Our prayer is that high school student can grow in wisdom and in knowledge; and that they can begin to know themselves and God better. We pray that they can view the world from a Biblical point of view, and even defend it.
How do we hope to do this? We hope to do so through relevant and practical Bible teaching, and by explicitly teaching important topics to aid in developing a Christian worldview. We hope to do this at least once a year.
3. Service Using individual and unique gifts to serve others for the glory of God.
We pray that high school students would use their gifts to serve God and others. This is important because I think this is one of the very special ways that we can both glorify God and enjoy Him at the same time. Each of us have been created by God, and each of us have been given very unique gifts. When we use them to bless others, it pleases God. Whether its friendliness, evangelism, thoughtfulness, artistic ability, public speaking, teaching the Bible, musical talent, athleticism, or writing, seek opportunities to serve others. Even if you don’t have the “necessary” gifts, find ways to serve others for the glory of God. This is our way to impact the world, it is our expression of our love for others.
How do we hope to do this? We hope that we can do so by providing opportunities for you all to serve in your unique and individual ways. One thing we have is ministry teams, we have two of them. – praise team, BF. (if anyone has a gift they’d really like to offer to God to serve others, please let me know, and we’ll see if we can provide a place for you to do that in HBF.) We’re also praying about doing an international Missions Trip this coming summer, so we’ll see!
4. Friendship Creating Godly friendships that support one another in the walk with God.
We pray that through HBF, high school students can gather together and make good Christian frienships. I know that one of the ways I enjoyed God in high school was through having good Godly friendships. Having the relationship, and the accountability, and that fun with a good friend in Christ was, and still is, one of the most enjoyable things. So in HBF we understand that teenagers are social and friendship is important. We pray that HBF can be a place where any high school student, believers and nonbelievers, can come and find good Christian friendship. We pray that they don’t just look to have friends for themselves, but also seek to be a good friends to others.
5. Discipleship Growing in the image of Jesus for the purpose of being used by God
This core value encompasses all the other, and takes them to a deeper level. The focus of discipleship is deep Bible study for the sake of personal growth in the image of Jesus. Growing in discipleship will require growing in all of the other core values.
With these 4 core values, I pray HBF can be a place where high school young people can support one another in accomplishing the chief purpose of man: to glorify God and enjoy him forever.