With Jesus as our model, we want our lives to be characterized by passion. In the most surface sense, it means that we should be moved by our relationship with God, and maintain a high level of dedication in all we do for Him. In a deeper sense, it means that we value suffering and sacrifice. We see Jesus’ willingness to suffer for the lost and the hopeless as a model for all who would come after him, and that we likewise are to take up our cross and to walk the way of suffering. We do not seek pain or persecution, but we do not shrink back from it either. We are convinced that the clearest expression of the Gospel is love, and that love is forever defined by Jesus in his death for us. We value the kind of radical faith that expects every believer to be ready and willing to suffer and sacrifice for Jesus, his name and his kingdom. We realize that this value is not mainstream, and that it contradicts the cultural currents of prosperity- the idea that in all things God wants to give us personal success, exalting our individual kingdoms. We denounce this idea and affirm that the Kingdom of God will not be built through selfish ambition, but through passionate, sacrificial love.

(Ps 63:1, Matt 10:22, Matt 16:24-25, Matt 26:38-39, Rom 5:3 and 8:18, Lk 9:61-62, Lk 14:27, Rom 12:1-2, 2 Cor 1:5, Eph 5:1-2, Phil 2:3, Phil 3:10, Col 1:24, Col 3:17, 23, 2 Tim 2:3, 2 Tim 3:12-15, 1 Pet 3:17, 1 Jn 3:16).