Virginia Synod Core Values

Core Values serve as the foundation for who we are God’s people. In conversation with Synod Staff, Conference Deans, the Synod Council, rostered ministers and lay people around the Synod, these four core values stand out as the inherent principles of our identity as Lutheran Christians in the Virginia Synod: Christ, Peace, Community, Compassion. Each core value includes an expansive statement, a scripture text, and an invitation to ponder hymns and songs you might think of as you reflect and pray on each core value. Engaging in prayer and conversation around these values could be a faithful and fun Congregation Council or committee/team devotion, Confirmation class activity, parish staff exercise, etc.

• God’s love is revealed in Christ Jesus.
• Scripture: Romans 8:35, 37-39 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through God who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Hymn:

• God’s presence brings hope in the midst of change.
• Scripture: John 14:26-27 [Jesus said to his disciples] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
• Hymn:

• God’s spirit unites us in relationship.
• Scripture: Ephesians 2:19-20 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
• Hymn:

• God’s generosity is boundless and calls us to serve.
• Scripture: Micah 6:4, 8 [The LORD says] For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. The LORD has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
• Hymn: