What are your values?

I went to a meeting at the Methodist Church where I'm still a member, but no longer attend, today. (Although that's where the weekly lectio group meets.) All the Methodist churches in this district are involved in Don Nations' Transformational Church program. Today's meeting was for the church population to clarify values in small groups. First, each person wrote down ten values of his/her own; then the group was supposed to choose ten from these to represent the group. After that, the list was to go down to five, which then were categorized. In a few weeks, more small groups will choose from 35 values that come from all these first groups.

The group I was in did not discuss too much, but tallied votes for each value. I felt frustrated at the ambiguity and broad categories we decided upon. Our group decided upon:
1. love
2. worship/praise/prayer
3. spiritual growth
4. inclusiveness
5. outreach

When I looked at another table, I was surprised to see that one VALUE was "worldwide evangelism." I'm glad I wasn't at that table.

Tonight I am thinking of my values. Looking on the internet, I found this chart from the Center for Public Service at Tulane University, which I really like:



I especially like the circle for community, which holds inclusivity, diversity, and respect within it.

I wish I'd looked at this before I went to the meeting this morning.