A Note From Tracy Hipps: Influencing Culture with Kingdom Values

Tracy Hipps; CSM Executive Director

I have been asked so many times "what is your big goal at CSM?" and I say, “To influence culture with Kingdom values.” What does this mean? It means to be a part of changing people’s minds and thoughts about God and His Word. Our view of God is so messed up! We base our view of Him on our view of fathers and leaders in our culture. Yet God’s love is deep and His arms are open for all. His power is strong, and His arms are around us. His justice is fair, and He guides us down the path of righteousness. His grace is so forgiving of all sin and His mercy is everlasting to receive just us as we are today.

We influence our culture by living out the values God shows us in his Word. We influence our culture by loving Him with all our heart, all our minds, all our souls. and all our strength. We influence people by proclaiming the name of Jesus to a dark and dying world. We influence our culture by loving others the way Christ loved us. Living out the values that Christ lived is the one thing that will change our cultural influence; seeing people with the eyes of Christ as His workmanship created in Christ Jesus, listening to people and affirm the value they are to Christ and to us, spending time with them no matter what the case or story, knowing we are all made in the image and likeness of God, and treating people as brothers and sisters no matter what.

We influence our culture by recognizing the beautiful uniqueness of all humans, revealing the creative working of God’s hand on all mankind. The differences between us does not make any difference in the way God loves us or in how we should love others. We are called to open our arms and embrace others to influence them with the values Christ lived— NOW!

CSM is in a unique position in our city to influence culture without compromising our values. ‘Christian’ is in our name and represents our values as Christ-followers— expressing to everyone, no matter what, that we love you and want to be in relationship with you. We love you and will share with you why we hold to these values so deeply and why we are committed to live out these values. We want to influence culture with kingdom values to transform our city. We believe this will be the only thing that will permanently change lives in our city.  

CSM has been around for 48 years now. In 2010, we worked with 200+ volunteers. But as the focus of our ministry has shifted to establishing multiple partnerships and mobilizing thousands of volunteers, our influence in the city has been exponentially multiplied. Since that time, we have seen God doing great things as over 200,000 volunteers have joined hands with us to influence our culture with eternal, Kingdom values! YOU are the primary resource we connect with the deep needs in our city.