Staff Commitment
Because Jesus is the center of our mission, we ask that all who wish to be staff with the Way of Jesus Ministries be born again and have a relationship with Him. (John 3:7)
We are taught in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Therefore we ask that our staff be free from harmful addictions such as smoking, drinking and drug abuse.
We believe that God planned marriage to be a life-long relationship between one man and one woman, and that divorce and remarriage are outside of God’s plan. (Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18). We believe that living in a remarried state after a divorce is adultery. We believe that sex outside of marriage is sin. We believe that homosexuality is sin and is against God’s plan. These areas need to be confessed as sin, and repented of, before serving as staff.
We live in a world full of immorality. It doesn’t take long walking down the street to realize that the way people dress can make it hard to keep our minds pure. Our sinful side wants to dress in such a way that we draw attention to ourselves, often in a sensual way. Jesus taught us that we need to keep our lives and thoughts pure. (Matthew 5:27-28) Because of this, the Bible teaches us to dress modestly (I Timothy 2:9; I Peter 3:3-4), meaning that we dress in such a way so we don’t draw attention to ourselves or tempt others to think wrong thoughts about us. With this in mind, we ask that men wear long pants and shirts with sleeves. We ask that women wear a modest skirt and blouse or dress. Expensive clothing and fancy hairstyles draw attention to ourselves and we encourage that our choices in these areas reflect a modest lifestyle. We ask that no jewelry be worn.
We believe that women should cover their heads while praying or prophesying and that men should not. We believe this symbol was taught in 1 Corinthians 11:4-10 as a means of spiritual protection, and is a valuable practice in our daily lives.
We believe that as born again children of God we are a part of a heavenly kingdom that has no earthly borders (John 3:5). We believe that we are called to fight for and defend our heavenly kingdom, rather than the country we live in on earth (John 18:36). We believe that Jesus’ command to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44) reaches worldwide, even to countries with which we may be at war. For this reason we ask that our staff not be a part of the military or work in other government positions which conflict with our heavenly citizenship. We do want to be clear that this is not an excuse to disobey or disrespect the authorities that God has placed over us. We simply give our highest respect to our heavenly kingdom, and when government asks us to do something that goes against what Jesus taught, we choose to obey Jesus.
We believe that as we join the battle for the kingdom of God it is necessary to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles (us)” (Hebrews 12:2b NIV). These days it is very easy to listen to and watch all sorts of trash. Television, movies, music, and video games are things that are not bad in and of themselves, but much of what they have to offer glorifies the very things that made it necessary for Jesus to die on the cross. We strongly discourage the use of television, believing that the dangers and negative influence outweigh the benefits. However this is only one area. We each need a strong personal commitment to God that guides us in our choice of music, as we surf the internet, choose which movies to watch, and even as we walk through the aisles of the supermarket. We feel this is not a rule, but rather a personal commitment (Psalm 101:3) that we ask our staff to make before joining our team.
We want to wish you God’s blessing as you consider these areas, and look forward to serving God with you in the work of the Way of Jesus Ministries.