The Mission of Cypress River

The mission of Cypress River is to strengthen Christian leaders to grow God’s Kingdom.

Our hope is to help Christian leaders be more grounded in a mature leadership identity, and strengthen their use of critical leadership skills, in ways that honor God and expand His life-giving Body.

The Core Values of Cypress River

In our work at Cypress River, we are deeply committed to honoring the Lord in our endeavors to strengthen and expand His Body. We work to draw upon the best thinking in the areas of leadership, systems thinking, coaching, psychology, philosophy and spiritual formation in our training, seminars and coaching work.  We take great care to ensure that our ideas and recommendations are shaped and informed by a biblical worldview.

Explicit values that shape how live out our callings include:

Integrity

By integrity, we mean not only conducting our professional engagements in ways that are upright and honoring to those involved, but also committing as staff to move toward wholeness and maturity in living out our personal callings to fullness in Christ. We are committed to on-going growth and development, to walking the walk, as we engage in the sacred calling to support Christian leaders and organizations in realizing their God-honoring visions.

Connection

The heart of our work revolves around how we connect with those we serve. How well we enter the worlds of those we serve, how well we “come alongside” those we serve, will in many ways dictate our capacity to be of value to them.  As a result, we highly value connecting well with those we serve, working to understand their dreams, struggles and resources, in order to create a context that allows for greater possibilities to emerge in moving toward God-honoring dreams.

Wisdom

Wisdom speaks to our commitment to bring value to our encounters.  At Cypress River, we highly value the wisdom found in the fields of leadership development, coaching, spiritual formation, and psychology in helping individuals and organizations become more effective.  We honor God as the source of all wisdom, and endeavor to be equipped and sensitive to the Spirit’s promptings in sharing  wisdom to strengthen and further equip those we serve.

Impact

We exist to strengthen and expand the Body of Christ.  We long to be agents of “grace and truth,” to be used to encourage and embolden leaders in carrying out their callings with greater effectiveness and vibrancy.  Through the synergistic collaboration with those we serve, we envision “bearing much fruit” as leaders become more effective in leading and discipling, and growing His Kingdom.

The Vision of Cypress River

Our ultimate dream is to see His Body in this generation growing and thriving as His leaders lead in powerful and transformational ways, paving the way for future generations to grow and thrive.

Through cooperating well with the Lord, and assuming he sustains us, we envision the following:

We see Christian leaders embodying fullness as they lead and serve those they are called to equip.  We see Christian leaders living compelling, attractive lives, inviting others, by the way they live and engage, into a growing relationship with God.  We see Christian leaders consistently embracing disciplines that enable them to grow in fullness, having a greater impact through their increasing receptivity to the Spirit’s leading, and protected from a moral collapse through the balance and health their enjoy in their lives.

We see Christian leaders, truly “rooted and established in love,” spiritually and emotionally mature, engaging their staff members, teams and systems from a place of strength and wisdom.  We see them entering the world of those they serve in ways that increase the level of energy and effectiveness in realizing the God-honoring vision of the organization they serve, and gradually reducing the level of dysfunction and misalignment in their systems.

We see elders and members in Churches living out their callings in more compelling ways by how they are influenced by the Pastors who lead and inspire them.  We envision the words “Christian” or “Christ follower” having an increasingly positive connotation as those around Christians see the beauty, goodness and acts of kindness and service lived out in front of them.

We see people coming to the Lord and invited into relationships and patterns of living that enable them to become true disciples through the compelling and meaningful methods of evangelism carried out by healthy and life-giving leaders.

We see our culture ultimately impacted by the collective work of all those in the Body working together to bring greater light and wholeness to American society and beyond.

In sum, we see God’s Kingdom growing through our humble and faithful cooperation with Him.  We see more of His goodness, life and fullness present in the lives of his leaders, his followers, and flowing out to others to help more of His Kingdom come, and his will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.