Core Values

Here at UNC the students, faculty, and staff are ultimately seeking purpose and significance in life.   We all have the innate desire to find acceptance and love.  This is perhaps our deepest human need.  We typically look to a million different sources to achieve such fulfillment, yet end up disappointed.  We simply want someone to say to us, “I know you, I love you, and I always will.”

Based on Romans 1, we believe that the fundamental problem with humanity is idolatry (the way we seek that acceptance and love).  We have taken good things like relationships, careers, money, success, etc. and elevated them to the place of God in our lives.  As a result, we look to those sources to provide fulfillment that was only ever intended to come from God, since we were created to find total satisfaction in God alone.   Adam and Eve believed a certain type of knowledge was more important than God to find love and acceptance.  For us, it may be attaining a specific body image, approval of peers, academic achievement, or a romantic relationship.  The Bible calls this supplanting of God sin, and we are all guilty.  Sin separates us from a perfect, holy God. In separating ourselves from Him we are left longing for the significance and purpose that only He can give us.  But here’s the good news.  In the Gospel, God gave us back what we had originally lost, which was Himself.  Jesus Christ bore our sins, traded places with us, and paid our eternal sin debt.  As a result we are accepted by God, in spite of all our flaws and shortcomings, and are free to enjoy His presence forever.  All we have to do is believe.  The work has been accomplished for us in Christ.  The psedo-fulfillment that comes from worldly pursuits pales in comparison to the deep, thirst-quenching satisfaction that comes from a personal relationship with our Creator.

So in short, at Reach UNC we believe the Gospel; the announcement that through Christ and his sacrifice our sin debt has been pardoned and we have been set free to live in light of his great mercy.  We believe that we need to be reminded of the Gospel on a daily basis so that we not only share this incredible news with others but we allow it to color the way we view every area of our lives.  The Gospel is the only indispensable message in history and it should be as the Apostle Paul explained, “…of first importance..”  Consequently, everything we do is driven by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Come explore the beauties of this glorious announcement with us at Reach UNC.