Deeply Biblical Sunday worship

In the Bible, God tells us that his word does some amazing things: It brings the dead to life, it feeds our faith so that it gets stronger, and it even implants itself in our hearts so that our lives bear the fruit of his presence. God also tells us in the Bible (see Romans 10) that he does all these things through the preached word, which is why we believe that Sunday worship should be deeply and obviously formed by the Bible.

When you come to Grace, you will experience this belief yourself in our worship service: Throughout our worship you will hear the Bible directly quoted at length, as well as carefully explained. And you will not only have the chance to respond to God’s word in prayer and singing, you will also have the chance to respond by quoting the words of Scripture yourself.

Safe and gospel centered fellowship

We believe that through his gospel God creates a safe community that actually helps you walk with him.

It’s hard to walk with someone if you’re afraid. Maybe you’re afraid to be honest about your sins? Maybe you’re afraid to be sinned against? At Grace you will find a church that truly welcomes honest confession of your sins, failures and struggles. And you will find a church that doesn’t ignore sin, allowing it run rampant and bring harm to the sinner and those being sinned against.

To be a safe church also means having relationships of trust that allow for that kind of sharing and burden bearing that the gospel creates. We strive to foster these kinds of relationships through Christ’s gospel in several different ways, both formal and informal. You will especially see this in our Growth Groups ministry.

changed lives through knowledge of the Bible and of Jesus

We believe that Jesus really does transform his people. Our church strives by confession, repentance, and faith to be conformed to the Word, not the world, because we believe that our God and his gospel are glorified, and our neighbor most deeply loved, by living a life that conforms to Jesus’.

Prayer

We are a congregation that seeks the Triune God in prayer. We pray in our homes and at church. We take prayer requests and praises from the congregation before worship starts on Sunday. We have an email listserv for our members where we can send out prayer requests to the body. At Grace, you will find a congregation that is grateful for prayer and which takes advantage of it often, both together and in private.

Leaders who lead and serve in Christ's name

We are a church that is led by the session (i.e. elders and pastor), which strives to pastor and serve the congregation in the loving and serving way that the Lord Jesus Christ pastors us. The session prays for the congregation, comforts the weary, visits the sick, encourages godliness, and when necessary works at reconciling members and seeking renewed repentance.

Our leaders do not exploit, bully, or pressure people to give or serve in ways that are spiritually unhealthy. Instead, the pastor and elders strive for good, healthy relationships with everyone in the church so that together we can grow in confidence and trust in our God and his gospel. They are also not leaders who sit back and ask others to serve in their place. Instead, they lead by serving first. At Grace, you will find a congregation that works at practicing, to the best of our ability, a biblical model of eldership aimed at nurturing and maintaining the faith and fellowship of the saints.