Traits of Grace

We understand and accept the reality that all of us are building a kingdom. But, are we building our own kingdom? Or are we building God’s kingdom?

At Grace, we leverage everything we have – our time, talents, and treasures – to build God’s kingdom. We recognize that God has given us the incredible privilege of using the gifts and abilities that He has entrusted to us to build His eternal kingdom rather than our temporal ones.

Most churches have Members, but Grace has Partners. Why? Because members tend to consume and partners tend to contribute.

Partnership runs deeper than this, however. We partner with each other on every level of the church and outside of the church. We partner with local and international missionaries and non-profits because we want to use our resources to build God’s kingdom outside the walls of Grace.

We partner with each other in our ministries. There are no silos at Grace. At the staff level we work together in all that we do. Everyone is invited into every ministry to make it as strong and effective as it can be.

We partner with each other in life. At Grace, no one should have to parent and raise children alone. No one should have to walk through grief or struggle alone. No one should have to celebrate God’s goodness alone! We partner with each other in Small Groups, in community, in ministry, and in genuine life-giving friendships so that no one at Grace walks alone.

We are fond of saying that there is no greater habit that anyone can develop than to wake up every day and spend time in God’s Word and time in prayer. We ardently believe this and so we weave that reminder into all that we do.

We understand that hearing one sermon a week will never teach a person the whole Bible. So it is incumbent upon us to learn and search and study the Bible on our own. It’s in these times and in this personal study that God sews into our hearts a greater hunger for His Word and understanding of who He is.

Similarly, worship once a week cannot be the only time we spend in God’s presence. We need Him every day, and He wants to hear from His children every day. Prayer is where we learn to listen to God and hear His voice. Prayer is where He gives us fresh peace and reminds us of His presence.

There are no habits that connect us with Jesus and help us grow strong and mature in our faith like personally meeting with God every day. In fact, our Sunday morning services should serve as a supplement to the ministry God has been doing in our hearts every day.

At Grace, we think of discipleship in terms of taking our next step of obedience.

If you examine the gospels and how Jesus trained the disciples, you will find that He simply puts in front of them a step of obedience He wants them to take. We believe He is still doing that today. Every one of us, no matter how solid we are in our faith, has a next step of obedience to take in their walk with God. We further understand that, at times, these steps can be risky for us personally. But we believe these risks serve to strengthen our faith and push us into prayer as we seek to walk in obedience to God’s direction.

Being a disciple is as simple as being someone who is committed to taking their next step of obedience to God. And discipling someone is as simple as helping someone identify and take their next step of obedience. At Grace, we hope that everyone has at least one person in their life who knows their next step of obedience and has permission to encourage them to take it.

We understand that we are recipients of unending and unrelenting grace from God.

In God we are fully seen. He sees all of our imperfections, all of our faults, all of our worst and lowest moments. And yet in God we are also fully loved and fully forgiven. Not only are we loved and forgiven, but we are invited to spend eternity with God as His adopted children. This grace is not just extended to us at the point of adoption, but continually, freely, and generously throughout our lives. Even when we have have done and can do nothing to warrant this grace, God continues to lavish it upon us because He simply loves us. That’s incredible grace!

Because we acknowledge that God has lavished His grace upon us, we are able to offer grace to others. This is the root of our authenticity. Because God accepts and loves us as we are, we can accept and love others as they are. At Grace, no one has to pretend to be anything they are not because we know we are all humans who mess up! But God has grace for us, so we have grace for one another.