Mission
To make disciples of Jesus that live in community for the community.
Core Values
LIVE FOR JESUS
Statement: Above all else, we at Grace Point Church live for Jesus. Everyone lives for something or someone. We believe that Jesus is worth living for in all areas of our lives because he is the only one who truly sets us free and provides us with our purest sense of purpose, identity and value. He has given his life for us, and the only way we can properly respond is to live our lives for him. This provides a radically new orientation to life that allows us to live for Jesus holistically with our lives, our homes, our vocations, our time and resources — everything! Jesus truly affects everything!
Scripture: John 1; Colossians 1:15-20, 2:9, 3:4; Galatians 2:20, 5:1
LIVE IN COMMUNITY
Statement: We live in community as seen in the Bible, first in the Trinity and then in the Church. Through the gospel, we become a new community and a new family of deep friendship with brothers and sisters in Christ who come from all walks of life. We grow in Christ and put his love on display as we open up our lives to participate in a community built upon grace. The church is not a meeting you attend; it is a network of relationships you belong to — people who share a common confession and mission. As we live together in community, with God’s Word at the center, disciples are made. We come to see that all people stand on equal ground at the foot of the cross, giving us a freeing humility that welcomes the messy and glorious work of the church community.
Scripture: Acts 2:42-47; Ephesians 2:19-21; Galatians 3:28, 6:10
LIVE ON MISSION
Statement: We live on mission by living our ordinary lives with gospel intentionality. God desires us to thrive in our vocations and communities while we minister in and through them, proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel. As we carry out our callings with authenticity and joy in the homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces where God has placed us, we carry out God’s mission. When we join God and use our uniqueness together, others flourish, and communities are renewed. We are also called to serve, love, and care for the welfare of our community. This means that we are accountable for those without Christ, without hope, without means to provide for themselves, without a voice, without family, and without a community that cares. We not only do this locally but globally as well.
Scripture: Matthew 28:18-20; John 1:14, 20:21, Acts 1:8; Colossians 1:6; James 1:27
LIVE AS LEADERS
Statement: We live as leaders who desire to see ourselves, as well as others, grow in love and maturity in Christ. Everyone leads. We lead ourselves by the daily decisions we make with our time, attitudes, and resources. We are also called to lead others into the Kingdom of God. This requires training so we can be informed and effective leaders who resemble Christ. Every leader must first be a follower of Jesus. We value training as leaders so we can put what we know about Jesus into practice, not only equipping ourselves but also building up the church and renewing the world around us.
The primary purpose of our high value of leadership is to make known the glory of God by leading others to flourish in God’s design.
Scripture: Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Timothy 4:6-10; 2 Timothy 2:2
LIVE TO PLANT
Statement: We live as Christians who joyfully obey Jesus’ command to plant new churches. We recognize that no local church has spontaneously appeared out of thin air but is a result of faithful Christians throughout history seeking to obey the Great Commission. This means that every church in existence was at some point planted, thereby making every Christian a part of a church plant. Jesus has commanded us not just to make disciples but to baptize — symbolically expressing a person’s union with Christ through faith as well as their belonging to Jesus’ body, the church. In light of this, we understand that every Christian indwelt by the Holy Spirit has been commissioned by Jesus to either join new church plants or generously send new church plants. There is no third option.
We strive to do this locally through the Grace Point Collective, regionally through Acts 29 West, and globally through Acts 29 Europe.
Scripture: Matthew 16:18, 28:18-20; John 20:21; Acts 1:8, 14:21-23; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
Beliefs
It’s all about Jesus
Jesus lived the life of a good man. Not just good, but perfect—without sin. Historically, He is known inside and outside the Bible as a good moral teacher, a miracle performer, and a lover of humanity, and He embodied everything we would consider good and beautiful as a human being.
Jesus lived a life of perfection that we could not live and died a horrific death on the cross that we deserved for our sins. This death satisfied the demand of God’s law, making it possible for man and God to be reconciled. Three days after this perfect man’s death, He (Jesus) rose victorious over sin, Satan, and death.
But is Jesus just a good man? No, He is God.
Jesus is and always has been God. He has no beginning or end. The Bible states that He was with God, and He was God before the foundations of the earth were created.
To truly reconcile us to God, Jesus had to come and bear the weight of our sinfulness — He stood in our place. This is comforting because we have a God who sympathizes with our weakness, our struggles, and our pain, yet without sin. The hope of mankind is that we can enter God’s Kingdom through the cross of Jesus, all by His grace — this is the gospel!
True life is in Jesus and is available to all who would come to Him.
Doctrines
At the heart of our beliefs stands what Jesus refers to as the greatest of the commands: love God and love others (Matthew 22:34-40). We believe a church should be known not only by what it believes but primarily by what it does. Beliefs become stagnant and void if they are not translated into actions. We want Grace Point Church to be known primarily for its love for God and its love for people. We want to be known for what we do and not necessarily for what we stand against.
For that reason,
- In essential beliefs, we emphasize unity.
- In nonessential beliefs, we exercise liberty.
- In all matters, we exhibit grace.