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Grace Community is a Christ-centered,       Spirit-filled, God-glorifying church devoted to the faithful proclamation & application of the glorious gospel of Jesus as we seek - by His grace - to fulfill the Great Commission He has given to His church.

Our Sunday service begins at 10:30 am.        Click here for directions.

Community Groups

 

Currently, Grace Community has four Community Groups (CGs) that take place on Sunday. Two of these CGs meet right after the morning service for a time of fellowship as we share not only lunch together, but also life. The other two CGs meet at 5 pm, also to share a meal together, as well time to fellowship together around the Word of God.

 

The Community Groups are as follows:

 

  1. Pastor Ryan's CG – meets after the morning service. Location is on the South end (17 Ave. S.)

  2. Deacon Matt's CG – meets after the morning service. Also on the South end (16 Ave. S.)

  3. Pastor Marvin's CG – meets at 5 pm on the West end (Riverstone)

  4. Pastor Chris' CG – meets at 5 pm on the West end (Copperwood)

 

Why We Switched from our Evening Service on Sunday to Do Community Groups:

 

Calvinistic Baptist churches are notoriously known for placing a great emphasis on the importance of teaching & doctrine, that is, they have a huge “head knowledge”. However, many of these same churches are unfortunately notoriously known for their little “heart application.”

 

The Bible makes it very clear that although true life transformation requires Biblical information, the two are not to be equated as synonymous. That is, there may be a Christian who has a lot of knowledge about the Bible, but lives a life that is contrary to what they know to be right. For example, many mature Christians can quote the Bible verse about Jesus Christ's coming into this earth not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for the many (Mark 10:45). There are two major ways a text like this is preached: either (1) a focus on Christ's substitutionary ransom for His elect, or (2) a focus on Christ's example that He is giving to His disciples to emulate. Unfortunately, Christians often side with one of these interpretations, rather than understanding that this text is teaching us both, and that both of these interpretations are actually complementary to each other. At Grace Community, we truly cherish the richness of the doctrine of Christ's particular redemption of His people. However, we also want to cherish the richness of Christ's example that He is calling us to emulate, in light of our understanding of all that He accomplished for us on the cross. It is not an either-or option, but rather a both-and; the application flows out of the theology!

 

The question our leadership began asking themselves was: what good is it to have a whole bunch of smart theologians gather every Sunday to talk the talk, but never walk the walk? And so, in God's great providence, we went through a 5 week series working through Acts 2:42-47. In this section, Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us a great picture of how the newfound church “did life together” as Christ's purchased people. And even more, we focused on the missional aspect & result of this doing life together in the midst of a fallen & hostile-to-Christ world: “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (2:47, ESV).

 

Preaching through this series awoke Grace Community to the reality that our sovereign Lord has called & saved us as to be His city on a hill: to live in such a way that others see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in Heaven (Matthew 5:16). As Jesus told His disciples before He was crucified, that all people would know that we belong to Him, by our love for one another (John 13:35). And so we began to realize that the Bible said that Christians who do life together is one of the greatest witnesses we have to the power of the gospel of Christ (see Ephesians 2:14-16). Being “missional” is impossible without community. True evangelism incorporates the entirety of Christ's body.

 

Also, we felt like large sections of Scripture such as these were just not realistically doable by having more and more services in which there was only a lot of Biblical teaching (e.g. Hebrews 10:24-25; James 5:13-16). So often, Christians are content to just show up at church once in a while, and then leave before they really get to know anyone. By implementing our CGs, we are hoping that newcomers will be better integrated into this local body, to put into use the spiritual gifts that Christ has purchased for His people & mediated through the Holy Spirit (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 4).

 

Finally, we felt that by employing CGs, we would be better able to train up the next generation of leaders, as CGs spreads out the work of the body to many more of the parts. Each CG has a leader, as well as a protege, whom we are hoping will be leading his own CG as he is matured in the faith. We believe that we will begin to see the parts functioning & flourishing as many more of the unseen needs of the church surface through an intimate & trusting fellowship of mutual interaction.

 

Our desire is that basically in accord with one of the major themes of Ephesians, how God is manifesting His eternal-wise plan of redemption through His church (3:10-11). We believe that our conquering King, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His glorious resurrection, has given gifts to His church

 

“to equip the saints for ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in human schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when every part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (4:12-16).

 

This is the leadership's great desire: that through our life together, outsiders too might recognize the grace of Christ that He has bestowed upon His church, and that they too might be incorporated into His body (the church) through faith in His finished work on their behalf.

 

The non-negotiable components that characterize our CGs are derived from how the early church did life together in Acts 2:42-47, namely:

 

1. Devoted to the apostles' teaching/doctrine

2. Devoted to true gospel fellowship together

3. Devoted to breaking bread together (i.e. eating together)

4. Devoted to praying with and for one another

5. Sharing our resources with one another (whether time, talents, money, etc.)

6. Gathering in each others' homes

7. Inviting non-Christians to our CGs to experience Spirit-empowered fellowship

 

As mentioned, our desire is that the Lord would continue to add people to His church (2:47), which He Himself promised to build (Matthew 16:16).

 

If you would like more information about our Community Groups, please go to the Contact Us section and send us an email. We would love to answer any questions you might have.

 

Soli Deo Gloria!