Our Mission
To Know God + Make Him Known
Our Values
Intimacy with God
We believe that our connection with God is vital. Everything flows from our relationship with God. We develop intimacy by spending time with God. God primarily speaks to us in His Word. We talk to Him in prayer.
John 15:5, Ephesians 6:18, Philippians 4:6
People
We believe people matter to God and therefore they matter to us. It was Jesus’ top priority. Jesus risked His reputation for people who were away from God and so will we; as a church and as individuals. Jesus gave all and held nothing back in accomplishing His mission to seek and save the lost. We will do the same. We will do anything short of sin in order to be “all things to all people so that we might win some”. Grace Chapel is called to lead this generation and the next to God and help them pursue a relationship with Him.
Matthew 28:19-20, Luke 19:10, 1 Corinthians 9:22
Application of Scripture
We believe the Bible is God’s Word. It is the ultimate authority for our lives. Therefore, we must live and practice the life-changing principles we discover. God gave us His Word in order to equip us and change us for His glory and benefit.
Psalm 1:1-6, James 1:22-25, Luke 6:46, Psalm 119:11
Authentic Community
We believe that real authenticity is best described as openness with others about our strengths and weaknesses. At Grace Chapel, you do not have to be perfect, or pretend that you are.
Small Groups
We believe life change happens best in small groups. Therefore, we will grow larger and smaller at the same time. We will help people find their way from the large group (weekend experience) into relationally authentic small groups.
Acts 2:44-47, Galatians 5:13, Ephesians 4:2 & 32, 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Creativity and Innovation
We believe the Bible is the most exciting book ever written, and we seek to share its message in relevant environments. We will create appropriate, modern, relevant environments for our nursery, preschoolers, grade school children, middle and high school students, as well as our adults. We will maintain the incredible message of Scripture and endeavor to deliver it in the most culturally relevant way possible. So, whether it’s our publications, our messages, or our conversations with friends, we want to engage 21st century people in a 21st century way.
Genesis 1:1, 1 Corinthians 9:22-23
Service
We are most like Jesus when we serve. The Bible says that He came “to serve not to be served”. We believe God has equipped every Christ follower with gifts and passions so they can make a difference in their world for Jesus Christ. We will encourage everyone to use and develop their gifts and talents in service to our church, community, and the world. We believe a great benefit of serving is that it changes us. We are more fulfilled when our eyes are off ourselves and on God’s bigger plans. Our life becomes meaningful and purposeful. We discover that God created us for more than just personal success, but for eternal significance.
Philippians 2:1-15, James 1:27, Matthew 20:28
Excellence
We believe excellence honors God and inspires people. The lack of excellence communicates to people that God is not important or that we don’t care about them. We want to be excellent in all we do, but not perfect. We want to give our best, but we will also offer grace generously when mistakes happen. Excellence is so important that in most cases we will only start or continue something if we can do it with excellence. Whether it’s our communication, music, how we hold babies in the nursery, or how we set up and tear down our services, we want to bring our “A game”.
Generosity
Our God has been extremely generous with us, and so we want to be generous with the world around us.
Matthew 6:1-4, 2 Corinthians 8:14, 2 Corinthians 9:6-7
Our Beliefs
The Bible
We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible, authoritative Word of God. Therefore, our ministry emphasizes the exposition of God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation, line upon line, precept upon precept. We believe the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments to be the full record of God’s self-disclosure to mankind. Different men, while writing according to their own styles and personalities, were supernaturally moved along by the Holy Spirit to record God’s very words, inerrant in the original writings. Therefore, those applying themselves to study its literal, historical-grammatical context can accurately understand God’s Word. Scripture is fully trustworthy as our final and sufficient authority for all of life
2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21
The Triune God
We believe in the one living and true God, eternally existing in perfect unity as three equally and fully divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each member of the Godhead, while executing distinct but complementary roles in redemptive history, has precisely the same nature, attributes, and being, and is equally worthy of the same glory and honor and obedience.
John 17:3; Matthew 28:19-20; John 1:1-4; Acts 5:3-4
God the Father
We believe God the Father created all things in six literal days for His glory according to His own will, through His Son, Jesus Christ. He upholds all things by the Word of His power and grace, exercising sovereign headship over all creation, providence, and redemption.
Revelation 4:11; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3
God the Son
We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, moved by love in accordance with the will of the Father, took on human flesh. Conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the virgin Mary. He, being fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life and sacrificially shed His blood and died on the cross in our place accomplishing redemption for all who place their faith in Him. He arose visibly and bodily from the dead three days later and ascended into Heaven, where at the Father’s right hand, He is now Head of His Body the Church, the only Savior and Mediator between God and man, and will return to earth in power and glory to consummate His redemptive mission.
John 1:1, 14, 18; John 14:8-9; 1 Timothy 3:16
God the Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ during this age. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He draws the unredeemed to repentance and faith, and at salvation imparts new spiritual life to the believer, bringing that person into union with Christ and the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit sanctifies, seals, fills, guides, instructs, comforts, equips, empowers, permanently indwells at salvation, and bestows spiritual gifts to the believer for Christlike living and service. We believe all spiritual gifts are operative today. There is no indication given in the Word of God that any of them have ceased. Finally, we believe there is an experience properly called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is a subsequent experience from salvation. It is where the Holy Spirit comes upon the believer in power.
John 16:8; 13-15; Titus 3:5; Ephesians 1:22; 4:11-12; Romans 8:9-17; 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 12:4-5; 11-13, 19; Galatians 5:25; Hebrews 2:1-4; 2 Corinthians 12:12, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; John 1:29-34; Acts 1:4-5, 8; Acts 2:38-39
Salvation
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as the substitutionary atonement in our place, and that salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ. Before Creation, God chose those who would be saved and granted this unearned grace solely based on His sovereign good pleasure. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was the sole and complete payment for sins, fully satisfying God’s righteous wrath, for each person who turns from sin in repentance and places their faith in Christ alone by grace alone. At salvation, each person is made a new creation by the Holy Spirit, declared righteous before God, and secured as an adopted child of God forever. Genuine faith continues in obedience and love for Jesus Christ with a life eager to glorify God and persevere to the end.
Romans 8:37-39; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 12:13
The Church
We believe that upon placing one’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, the believer is made part of the Body of Christ, the one universal church, of which Jesus Christ is the Head. The Scriptures command believers to gather locally in order to devote themselves to worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, fellowship, the ordinances of baptism and communion, service to the local body through the development and use of talents and spiritual gifts, and outreach to the world to make disciples. Wherever God’s people meet regularly in obedience to this command, there is the local expression of the church under the watchful care of a plurality of elders. A church’s members are to work together in love and unity, intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ.
Ephesians 4:16; Ephesians 1:22-23; Acts 2:42-46; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Matthew 28:18-20
Things To Come
We believe in and expectantly await the glorious, visible, personal, pre-tribulational and pre-millennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessed hope of His return has vital bearing on the personal life, service, and mission of the believer. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost. The lost will be raised to judgment and experience eternal wrath in Hell. The saved will be raised to eternal joy in the new heaven and new earth in the manifested presence of God.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Acts 1:3, 9; Hebrews 7:25-26
Baptism and Communion
We believe that Christian baptism is a public declaration of the believer’s salvation in Christ, identifying with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection symbolized by immersion in water. We believe that baptism also symbolizes and points to the triune God as Jesus commands us in the Great Commission to baptize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Lord’s Supper is the united commemoration by believers of Christ’s death until He comes and should be preceded by a careful self-examination.
Acts 2:41; Romans 6:3-6; Matthew 28:18-20; Corinthians 11:20-29