Touched by Grace

A huge part of our move toward becoming a church of small groups is our effort to align the entire church with our mission statement, to Meet as many people as possible and to help Move them to where God wants them to be. You have to admit that it’s difficult for the average church member to do much Meeting & Moving when his involvement in the ministry of Grace Church is limited to 1-2 hours on Sunday morning.

CONNECT is all about taking the church (read “the saints”) beyond the boundaries of 501 W. Lincoln Avenue. Church isn’t an event that happens weekly. We are the church every moment of every day! It’s not enough to create a quality worship experience three times each Sunday morning. Each and every one of us has been sent out to engage in the work of the Kingdom of God. And, as we found out in the Grace Matters series, God intends us to go out together. He made us for divinely-empowered community, community which reflects the very nature of God Himself. Let me tell you what that looked like for one of our groups…

A bunch of neighbors decided to form a group in their housing development. They were fortunate that there were nearly a dozen Grace households in their immediate vicinity. When the Taste of Grace Food Ministry began, they decided to use it as an opportunity to practice loving someone outside the church. They selected a recently-divorced woman and her daughters. Each month they would buy her at least one box of food and take it to her – no strings attached. They said that they were doing something for her out of love that would help ease her pain. Months later and a few weeks into Grace Matters, this woman bumped into a group member at a local store. She asked about the gathering of neighbors on Sunday nights and was told that is a group of people from the church who get together to challenge each other to live gospel-centered lives. It was also explained that right now they were diving deeper into the sermons that Pastor Scott was preaching. Then came the first unexpected question: “Oh, is that Grace Matters?” Then came the second: “Can I be part of that group?”

You see, she was moved by the unconditional love of the group members who brought her gifts of food each month. So, she decided to check out the church on the Internet. She started watching the Grace Matters sermons online and decided that she wanted to be part of this group of people who were trying desperately to live out the truths they proclaimed. Now, this gal is regularly attending Grace Church worship services on Sunday morning and then participating in this neighborhood group on Sunday evening. She is even participating in an outreach that this group is doing to a near-homeless family this Christmas.

CONNECT is all about moving Grace Church toward being “Missional” and “Incarnational.” Those are contemporary buzzwords that are often over- and mis-used. Check in over the next 2 weeks and I’ll share what I mean by each of these terms. And see how this type of ministry will help us fulfill our mission and ultimately be found faithful on the day we meet our Lord.