God gives vision because He wants His people to understand His plan, participate in it, and to see it come to fruition.  (Amos 3:7, John 4:34-38,

Eph 2:20)   His vision of the Church is that of a living, breathing body that engages life and culture as salt and light, bringing true Christianity to bear in real-life situations.  

 

God's specific vision for Grace Christian Church has been progressively revealed over more than a decade of the church's existence, to wit:

 

• We are called to be a community of people who are distinguished by their identification with Jesus Christ and are called to live in cooperation with other like-minded communities.

 

• The members of the church are to be a people who will work for reconciliation, restoration and relationship-centered on and dependent on Jesus Christ and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.  Reconciliation, restoration, and relationship is to be the language of the church and is to be sought not only for our interaction with God but also for interpersonal human relationships.

 

• We are called to deal with the whole man (body, soul and spirit) applying Christian principals to every area of life including, but not limited to, home, work, education and politics, in short, everything.

 

• We are called to be known as a community that reaches out rather than hides away, to be a people who will focus on evangelism, cleansing of sin, the power to live a new life, love, community, and godliness in action.  The church's members are to be laborers in God's harvest, seeking to find those people who are thirsting after God and seeing them satisfied in Jesus.

 

Our mission field is the place where we live, but we also have a mission responsibility to all levels of the human community.  Christianity is consistent with the New Testament pattern.

 

• There is one God, eternal, revealed in three distinct persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God is all-powerful, all-present and all-knowing, and is the Creator of all things.  

 

• Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the living God.  He is begotten, not created.  He is both fully God and fully man and is worthy of worship.

 

• He was born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, died, and buried to rise again the third day.

 

• He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

 

• Acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior means eternal life while the rejection of Him means eternal separation from God.  There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

 

• Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image.  In the beginning, man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice.  By his free choice man sinned against God, and fell from his original innocence.  Only the grace of God can bring man back into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.   

 

• We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  With the Father and the Son, He is worshipped and glorified.  He has spoken through the prophets and revealed His workings and His nature through the Scriptures.  Being eternal, all His works and His power are available and valid for the believer today, including the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

 

• We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, and during this age to convict men, regenerate the believing sinner, and to indwell, guide, instruct, and empower the believer for godly living and service.

 

• ​There is really only one Church--the living body of Jesus Christ--which is made up of all believers in Christ regardless of time or space.

 

• The Bible, in its original autographs, is the inspired, infallible, and inerrant word of God and holds the keys to living a life consistent with God's plan for each of us.  Its revelations, words, and teachings have been divinely preserved through the ages and are completely trustworthy for the believer today.  The Bible is the sole rule and standard of the Christian faith.

 

• Baptism is for those who have made a conscious decision to be born again in Christ Jesus.  The New Testament pattern for baptism is by immersion.

 

• Reconciliation is God's plan for humanity--both between men and God and between individual human beings.

 

• The Grace Christian Church recognizes that there are many issues not covered by the above statement of faith.  As much as is reasonably possible, each person shall seek to allow others the freedom to seek God's will on matters not specifically addressed in our statement of faith.

 

• Scripture addresses it this way: "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you".  (Philippians 3:15)  And, "Let all things be done decently and in order". (1 Corinthians 14:40)