Grace Church of Philly - An Introduction
•Télécharger en tant que PPTX, PDF•
3 j'aime•623 vues
An introduction to Grace Church of Philly in University City and an invitation to be a part of our core group for the birth phase of our ministry. www.gracechurchphilly.org
Recommandé
Recommandé
Contenu connexe
Tendances
Tendances (20)
Similaire à Grace Church of Philly - An Introduction
Similaire à Grace Church of Philly - An Introduction (20)
Dernier
Dernier (20)
Grace Church of Philly - An Introduction
- 1. Grace Church of Philly University City
- 2. Grace Church of Philly The dream for Grace Church is to see God create in University City a Christian Church which clarifies what it means to be "Christian." We know we live in a culture that has witnessed many misrepresentations of both the Christian life and Christian message and that, consequently, finds neither Christians nor the church very attractive. We have chosen the word 'grace' for our church as a starting point in clarifying and communicating the essence and simplicity of Christianity.
- 3. Grace Grace is that undeserved, unearned blessing of God that meets us where we are and transforms us. Grace is what we want to show to others, indiscriminately serving them and loving them in the name of Jesus. We ask you for the opportunity to share life together with you in an environment marked by grace. At the outset, we confess the imperfections of our grace and our need for more grace, but we desire to meet you as you are and to grow with you in understanding and living the magnificent grace of God.
- 7. Our Core Values - TRIM Transformational Prayerfully depending upon the power of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to transform any life. Relational Joyfully offering love and grace to everyone, regardless of where they are on their spiritual journey. Incarnational Practically living out and modeling the gospel of grace within the culture. Missional Intentionally committed to engage those who either do not know or misunderstand Jesus.
- 8. Synergy of Values and Commitments Each of the TRIM values undergirds and empowers every aspect of the 4G discipleship commitments. How we fulfill our 4G discipleship commitments should always reflect our TRIM values.
- 10. We believe that the church is a ‘glocal’ mission outpost. By ‘glocal’ we mean being missional both locally and globally. As a mission outpost, the church actively seeks ways to penetrate the community, the nation, and the world with the Gospel.
Notes de l'éditeur
- The term “Christian” has come to mean just about anything in our time. Everyone who is even remotely connected to Jesus in any way calls themselves a Christian. From Mormons to Roman Catholics; from Liberals to Conservative Fundamentalists; from people involved in New Age belief systems to people who call themselves “born again.” The word “Christian” has become a meaningless term. Our desire is to bring clarity and re-infuse this term with its proper, biblical meaning and get out of the way so that the Holy Spirit of God can minister to people through the faithful proclamation of His Word. As others witness our deeds of love and mercy empowered by the love of Christ that has been poured into our hearts, our prayer is that skeptical attitudes will be changed and the faith will look attractive to unbelievers who are alienated from God and without Christ in this world. We believe that Christianity is the most joyful, beautiful, and attractive belief system and worldview that this world has ever seen. We need to stop making this beautiful, precious thing so utterly unappealing to so many. We want to teach, embody, live, and faithfully represent Christianity before a world and culture that has totally rejected the Church and everything she stands for. We believe that a good amount of the hostility and skepticism that outsiders have toward Christianity is not so much a rejection of the pure, biblical faith of Jesus and His apostles, but is a rejection of the misrepresentations and distortions of the faith that many churches have gotten hung up on. Unbelievers think that the church is filled with arrogant, prideful, materialistic, uncaring, legalistic, homophobic, bigoted people who are primarily focused on promoting a political agenda or party. And unfortunately, their observations are not without merit. We believe that when the unregenerate look at the church, they should see love, mercy, and grace rather than hatred, hostility, and hypocrisy. Acts 2:42-47 tells us that the early Christian community was so filled with people who had humility, confidence, understanding, courage, generosity, sincerity, and joy that they had “favor with all the people” of the surrounding community. There was a beauty resting upon the church (Keller’s Church Planter Manual, p. 183). Our dream is for this type of Holy Spirit-empowered beauty to rest upon Grace Church of Philly. We want to be a ministry that has “favor with all the people” in University City and in Philadelphia. We want to be a church that has an “outward” stance toward the world rather than a church that is “inward” in its focus. An “inward” church is one that pours all, or nearly all, of its energies back into itself and the saints present in that ministry. Churches with that are inwardly-focused usually have a hostile stance toward unbelievers and the world. We want to have an “outward” stance, dedicated to engaging our culture for Christ, faithfully and lovingly bringing the saving Gospel to unbelievers whom we love and who desperately need our Savior.
- Our discipleship commitments IS our discipleship process. This is part of our overall “Simple Church” philosophy of ministry – Clarity, Movement, Alignment, Focus. CLARITY – our commitments and process is simple to communicate and easy to remember. It is not overly complex or complicated. We believe that the discipleship process should never be left up to chance and should never be a mystery.MOVEMENT – Our focus is going to be on moving people through this process, facilitating their building up and edification in the faith.ALIGNMENT – All of our ministries, from the youth programs to small groups to mercy ministries, will be aligned around this simple 4G process.FOCUS – We will not be a “program-heavy” church. Our philosophy is not “more programs,” but excellence for the glory of God in the programs that we will have.
- TRANSFORMATIONAL - The grace of God means that there is no one alive who is beyond the hope of redemption and transformation in Christ Jesus.RELATIONAL - First, this means we will actively cultivate redemptive relationships with believers as well as non-Christians.Second, we will be conscious of and welcoming of non-Christians in our midst.Third, we will communicate not just what we believe but why, in a way that invites questions, engages people in dialogue and takes a process approach(not a crisis approach) to communication.“Many people simply have ‘process personalities’ – they will never come to faith if they are pushed. They need to come in stages.” - Tim KellerINCARNATIONAL - We want to be deeply involved in our communities.“We don’t back away from godless people but instead embrace godless people because we understand the hearts of lost people conquered by the lordship of Jesus builds the Kingdom.” –Ed StetzerMISSIONAL – Being intentional about and absolutely committed to adapting everything we do in worship, instruction, community, and service so as to be meaningfully engaged with the non-Christian society around us.Being missional, we understand that we are co-citizens with non-Christians and seek to build redemptive relationships in the culture instead of totally separating ourselves from the culture.
- We want to encourage people to commit for as long as they believe that they are being ministered to, for as long as they believe their gifts are being effectively used for kingdom purposes, and for as long as they believe that this is what the Lord wants them to be doing.
- During this phase of our church plant, we are working on mobilizing our core group and training them in our philosophy of ministry. Those who feel led to become a part of this ministry in any way can contact any one of the leaders and we can set up a time to meet with you to sit down go through our more thorough “Simple Church” presentation that more fully outlines our values, vision, and commitments as a church. Also during this phase, we want to begin developing leaders for our Grace Groups, which are the small groups that will be meeting during the week in people’s homes in Philly. We are also looking to find and train key directors for various aspects of our ministry: children’s ministries, technology, finance, worship, teachers, small groups, outreach, etc. We are currently working on our outreach and launch strategies and hope to launch preview worship services within the next few months as John and Dawn settle into their new townhome in UC and as Steve and Kathy begin their search for a place. Giving through PayPal. More info on our website and blog (such as our confession of faith, our phases of ministry and time horizons, mini-biographies of the leaders, etc.). Please pray for us.Q&A?