Grace Seattle's Values

At Grace, we intend for the gospel to define and shape everything we do. What do we mean when we use this word "gospel"?

The gospel (or "good news") is both an announcement and an invitation. The gospel is the announcement that through Christ the power of God's kingdom has entered history to renew the whole world. The gospel is also an invitation to believe this announcement. When we believe and rely on Jesus' work and record (rather than our own) for our relationship to God, that kingdom power comes upon us and begins to work in and through us in every aspect of life.

At Grace, we believe that God works powerfully through the gospel. We have experienced this transforming work as well.

Though this is by no means an exhaustive description of how God works, we want to emphasize the following implications of the gospel in our life together.

1) The Gospel Changes Everything

The gospel is the “good news” about what God has done and is doing through Jesus Christ. It is not a law that we must do or achieve. Because of this, we seek to motivate one another with grace, not with guilt and shame.
Since the gospel is not only how to begin a relationship with God but also how we grow as Christians, we preach the gospel to Christians and non-Christians alike. Building our lives around the gospel allows us to serve with authenticity, hope, and confidence.
The gospel changes every part of our lives (i.e., life is not divided into the sacred and the secular). All of life is being healed and restored by God. This pushes us to try and figure out what it means to integrate our faith with our jobs, our art, our neighborhoods, our city, our music, and our relationships.

2) The Gospel Changes Lives

Religion makes nice people; the gospel makes new people. Religion reforms you on the outside; the gospel transforms you from inside out. For this reason, we tend to focus on the heart and motivation rather than a concrete set of behaviors.
Religion says: "If you live a good life, then God will love and bless you," leading to a deadly combination of pride and despair. The gospel says, "None of us is good. In fact, we are far worse than we think (this creates humility and authenticity). But the gospel also says that through Jesus Christ we are far more loved than we ever dared dream (this creates confidence and hope)."
To be a Christian means that you have been given a new identity, a new Father, and a new family. It also means you have a new source of power for your life. This creates deep, lasting change in us and an expectation of change in the community.

3) The Gospel Turns Our Faces Outward

The church is to be a community that is not exclusively focused on itself. Part of this means that we should do everything in our power to be welcoming. We desire for our church to be a place where non-Christians are expected, welcomed, and respected, with all their questions, objections, struggles, and doubts.
With respect to inviting non-Christians to follow Jesus, we are friendship-oriented, not combative.We take a process approach, not a crisis approach. The gospel allows freedom to love those who do not have the same convictions with the hope that in time, they too will follow Jesus.
The bottom line is that the church should be a place that empowers Christians to be missionaries in Seattle. The gospel should be making us a community where Christians say, “This is a community where I can bring my non-Christian friends. This is what they need to experience and life is lived out here in a way they can access.”

4) The Gospel Creates a New Community

Jesus came into the world not just to save individuals. Rather, Jesus came into the world to create a community. That community is the church. To be a Christian means to be a part of Jesus’ church.
Since the church is to be based on the gospel, the church should be marked by authenticity. We are a group of people that admit that we do not have it all together. This creates a deep authenticity in the community and a great openness towards non-Christians. Nobody is expected to be perfect. All of us, both inside the church and outside the church, need the same thing—the grace of God in Jesus.
The church is a historic entity. Our goal is not to create something utterly disconnected and separate from the historical church. Rather, we are to apply the gospel to the historic church—both forgiving its sins when needed and valuing its wisdom whenever possible.

5) The Gospel Creates a Movement Mentality

God is at every moment building and spreading his healing presence in our world.
God’s movement always trumps our agenda. Therefore, the people of God must be willing to step out of something established and comfortable in order to start something new. This involves everything from starting new small groups to pioneering new ministries to planting new churches.
God also gifts every single member of the church to take part in this mission. This means that we are to be actively recognizing the gifts of everyone in our congregation and encouraging one another to use these gifts to serve God and others.

6) The Gospel Renews the City Holistically

God’s work in the world is holistic. God did not form a people simply to take them to heaven when they die; rather, to use them as his healing presence in the world. Thus, the church should be holistic—we should be seeking to address spiritual and physical needs at the same time. Helping someone pay their rent is equally as significant as teaching them about Jesus.
God is the source of every good gift. He intends for his people to use these gifts to serve and not selfish gain. For example, God calls the rich and powerful to use their gifts for those who have neither.
We partner with the people of Seattle in seeking to serve the physical and spiritual needs of the city because God is interested in both.
The Grace Diaconate is a group of individuals in the church tasked to help meet the financial and physical needs of those in the congregation.