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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, pioneering new ministries
and 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.
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