A short intro video for your small group is available for you this week at http://www.lifechurch.tv/?p=1490.

This is a great way to help your group make the most of the message from Sunday. Let us know how it goes.

For any who are starting a new small group…keep us posted!

TO ALL MEMBERS
Greetings On Our 10th Christmas, 1944
Yes, it’s in the air! The spirit of Christmas once more warms this poor distraught world. Over the whole globe millions are looking forward to that one day when strife can be forgotten, when it will be remembered that all human beings, even the least are loved by God, when men will hope for the coming of the Prince of Peace as they never hoped before.
But there is another world which is not poor. Neither is it distraught. It is the world of Alcoholics Anonymous, where thousands dwell happily and secure. Secure because each of us, in his own way, knows a greater power who is love, who is just, and who can be trusted. Nor can men and women of AA ever forget that only through suffering did they find enough humility to enter the portals of that New World.
How privileged we are to understand so well the divine paradox that strength rises from weakness, that humiliation goes before resurrection; that pain is not only the price but the very touchstone of spiritual rebirth. Knowing it’s full worth and purpose, we can no longer fear adversity, we have found prosperity where there was poverty, peace and joy have sprung out of the very midst of chaos.
Great indeed, are our blessings! And so, Merry Christmas to you all– from the Trustees, from Bobbie and from Lois and me. Bill Wilson

The Big #3: Relational

Jesus had friends. He called His followers friends. He treated them like friends. He gave them a directive which is at the core of friendship: ”Love each other.”

At Grace, our intention is that every aspect of ministry be relational:

            -we encourage all at Grace to extend their lives to people around them,

            -our Welcome Team and our Family Ministry set the pace in creating a loving environment on Sundays

            -The expectation that serving on a team at Grace will involve friendship

            -our small groups have “giving and receiving love” as their main deal.

We want everything we do at Grace to set an environment where people are invited into loving friendships. Because when relationship happens, people grow.

This is the third in a series of  blogs on what  I am calling our “cultural values” for lack of a more defining term. These are the core practices and attitudes that define and make Grace “Grace”. They are not doctrines or vision or mission. They are the key distinctive tenants that help us decide where to go and how to get there as GOD leads us.

The first was “open”. Now for “collaboration”.

Collaboration simply means that we will work together with other evangelicals any way we can, It means we will be assertive in saying and acting on this “we are better together” deal that gets frequent lip service in Christianity.

Historically we were anti-collaborative. Five years ago, GOD began to put it on my and our heart to change that. We began to experiment with another local congregation in working together. This was a risky move and it failed. They backed up. But we learned some important lessons- one of which is to be sure that the core culture of the prospective partner is to work together. Another is “we definitely want to collaborate!”

In August 2006, we ran across LifeChurch.tv. They have a similar vision of partnering with others to see the mission accomplished. As we began to explore them, we realized that they were pursuing this collaboration deal with great passion and skill. The result so far is that we are seeing life change happen as we have never seen before. Small groups are hitting their objective of linking lives together on a broader scale than we have ever seen. My basic experience so far with LifeChurch.tv is that we have an excellent collaborative partner.

When we got rolling in the mid 90s, I, and we, knew that we had to affirm that our new venture was going to be an “open church”.  This meant we would be open to new people who were different from us. It meant there would be no walls to others…that no one had to earn the right, or pass the test or “know the secret handshake” to be a part of Grace Community Church. To this day, being an open church means we are a community with wide open doors that expects and welcomes people far from God to become a part of our lives.

At the time, we saw isolationist tendencies in evangelicalism and we wanted no part of it. Someone around Grace expressed concern that the children of unsaved people would be in contact with our kids if we were an open church and it chilled us that we might be that narrow-minded. We knew that churches tend to drift toward closed-ness and we wanted the opposite.  We wanted to be an open church.  The minute we clarified that value, a few people left and went to other churches that didn’t have the stated value of being open.

Over the years, we have used this value in every ministry at Grace.  I have taught on it numerous times.  Our open church value is a reality in this fellowship and our openness has meant that countless people have been welcomed here in the name of Jesus.

That’s what I call a “Jesus value”!

 How has this value impacted your life at Grace?