Kingdom Impact

Some of you reading this know that I worship with a small group of believers on Sundays. I have no agenda in terms of being "anti-big, medium, or small church." It's just that a group of people frustrated with their "church experience" asked me if I'd meet with them. After a year or so of pushing back and saying, "no" I finally decided to say "yes."

My personal disdain for the "rules and regulations, let's check the by-laws" approach to church is at rest with this group. We don't have any of those kinds of things. Again, no "anti-organizational structure" on my part - it's just that at least to this point, we haven't needed such.

We do pay small stipends to a couple of people - helping with children's church and leading music - but otherwise we don't pay salaries. I preach most weeks - but don't get paid. That's no "anti-paid ministry spirit" on my part nor is it a complaint. It's just that I have a job and get paid fairly for it - and don't need the group to pay me!

A part of our identity established before we ever met and carefully cultivated over the years is that we want to do more than "just go to church." So some Sundays, we "go and be Jesus" in a place where we can do authentic kingdom ministry. We always have a brief devotion, prayer, and the Lord's Supper - but we spend most of the morning serving.

We have generous people in our group and that, combined with the fact that we don't pay rent and our salary burden is minimal, means that we can give away most of the money given to the Lord through Grace Faith Community - the name we chose for ourselves.

In fact, the reason I am writing this is because it is so easy to make  kingdom impacts on the world in a variety of ways when your identity is to serve, and not be served. Big churches and little churches can do that!

Since the first of the year - Grace has done significant ministry, in the name of Christ, to others. Here is some of what we've done.

• We bought, planted, and staked over 50 trees at Woodland Christian Camp back in February in areas where pine beetles had destroyed much of the forest around the West Camp and Chapel.
• We fed about 50 students dinner at Bread Campus Ministry at Emory University, an activity we do every semester.
• We spent $1400 sending a Point student on a spring break mission trip to Guatemala to help build a house for a needy family.
• We gave $500 to the Fayette County Board of Education to help with student lunch debt for the county school system.
• We gave $500 to the Coweta County Board of Education to help with student lunch debt for the county school system.
• We sorted, packed and stored hundreds of canned goods at One Roof ministry in Newnan recently. 

In addition to that, we have taken care of each other, prayed for each other, and a variety of other things that help create a kind of fellowship that should characterize the church.

Again - none of this is to brag on Grace, nor to be negative about other kingdom approaches. But it does say that it is amazing what can be done in the name of Christ when believers determine that the kingdom of God is here to serve in the name of Jesus - the One who said "I came not to be served, but to serve, and give my life a ransom for all." (Mark 10:45) Many of those who "study the church" think that this model will become more and more important as the boomer generation continues to age and the funds to build huge facilities become harder and harder to find. We started doing this, by the way, before Francis Chan's new book Letters to the Church was published. (It is a very good book I recommend to your reading list!)
One more thing - we meet on most Sundays at the Point University facility in Peachtree City (800 Commerce Drive) at 10:00 a.m.  We would love to have you come visit.