“Drawn together by grace for delightful, dependent, and dangerous living” Grace Community Presbyterian Church is located in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA). We began in March 2005 as a church plant of West End Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia. We have a passion for impacting the lives of those living in the community around us, and we have a variety of ministries for people to get involved in to be ministered to or to minister to someone else. If you are visiting our web site and have not visited the church, we would really encourage you to come to our service on Sunday. We would love the chance to welcome you in person. Our Vision Boldly trusting God’s transforming grace among ordinary people, we intend to partner with others in a gospel-centered church planting movement that brings glory to God and proclaims in word and action the transforming message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in order to seek the peace and prosperity of Hanover County and all of Richmond and to make a welcomed difference in the spiritual, social, cultural, and relational life of the city. Our Mission Grace Community Presbyterian Church is a worshipping community drawn together by God’s grace to delight in Jesus Christ, to depend on him and others, and to live dangerous lives in service to our neighbors in Hanover County, the Greater Richmond Area, and to the ends of the earth. Our Core Values ...drawn together by grace From every corner of the world and throughout all the ages, God has been rescuing people who are desperately trying to make it on their own. He has been fulfilling his promise - "I will take you as my people and I will be your God," (Exodus 6:7, New International Version) - by drawing these orphans into the warmth and full acceptance of lives as sons and daughters of the living God. He does this because he is rich in mercy and grace. He does it even though it cost him his Son Jesus Christ. The Gospel (literally, "good news") is this: Jesus Christ lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died. By the power of his resurrection, Jesus came back from the dead and we, by grace and through faith, are restored. We are drawn together as God’s people by his grace. We neither earn it nor deserve it. But God is now pleased to call us his children on account of what Jesus has done. And this changes everything. We are freed to pursue real life. ...to delight in Jesus Christ The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that we were created "to glorify God and enjoy him forever." While we derive great pleasure from our gatherings as a worshipping community on Sunday mornings, we also recognize this delighting in God is a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week activity. Our enjoyment and worship of God touches us in every aspect of our lives: as we work, as we serve those in need, as we exercise, as we study, as we live. God designed this delight to be experienced with others. God himself exists in Three Persons (the Trinity) modeling that life is best lived together. We are truly brothers and sisters with God as our Father, and therefore we place a high value on our life together. From sharing meals with one another, loving and caring for those in our own households, meeting in community to encourage and build each other up, serving those around us together, resting with our brothers and sisters, we grow as one body enjoying our God. ...to depend on him and others We will seek to celebrate our dependence on God and others, as we wrestle within an environment that exalts radical independence. Although we tend to run from dependence on anyone or anything (including God), our dependent nature is demonstrated both in how we come to Christ and how we grow in Christ. He is the one who pursues us and bring us to real life. And he is the one who gives us two main avenues through which he can grow us – his word and prayer. Martin Luther, the 16th century Protestant reformer, once commenting about the success of the Reformation said, "I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word: I did nothing...the Word did it all". We will study Scripture on Sunday mornings through preaching,and in other contexts during the week. We know that God reveals himself and transforms us through a pursuit of him in his Word. We will also assert our radical dependence on God by being marked as a church of prayer. We must prepare and sustain everything we do in prayer. Prayer, not merely something we "use" when in trouble, is the ongoing conversation where we declare our dependence on God. Prayer is often difficult because we would rather try harder than wait on God to move. We need help even here to learn how to rest in this most glorious gift to the church - dialogue with our God. Our hope is that prayer will be an integral part of every facet of the church whether in corporate worship, community groups, one-on-one conversations, serving in the city, preparing a meal, or living as a household. We will ask the Spirit to make us a church that prays without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We will come together to praise and thank him for his character and work in our lives, confess sin and ask for forgiveness, and ask him to move in our church, our city, and our world. Lastly, we will depend on one another, the community of people where he promises to dwell. We need each other not just on Sunday mornings but throughout the week. Sharing life with others is not easy - it is often messy and usually requires a lot of patience, forgiveness and repentance. But it is also God’s creative design for his church and we eagerly anticipate the experience of God’s presence and transforming power in the midst of our community. ...to live dangerous lives in service to our neighbors When God calls Abraham to lead the nation of Israel, he tells him that he is being blessed in order to be a blessing (Genesis 12:1-3). In the same way, we earnestly desire to share our new lives as sons and daughters of the Loving Father with other lonely souls. While we are keenly aware that we don’t have life all figured out, we do know this: that in Christ, God has richly blessed us with more than we could ask or imagine. He has given us His Holy Spirit and this allows us to move out in love towards others, despite our inclinations to care only for ourselves. As needy people ourselves, what can we offer our neighbors? The gospel. The gospel alone addresses the full range of our needs as well as those of our neighbors: spiritual (relationship with God), psychological (relationship with self – e.g. shame, fear, etc.), social (relationship with other people), and physical (relationship with the world – physical bodies, environment, etc.) [Tim Keller, Ministries of Mercy, 46-49]. Therefore, we will attempt to bless our neighbors by sharing the gospel in every area of our lives. We will do so by proclaiming the good news of Jesus in word and deed, following the example of our Savior. Jesus Christ in his Incarnation came to the world and demonstrated his care in being identified with it. He met the full range of his neighbor's needs. Therefore, we desire as a church to be incarnational in our love for our neighbors. We want to be there for those who God is calling us to love. Our prayer is that Hanover as a county and Richmond as an entire city will be prosperous and peaceful as a result of how the Spirit uses Grace Community and his church as a whole. We intend to be outwardly focused locally and internationally. Therefore, we will partner to plant churches that reach communities with the gospel both in word and deed in the Richmond metro area. We will also seek to connect with Christ’s church across the world in faithfulness to the Great Commission in order to reach the ends of the earth with this Good News. What will it cost us? Here is where the "dangerous" part comes in – Everything. Jesus told this parable when assessing the value of the kingdom of heaven: "...it is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it" (Matthew 13:45-46). It will cost us everything to follow Jesus and build his church. Following Jesus at this point will infringe on our time (it is sometimes inconvenient to love our neighbors and bless others), on our talents (we will expend them for the benefit of others and learn in our weaknesses the sufficiency of God’s grace) and our treasure (God calls us to give generously and sacrificially in proportion to what we have been given). It will mean a death to our self-serving dreams, but a birth to the real adventures of life in the kingdom of God. On the other hand, what will it cost us? Nothing. Paul knew that life is hard for a believer, and yet he said that "...our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Since we are united to Jesus, the gospel is a renewing source of encouragement as we are conformed more and more into the image of our Savior for the task of selfless service and love for our neighbors. Our humble prayer is that God will say of Grace Community Presbyterian Church, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:31), and that he will receive all honor and glory due his name for using even us to build his Kingdom.