What We Believe

God the Father…is bigger and better than life (sovereignty and majesty). He draws people to the son and is holy and good. (Genesis 1:1, Psalm 100:5, Matthew 6:9, John 6:44)

Jesus … is the son of God, who came to die for our sins and is the only way to heaven. He will one day return to earth to lead the living and the dead to judgment. (Matthew 1:24-25, John 1:1, John 14:2-3, I Timothy 3:15, Acts 10:42)

The Holy Spirit… Lives in the heart of every person who turns from their sins and seeks to follow Jesus. The Holy Spirit guides, empowers, and gives spiritual gifts. (Luke 11:13, Galatians 5:22, Acts 1: 8)

The Bible… is the word of God. We have no creed to guide us but look to the Bible as God’s revealed word and will. (II Timothy 3:16, I Peter 1:10-12)

The Church… is the body of Christ in the world to change a culture through serving, loving and helping people find their way back to God and experience His dream in Jesus. (I Corinthians 12:13-15, Matthew 16:18)

Values

Values are those beliefs that we live out everyday. They guide not just what we do but who we are. At the core of GraceRiver are values from the Bible that shape and form us as individuals and as a community.

Responsive to God- At the top of our list we desire to respond to God. His word guides us and His Spirit empowers us. Everything we do flows from this desire to respond in obedience to all that the Lord has taught us.

Relational to each other-People are worth eternity. People are made in the image of God and much of the Bible teaches us how to relate, how to care, how to resolve differences. Genesis 2 says it plainly, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

Relevant to the culture-Relevance means making sense of following Jesus in this time and history. We long to discover how the Bible speaks to us in our cultural context. Does it connect to our dreams, answer our questions, make a difference in our day-to-day lives? We think so!

The Dream

Jesus said the dream of God could be summarized in 2 parts (Matthew 22:36-39)
-Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength
-Love your neighbor as yourself

Jesus also charged the church to help people find their way back to God and His dream (Matthew 28:19-20).

Following the words of Jesus we function on these three pillars:
Love God
Love People
Live Mission

Everything we do flows to and from helping people to experience and grow in love of God, others and living with a deep sense of purpose.