Wholeheartedly Loving God and One Another by Worshiping, Witnessing and Walking in the Good News of Jesus Christ for All of Life

We have sought to derive our mission statement from what the Bible teaches us about the local church. Our mission statement can be represented as a temple or church building for God, composed of three levels, the foundation – the good news of Jesus Christ for all of life, the main building – living as Christ’s disciples, worshiping by, walking in and witnessing to the good news of Christ, and the pinnacle, wholeheartedly loving God and one another.

What is Worship?

Worship is a contraction from the Old English word “worth-ship”. That is, worship is assigning worth to someone or something. Worship is something we all do in one way or another. We all, as beings created in the image of God, assign worth to everything. Ultimately, the question is, “What is most worthy?” and therefore “what do we desire most?”

We believe that above all other things and all creatures the Creator is supremely worthy and satisfying. Romans 11:36 (ESV) says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things.” and in John 17:24 (ESV) Jesus says, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me…” David prays, “Your steadfast love is better than life!” Psalm 63:3 (ESV) and Jesus says in John 17:3 (ESV) “And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

God’s glory is manifest throughout all creation in the mind-blowing diversity of life, in the majesty of mountains, thunderstorms, the ocean and space. His goodness is seen in the stability of creation and his care for the vastness of humanity in health, life and daily bread. God’s glory is most profoundly displayed in his excellent Son, Jesus Christ and his perfect life, substitutionary death and universe shaking resurrection from the dead.

The greatest tragedy of fallen man is that we have exchanged that which is most precious and worthy for lesser things as Romans 1 describes.

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Romans 1:21-25, ESV)

The good news is that Jesus Christ has come to rescue us from the insanity of living for lesser things to live for God in all things. Our redemption in Jesus Christ includes a restoration to true worship of God in all that we do. 1 Peter 2 says:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10, ESV)

So, at King of Grace Church we pursue worship in all of life. We worship corporately on Sundays in singing, sharing and the preaching of God’s word, and we seek to worship throughout the week in all that we do. Worship is a way of life and not just a single act. The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it this way: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

That is what we mean by worship – glorifying and enjoying God in all of life. He is most worthy and most enjoyable. We invite you to come and “worthship” with us at King of Grace.

Walk – What is Walking?

Walking is an image the bible uses to portray am ongoing action of relating to someone or something. In Genesis 5 & 6 the patriarchs are described as “walking with God.” Later, in the New Testament, we are exhorted to “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16, Romans 8:4 ESV), and “as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,” (Colossians 2:6 et al.) Furthermore, the bible teaches us that our walk is not an individualized walk, but a walk with Jesus Christ together with the people of God. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7 ESV)

So for us, walking is a convenient word that portrays the call of God to walk with him as a corporate people – as his church. Our walking with God together involves building relationally around the good news of Christ, growing together in Christ likeness, caring for one another according to our different needs and with our various gifts, and serving together in our church and in our community and beyond.

Please come and visit us and check out what we mean by walking with God together.

Witness –What is Witnessing?

Witnessing is the simple act of “telling it as it is”, that is, telling it as you have seen it and experienced it. As Christians we are to simply and humbly witness to the joyful reality of Jesus Christ as our all sufficient Savior from sin and all its repercussions as well as our all worthy King over all our lives and all of creation.

We believe that witnessing to Jesus Christ in our lives is a natural overflow to our experience. We all witness to something. Usually that something is what is most important to us. A proud father witnesses to his son’s achievements. An enthusiastic fan witnesses to the exploits of her sports heroes. Similarly, for the Christian, we testify to the blessings of the good news of Jesus Christ. This involves demonstrating to others the lifestyle of following Christ as well as explaining & declaring the truth behind it. Demonstration and declaration are two key elements to being effective witnesses to anything. We are instructed this way in scripture: Romans 1:16 (ESV) says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” and in Matthew 5:16 (ESV) Jesus says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” And Jesus also says in John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

And so, at King of Grace Church we seek to witness to the reality of Jesus Christ in how we live, how we love and what we say. We seek to do this in every arena of life in which we live that we might shine his light and see many others come to know, enjoy and worship the King and Savior who will one day soon come back to complete his reign over all of creation. In pursuing this call to witness we affirm the following points:

• We affirm that a right approach to witnessing springs from a gospel-motivated, grace-empowered, God-exulting, loving & humble engagement with our families, our friends, our community and our culture.
• We pursue a multi-faceted, relationally based, church-wide ministry of outreach.
• We pursue a church-wide culture of mission with the pastors & leaders equipping & the members ministering.
• We believe in a deep and broad community and cultural engagement.
• We pursue a genuine love for and sincere involvement with our communities, not isolation from nor abandonment of the culture.
• We exist to be a church-planting church to New England and beyond.

That is what we mean by witnessing. We invite you to come and witness with us to the wonderful news and experience of Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord.