Grace Blog
What Is the Greater Things Initiative?
The Greater Things Initiative has grown out of the realization that God has led Grace Baptist Church to a place where we must we must important decisions about our future. The blessings of God in our church have created practical challenges and unprecedented opportunities for us. We have come to a point where we must either try to manage these blessings or else leverage them for greater kingdom advancement. God is stirring us up to attempt the latter with renewed energy, boldness and faith. Having been convinced that greater things are still to be done in and through Grace, this initiative was set in place to cast the vision of what God can do through a people radically devoted to him and sacrificially offering their lives for His cause.
There are three specific areas where we are seeking God for greater things: facilitating growth for greater church expansion, fueling planting for greater church multiplication, and fostering mission for greater church extension.
Facilitating Growth (Greater Church Expansion)
Over the past two years, we have experienced continued growth in our congregation. In November 2009, this growth led us to starting an additional morning worship service. Hoping to meet the existing space needs, this change not only contributed to more growth, but our morning worship attendance is growing at a faster rate than ever before with July 2010 seeing 50% growth over a year’s period of time. Though the current building has served us well, we are now in a position where it is necessary for us to consider space needs that would facilitate this growth and continue the expansion of our church here in Cape Coral and SW Florida. It is our desire to have a greater presence in the city while providing greater accessibility to the gospel for those our neighbors who have had little to no exposure of the saving message of Jesus Christ.
Fueling Planting (Greater Church Multiplication)
For the past two years while we have been experiencing numerical growth, we have also been laboring to see churches planted in SW Florida. By God’s grace, our first church plant will be launched in October. We have hopes and are making plans to see many more new churches started in the in the next several years. In order for this to come to pass, we need to fuel our focus on planting more gospel-centered churches. The Greater Things Initiative serves that purpose, and if God is pleased to own our efforts, we anticipate planting at least 3 more churches in the next five years.
Fostering Mission (Greater Church Extension)
Grace has a long history of sending and supporting missionaries from our church family. We have also sought to increase our missions giving for the extension of the gospel among the unreached peoples of the world. However, we are convinced that God is going to call out from among us more to be sent to the hard places to make Christ known. The Greater Things Initiative seeks to help foster this mission by providing more opportunities for short-term missionary labors and caring for the needs of our long-term missionaries as well. As we continue to pursue God’s heart for the peoples of the world, we are committed to working for the extension of the kingdom of God by gathering more worshippers who will treasure Jesus Christ.
Labels: Cape Coral, Church Planting, Grace Baptist Church, Greater Things Initiative, Missions | posted by TimBrister at 10:56 am | Categories: Church Planting, Greater Things, Missions |
Why Weekly? Q&A About Grace Community Groups (PDF)
It is our goal to make as much of our materials and resources available to you, and in keeping with that goal, I am providing a downloadable PDF of this evening’s discussion on the question “Why Weekly?: A Q&A Discusion for Grace Community Groups.” This short presentation simply covers biblical considerations, current realities, and six practical reasons for transitioning to weekly community groups. If the presentation was recorded, I will also link to the MP3 from this evening.
To downlaod the document, click below:
* Why Weekly? - A Q&A Discussion for Grace Community Groups *
Labels: Community, Grace Baptist Church, Small Groups | posted by TimBrister at 8:52 pm | Categories: Church Planting, Community, Evangelism, Resources, Small Groups |
Nuts and Bolts of a Great Commission Vision (PDF)
As promised, I want to share with you the PowerPoint slides in a PDF document for you to download for further review, prayer, and reflection. The nuts and bolts of this Great Commission vision is a project in the making; nevertheless, this document gives you a pretty good idea of where the pastors and elders of Grace have been thinking and praying for the past 6-8 months to better facilitate the Great Commission with a strategy and structure for our church scattered and sent on mission for the glory of God.
To download the document, simply click here:
“The Nuts and Bolts of a Great Commission Vision of Grace Baptist Church“
Labels: Church Planting, Community Groups, Grace Baptist Church, Great Commission, Leadership Development | posted by TimBrister at 8:38 pm | Categories: Church Planting, Community, Evangelism, Missional, Resources, Small Groups |
A Great Commission Vision for Grace Baptist Church
Below is the manuscript from Sunday night’s message I delivered focusing on where we’ve been and looking to head regarding community groups and church planting. For those who could not attend, I pray this will be an encouragement and help to you as you continue to pray with us about what God has instore for Grace as we seek to reach SW Florida for Christ!
:: A Great Commission Vision for Grace Baptist Church ::
[Introduction]
I think it is safe to say that the most vivid and significant moment in the life of Grace last year was the day when Pastor Tom was struck by lightning. It was a serious and sobering time of intense prayer, genuine concern, and deep reflection on the providence of God. However, what many if not most of you may not be aware is that Pastor Tom was struck two days after he preached the message on the Great Commission and expressed his desire to see Grace Baptist Church become a church planting church. I don’t want to draw too strong of a connection between Pastor Tom’s message and the lightning strike, but one thing is for sure: the devil does not want us to be on the offensive! He does not want us to be full of faith, confident in the Spirit’s work of drawing sinners to Jesus, courageous in preaching the gospel and establishing churches! I suppose there could be numerous reasons as to why one might speculate why God allowed Pastor Tom to be struck by lightning, but in light of our recent study on spiritual warfare, we cannot forget that our enemy’s goal is to destroy the work of God wherever it is found.
The work of God here at Grace over the past few years has been a growing desire and commitment to embrace the call of the Great Commission like never before. As Pastor Tom mentioned in his message last summer, embracing the Great Commission is essentially embracing the call to be a church planting church. Knowing that Christ has promised to build His church and that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18), and knowing that God has chosen the church as the vehicle through which “the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10)-then we should rest assure that the advancement of the gospel through a Great Commission church is a principal target for the fiery darts of the evil one.
Labels: Church Planting, Community Groups, Grace Baptist Church, Great Commission | posted by TimBrister at 8:48 pm | Categories: Church Planting, Community, Evangelism, Gospel, Missional, Sermons, Small Groups |
