Grace Partnership is a partnership of local churches serving together in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The same mission of the early church continues as churches partner together today. Our desire is to support one another in the mission of the gospel, expressed through…
Partnering together in local and global mission
Pastoral and church relationships centered on mutual care and encouragement
Practical equipping contexts that strengthen and equip one another
Our Shared Affirmations
God the Father
We believe in God the Father, Creator and Upholder of all things. The Father is everlasting, perfect, and infinite. He draws people to himself through his Son, in keeping with his eternal plan to redeem a people for himself. He does all that he does to his praise and for his own glory. He will carry out all things in their proper time and consummate all things in his Son, Jesus Christ.
God the Son
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten eternal Son. He is fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life and offered up that life as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. He was raised from the dead, appeared to many disciples, and ascended into Heaven, where he sits at God’s right hand and intercedes for the saints as our Great High Priest. We await his Second Coming.
God the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is fully God, eternally one with the Father and the Son. The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus. He also imparts new life, indwells, sanctifies, leads, illumines, and empowers the saints to live and serve like Jesus. The Holy Spirit anoints the saints for ministry and witness, imparting supernatural gifts to believers to build up the church. These gifts are to be eagerly desired and lovingly exercised for the good of the church.
Creation
We believe that God created all things visible and invisible for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. Both Adam and Eve were created equally in the image of God without sin. In creation God ordained that sexual intimacy be expressed between one man and one woman in the context of marriage. Any of other form of sexual intimacy is a perversion of God’s gift of sex. Any attempt to alter one’s gender by surgery, appearance, or any other form is also a perversion of God’s gift of personhood in creation. Churches affiliated with Grace Partnership will perform wedding ceremonies only between a man and a woman as that God-determined gender given at birth. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential.
The Human Condition
We believe that God created Adam and Eve in his own image as the crown of creation. Tempted by Satan, they rebelled against God. Being alienated from God due to their sin, they became subject to divine wrath, inwardly depraved, and, apart from a special work of grace, unable to return to God. Their depravity is pervasive, extending to all mankind. In union with Adam, all mankind is born in and have chosen sin. It is only through the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we can be redeemed, reconciled, and renewed.
The Word of God
We believe that the Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, are the inspired Word of God. Written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Word of God in its original writings is without error and has supreme authority in all manner of faith and conduct. In it is found the complete revelation of his will for the salvation of mankind through faith in Jesus Christ. The Word of God is the only essential and infallible record of God’s self-disclosure.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is the gospel. The Good News is revealed in the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Christ’s death is a substitutionary and propitiatory sacrifice to God for our sins. His death upon the cross is the heart of the gospel. His atoning death and victorious resurrection are the only means by which we can be saved. There is no other name by which men must be saved.
The Church
We believe that the Church is the bride of Christ, comprised of all believers of every age. The true church is manifest in local churches, and is God’s primary instrument through which he fulfills his redemptive purposes in the earth. God has called upon the church to preach the gospel to all nations, to remember the poor and minister to their needs through sacrificial giving and service. God has given water baptism and the Lord’s Supper to the Church to be observed until Jesus returns.
Evangelism and Mission
We believe that what God begins in his justifying grace is continued in his sanctifying grace. The calling and privilege of every child of God is to go and make disciples of the nations and live lives of purity, holiness, and growth in Christ-like character that is made possible by the new birth. With God’s Word and the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we are being transformed, resulting in children of God who actively seek to take the gospel to sinners, carrying out the Great Commission in word and deed.
The Return of Jesus Christ
We believe in the glorious, personal, triumphant return of Jesus Christ. After Christ returns, he will bring about the defeat of Satan, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the eternal blessings of the righteous. At that time, the Kingdom of God will be completely fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth. Heaven is a real place of eternal blessedness in the presence of God for those made righteous in Christ alone. Hell is a real place of eternal suffering for those whose names are not written in God’s Book of Life. The second coming of Christ is our blessed hope and motivates believers to live to the glory of God.