Article II: Purpose

Grace Church is organized exclusively for religious purposes. Our commission is summarized as follows:

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20)

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

God is a God of revelation; if it were not so we would never know Him. If God did not choose to reveal Himself to us sinners, we would all perish. God’s fullest revelation—the unveiling and uncovering of Himself—was the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to understand the revelation of God. This understanding is known as illumination. God chose to reveal Himself in the body of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). God has chosen a second body to reveal Himself, the Church, the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23). The visible-local Church is both the unique place and the necessary means of the unveiling and the understanding of God. It is the gathering of His people whereby one can read about Him in the Scripture and also see Him function in His body. The purpose of Grace Church, therefore, is to reveal the holy character and caring heart of God to a perishing world, and in obedience, to be led by the head of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ.