Gracelife Bible Church Distinctives

At Gracelife Bible Church, we believe that expository preaching is the most ideal and biblically faithful mode of preaching. In Acts 20:27, Paul told the Ephesian elders that he was “innocent of the blood of all” because he “did not shrink from declaring to [them] the whole purpose of God.” Declaring God’s whole purpose means declaring everything that God has intended for mankind to know.

This is no easy task to achieve. How could the church leadership possibly know what is the right proportion of each biblical truth to present? The answer is that they can’t. Only God knows. By preaching expositionally, God Himself is in the driver seat.

When the Holy Spirit inspired the biblical authors, He knew that the books they wrote would be read and taught to His people, and He knew the precise balance to strike. When we study books of the Bible verse by verse, the result is that we get convicted by biblical commands that expose our sin and comforted by gospel truth that relieves our hearts. Rather than deciding for God what His people need to know and hear, we allow God to decide for us. As we do, the Holy Spirit uses His own Word to accomplish His own work in His own way, as He always intended.

We believe the correct form of leadership that God designed for his church is a plurality of men who are qualified according to the biblical standards set forth in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. In order to affirm whether these men are qualified according to biblical standards, it is essential for there to be a prolonged period of time where they are tested and evaluated (1 Timothy 5:22-25). Biblical elders must be men of proven character and doctrinal precision so that they will be “able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to reprove those who contradict” (Titus 5:9). To ensure these standards are met, the leadership of GraceLife Bible Church requires aspiring elders to go through a 2-year long training process developed by XL Ministries, along with a candidacy period where they are evaluated by both the existing church leadership and the general congregation based on biblical qualifications.

The mission of the church as determined by Christ is to make disciples and then to disciple the disciples that were made (Matthew 28:18-20). This involves teaching them, not merely to know, but to keep all that Christ has commanded us. We desire to see every man and woman in our church “complete in Christ” (Colossians 1:28).

Gracelife Bible Church has various levels of discipleship depending on each person’s spiritual maturity. Home groups are where believers become intimately connected with a community of believers who can build them up through the one another commands in Scripture. In addition to this, we offer Fundamentals of the Faith, as well as 1 on 1 book studies for those interested in joining the church. After incoming attendees have received instruction in basic Christian living, if they possess both the desire and the necessary character for leadership, we use materials from XL Ministries on Becoming a Biblical Leader. Beyond that, we provide elder training for those who have demonstrated a track record of faithfulness over time, aspire to the office, and who appear to meet the qualifications laid out in Scripture.

We believe not only in the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of Scripture, but also in its total sufficiency for both faith and practice, not only in the life of the believer, but also in the practice of the church. There are many churches that maintain a high bibliology in their doctrinal statement, but the various components of church life (such as counseling, evangelism, youth ministry, worship, etc.) lack a demonstrable faith in the sufficiency of Scripture. At Gracelife Bible Church, we aim for every ministry to not only be built upon biblical principles, but for sound biblical teaching to be its most prominent and central feature. It is Scripture that sanctifies believers (John 17:17) and equips them for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Thus, to conduct ministry without being rooted in Scripture is a self-defeating endeavor.

We maintain the biblical conviction that a true believer is one who has both repented of sin and believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, both of which are two sides of the same coin (Mark 1:15). It is impossible to turn to Christ without turning from sin (1 Thessalonians 1:9). This does not mean that believers are perfect, but it does mean that because they are new creations in Christ Jesus who have been born again, delivered from sin’s bondage, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the inclination of their hearts are toward righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:6, 1 John 3:4-10).

The true believer is one who confesses Jesus as both Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9). In fact, the overwhelming testimony of the New Testament is that genuine believers acknowledge Jesus’s Lordship in their lives. The phrases “Lord Jesus” and “Lord Jesus Christ” occur in 101 verses in the New Testament, not to mention other terms like “Lord Christ”, “Christ the Lord”, “The Lord”, and so forth. The Lordship of Jesus Christ is the glad confession of every regenerate heart.

We are a church that strives to uphold the loving and merciful practice of church discipline (Matthew 18:15-20). Church discipline is really biblical restoration. It is a process graciously prescribed by a merciful God as a means of restoring wayward sinners back to personal obedience and church fellowship.

True believers, having been convicted of their sins by the Holy Spirit, are aware of the sinful tendencies of their own hearts (Proverbs 3:5-7; Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, every Christian who is sensitive to sin should desire to be in an environment where their church leaders are better able to correct them if they go astray.

The church discipline process, consisting of four escalating stages, is neither rash nor harsh. At every step, its aim is not punishment but restoration. Biblical principles of love govern the entire process.

Properly understood, church discipline should be practiced constantly in a healthy church. The earliest stages of church discipline (private confrontation) occur anytime believers lovingly challenge one another over sin, as we aim to present every man complete in Christ (Colossians 1:18). In fact, the more frequently the first two stages occur, the less frequently the latter two stages are needed. Yet when such a need arises, the church uses every means at its disposal to rescue sinning brothers and sisters from the error of their ways (James 5:19-20). Praise God for this gracious provision!