Our Mission

Community of Grace Ministries embraces the undeniable truth that God loves and values all people - no exceptions.

This truth is manifested clearly in the person of Jesus, who modeled unconditional, boundless love. There are no outsiders to Jesus’ love, no us versus them, only people God seeks to invite into his family.
This is Grace!

This is our Holy Calling: to follow Jesus as a community of his Grace, and to help others know Jesus through us.

Our Values

Convicted by this Holy Purpose and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are aligned to four core missional values that drive our actions and decisions:

We will see people the way
Jesus sees people

We will love people the way
Jesus loves people

We will serve people the way
Jesus serves people

We will teach people the way
Jesus teaches people.

These are written in the present tense, because we follow a risen and living Jesus, who is still seeing, loving, seeing, and teaching today. And we write them in the imperative, "We will...", knowing that we will also fail and fall short, and that is why we need Jesus's grace extended to us, and Jesus gives us that grace to extend to others.

How can we even hope to live those values out? Our formational values describe our process of spiritual formation. This is not a process with an end point, as you can always go deeper into any of the four:

Know Jesus.

Trust Jesus.

Imitate Jesus.

Speak Jesus.

We are committed to the process of spending time with Jesus, so that we can become like him, and engage the world the way he did. We welcome anyone who wants to join the journey.

Our Core Values

Jesus Makes Us Family

We are welcomed into the family of God simply by the grace of Jesus, no matter who we’ve been or what we’ve done. Jesus gives us a place to belong even before we know what to believe. Our church family is a place where you can life together in an interconnected web of authentic relationships.

Deep Roots Make Good Fruit

No one wants to live a fruitless life, and Jesus taught people how to live with abundant fruitfulness. He said, “I am the vine. You are the branches.” When we worship, connect, and serve, we remain connected to the vine so that we can remain rooted in love, bear good fruit, and reproduce healthy disciples.

Love Pours Out

God has poured his love out on us. He is the source, and we are his resource. In every way that we serve others, we are pouring out the love of God using all available resources, including our schedules, our skills, and our finances.

Invite First & Next Steps With Jesus

Your first step is to hear Jesus' call for you to follow him. Once you say yes to him, there is always a next step! We offer opportunities to worship, connect, and serve, but he may call you to so much more!

Be The Church In The World

Jesus has asked us to be his church in the world. There is no more important work, today. That means walking out our faith in our everyday lives and serving the unique purpose we are designed for. Community of Grace is a place where you can grow into being Jesus to those around you.

Our Beliefs

The best explanation of our beliefs is very simple: we believe in Jesus.

The very first Christians all agreed on one very simple creed: Jesus is Lord. We don't all have to agree on everything at Community of Grace Lutheran Church, but we agree on that. Everything else that we believe follows from that commitment. For example:

Because of Jesus, we believe that God loves us unconditionally. This is because he is gracious and forgiving, not because we deserve it. We don't. Christian theologians usually call this "Justification by faith through grace and not by works." We agree with that 100%, but it's awfully technical for describing a living relationship.
We believe the Bible is a Jesus-centered book that reveals God's character, God's love, and God's plans for the world. We believe what you really think about the Bible is not revealed in what you say about it but in how you use it. We read the Bible a lot and with lots of humility, and we strive to apply its message to our lives. We believe God's Spirit draws us closer to Jesus and makes us more and more like him. Nobody's perfect, but because we love God and each other, we keep trying. Christian theologians have usually called this "sanctification." We believe this is very important, with or without a theological label.
We believe the church is a Jesus-centered community of sinners. It's a hospital for the sick, not a museum of saints. The church is certainly not a building. Jesus said, "Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them." Whenever we gather in Jesus' name, we are the church.
We believe Jesus didn't only live in the past. He's alive now, and we're looking forward to his return. The Bible says the return of Jesus will bring the completion of God's new creation. Evil will be destroyed, the universe will be healed, and the people of God will enter into life without end. God speed the day!

If you are theologically inclined, you might be interested in a more complete or precise statement of our beliefs. We recommend you talk with one of our pastors who could explain all of this in a much more personal and detailed way. You might also like to know we affirm the historic creeds of the Christian church (The Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds), and we are a Christian church in the Lutheran tradition. This means we think the historical writings of the Lutheran Reformation (such as the Augsburg Confession and the Small Catechism) helped Christians become more Jesus-centered and Biblically faithful.

Our congregation is part of a larger association of Christ-centered congregations called Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC). We are committed to Jesus' Great Commission, where he commissioned his disciples to go and make more disciples, and Jesus' Great Commandment, where he taught his disciples to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbors as themselves. In fact, our mission as a congregation is drawn from these teachings of Jesus: Our mission is to be and make disciples of Jesus.

We believe God loves you, and we'd love to help you experience that truth as a disciple of Jesus Christ.