Grace Abounding

Two weeks ago Grace Church’s leadership team had the privilege of sharing what we’ve learned about church planting at Church Planting Conference ‘10. We reporting back to our sponsoring church, Heritage Bible Church, all that God has been doing to grow our gospel community in the Washington D.C. Metro region. Quite frankly, we were stunned by the high level of interest in our church plant and grateful that many believers told us there they pray for our church family on a regular basis.

Pictures From the Church Planting Conference ‘10

Here our elders and deacons and their wives are show in a Q&A about church planting:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Sermons From the Church Planting Conference ‘10

Heritage invited the lead pastors of their five current church plants to present a vision & method for planting churches in a series of five sermons. Here they are:

Sermon Title: Revelations
Sermon Text: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Speaker: Jonathan Matías

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Enjoy these glimpses of our church family taken during the historic snowfall that Alexandria experienced in January and February 2010.

One of the kids from GCA playing in the snow.

The entrance to Cameron Station, the community where our church meets in West End Alexandria.

Windshield wipers peeking out of the snow.

Several members met to build a snowman at Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School where our church meets on Sundays for worship and fellowship.

A veritable mountain of snow, an unusual sight in Alexandria

p.s. Thanks to Amanda Lee, Peter Beninate, and Christy Matías for the photos.

Sermon Title: Life in the New Covenant
Sermon Text: Hebrews 10
Speaker: Brad Lapiska (Engleside Baptist Church)

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This Sunday Grace Church is getting a front row seat to God’s radical rescue work through the Gospel. We’ll be hearing from a modern-day Paul named Tim Keesee via video journal as he recounts how Christ’s saving grace has broken out in hard-to-reach places and as he explores places where the Gospel has never arrived. Join us at 10:30 am this Sunday (2/28) for a moving experience as we hear from the Word of God’s heart for people and see where God’s transforming grace is breaking into the world, to the praise of his matchless grace.

A Bold Advance from Dispatches From The Front on Vimeo.

Sermon Title: Food: Gift, Giver, and Gospel
Speaker: Shayne McAllister

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I remember the moment that the gospel rocked my world…as a Christian. Sure, I had believe in Jesus and was rescued from my rebellion through him. Sure, I knew the gospel is the life-saving message that I need to share with non-Christians around me. But from that moment on I realized that the fuel for obeying God, worshiping passionately, and loving people comes from the Spirit by meditating on the gospel. I was listening Danny Brooks preach part two of an eight-part sermon series entitled The Gospel For Daily Living.

This grand overview of the gospel is such a powerful reminder of all that God is doing to save me for his glory, that I listen it it once a year. If you’re snowed in the next few days in the Washington D.C. area, click here or on a sermon below and take some time to listen to these sermons.

• Christ is the Gospel
• Regeneration: The Initial Hope of Salvation
• Conversion: A Turning to Christ
• Justification: God’s Mighty Declaration of Salvation
• Sanctification: The Growth of the Gospel
• Adoption: The Divine Privilege of the Gospel
• Union With Christ: The Intimacy of the Gospel
• Glorification: The Expected Splendor of the Believer

Here’s the first sermon in the series:

I heartily commend these sermons to you. I pray often that God’s incomparable grace through the gospel will always be the theme and song of Grace Church of Alexandria. I’m thankful to Heritage Bible Church where Dan Brooks is a elder for sponsoring and supporting our church planting efforts here inside the D.C. beltway.

Our Leadership Team is excited to be attending and speaking at the Church Planting Conference at Heritage Bible Church on February 21-24, 2010, in Greer, SC. You’re especially invited to a panel discussion about church planting with our elders & deacons and their families on Sunday night at 7 pm. Throughout the week we’ll be reporting back to our supporting church the work God is doing in changing us and planting a church in the Washington D.C. Metro region. Interested in learning more about church planting? Considering joining a church plant? Want to hear how you can pray for our Gospel ministry? Join us at the conference!

In addition to hearing from other churches planted by Heritage, Grace Church of Alexandria’s team will be participating in the following events:

• Visual Presentation on Church Planting in Alexandria, Virginia. A keynote slide presentation during evening worship. Sunday, 5:30 pm.
• Ministry Prospects Fellowship. GCA Leadership Team panel discussion on our experience joining and serving in a church plant. Sunday, 7 pm.
• Technology & the Gospel. A roundtable discussion on using technology for ministry. Monday, 1 pm.
• Making Disciples: The Marvel of Church Planting. A talk on the essentials of church planting. The idea? Gospel + Relationships = Growth. Monday, 7 pm.
• A Slice of Life. Christy Matías shares on church planting from a woman’s perspective. Tues, 10 am.
• Christ Our King in Church Planting. A devotional on Gospel ministry. Wed, Feb 24, 10 am.

Click here to see a .pdf with the full schedule of events.

Join us as we meet together to share ideas, pray together, and hear how God is displaying his glory by starting churches that live out the Gospel. Have questions about the conference? Contact us here. The conference is free; lunches & dinner are provided at Heritage for just $3.00. We’re delighted that our friend and pastor in Alexandria, Brad Lapiska, will be preaching at Grace Church of Alexandria while we’re away.

My brother Nathan Matías wrote a helpful review of the book What Is A Healthy Church Member? and sent it to students at Cambridge University (UK) from where he graduated. The author of the book, Thabiti Anyabwile, used to be an elder at the church, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, that let our church plant meet there for free our first 5 months. I include this book review by him for your benefit.

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Greetings from Cambridge UK! One of my roles is to serve students in their Christian lives. With each new group of students, I am privileged to see wonderful developments in each studentʼs thinking, personality and character. I sometimes get to walk with them through the classic choices about career and relationships, and I also follow some of their first steps after school.

Pressure to make choices about career and lifestyle builds up with each day closer to graduation. Even though most UK graduatesʼ first job is only a stopgap, choices about where and what and whom can loom ominously, convincing us that they are the biggest, most important decisions we face.

These questions do not disappear after school. The teachings of Jesus and the apostles make it clear that “Iʼll make sure I find a good church wherever I go” fails to respond fully to the remarkable work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in our lives. But what should the church-related part of a Christianʼs lifestyle actually look like? Is there some “career path” equivalent or “lifelong learning” programme for the aims we can have in our Christian life?

The growing Christian lifestyle in community is the core topic of What is a Healthy Church Member, by Thabiti Anyabwile, former assistant pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington DC, now a pastor in the Grand Cayman Islands. It is also a book given me by my brother Jonathan. Ten years ago, he urged me, “Nathan, you are Christʼs, and should above all aspire and train to serve Him in community through His church.” Of the books he has given me toward that purpose, this is the most practical and comprehensive. At 120 pages, it is also probably the shortest.

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Sermon Title: Fighting Fire With Fire
Sermon Text: 2 Corinthians 11
Speaker: Jonathan Matías

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