Our Values

Rhythmic

We are rhythmic in our spiritual practice.

Conversion to Jesus is more than a one time thing. Instead, conversion is an ongoing activity in Christ. The Church has gifted us with amazing tools to help us in this. We follow the Church Calendar because it lets us enter into the story of Christ as we re-dramatize it each and every year in our worship. We pray The Daily Office because it gives us a rhythm for prayer and Scripture reading. Lastly, we have a rhythm for the spiritual disciplines to help strengthen our faith in the same way that professional athletes discipline their bodies to be better players of a game. We value these things as a church because we have seen firsthand their importance in cultivating a deep faith in Christ.

Reverent

We are reverent in our worship of God.

We have come to believe that Christ is our authority. While Christ is, of course, known as our friend, we cannot lose sight of the reality that he is also our God. He has the authority over our lives, and we gladly give him allegiance because we know him to be patient and loving towards us. When we begin to approach him rightly, we become a people who relate well to the Lord, others, ourselves, and creation. We stop the selfish living that causes destruction, war, and toxic relationships. And we start to live into a way of interacting with others that is restorative, peaceful, and healthy.

Relational

We are relational in how we interact with God and the Church.

In CS Lewis’, The Great Divorce, he writes a theological fantasy about the nature of hell. As his characters goes further and further into hell, they’re encountered by people so consumed with themselves that they’re unable to be in community with anybody else. They have their grand mansions and material possessions, but it comes at the cost of friendship. At Grace by the Sea, we recognize that isolation, in the way the CS Lewis writes, is indicative of something wrong with the world. This isolation has been undone by way of the Cross and being brought into the family of God through baptism. Within the Church, we live in community because of what Christ has done. We are the family of God. It is through our relationship with each other that we can more fully see God himself.

Redemptive

We are redemptive in our witness to Christ.

As one theologian said, “We do the world the way the world was meant to be done.” As we participate with Christ and cooperate with the Holy Spirit, we take part in the God’s renewing activity in the world. We don’t live for the sake of ourselves, but rather we model our living after Jesus — who lived and died for the sake of the world. As we live more fully into Jesus, this causes us to be a people who bring about redemption in this world with the help of the Holy Spirit.