Our vision as a church is to make disciples and plant churches by proclaiming and displaying the grace of God to sinners and sufferers. After seeking the Lord we’ve discerned our rallying cry for 2022 is simple. It’s a simple adaptation of our vision. Our rallying cry for 2022 is we make disciples and we plant a church! We’re excited! The time has come to plant a church! We are going after deeper discipleship and another church for God’s fame to fill this region!
We Make Disciples & We Plant A Church
Make Disciples — A disciple is a Spirit–filled lifelong follower, learner, and friend of Jesus.
Disciples who Delight In The Trinity — Worship God, not idols. Joyfully repent. Find their identity in Jesus.
Disciples who Cultivate Deep Friendships — In community with God’s people. Serve Jesus’ church. Give to Jesus’ church.
Disciples who Boldly Evangelize — On mission with the Holy Spirit.
Plant A Church — In Aledo
A family in Aledo for Aledo
A congregation of Grace Church
Meaning we will be one church, two congregations—Grace Church Southwest & Grace Church Aledo
FAQs On Planting A Congregation
How did we get here?
As your pastors, we have been asking the Lord what it would look like to plant our first church. Next year we celebrate our five year anniversary and God has been so gracious to us. We want to be wisely aggressive—aggressive in our efforts to make disciples and plant churches but also wise in planting healthy, multiplying churches. As we’ve prayed and visited with other churches in our network we keep coming back to this — what would it look like to be one church with multiple congregations or “churches” in different areas throughout the southwest region of the Metroplex?
We believe we are better together.
Better as a local community of maturing Christians who multiply their impact by launching, developing, and resourcing multiple congregations to reach our region with the good news of Jesus.
What does one church, two congregations mean?
One church, two congregations means we enjoy one shared vision and theology, a set of core distinctives, all while giving freedom to each congregation to organize and pursue ministries suited to its context. We aim for unity between congregations, not uniformity.
Local congregations have space and authority for decision-making and contextualization. Each congregation has local elder teams and live preaching. The local leadership teams of Grace SW & Grace Aledo are each composed of pastors, staff, deacons, and serve teams who develop and execute their respective contextualized visions, always in conjunction with a shared vision that is determined collectively by every elder around the table praying for and collaborating together.
We see this as a creative way of being the church AND being on mission. Rather than saying come to a central big building, what if we take the church and plant different congregations to reach a region? Each congregation looks different, feels different, has a different sense because it’s contextualized. As we lead people to the Lord and begin to disciple them, we’re not asking them to leave their neighborhood anymore and drive 20–30 minutes. Instead, we have a congregation close to them and close to their friends and neighbors.
We believe we can do more together than we can do on our own.
Why send instead of starting a second gathering at our current building?
We planted this church in 2017 so more people would meet Jesus. And from the jump we wanted to be known more for our sending capacity than our seating capacity. We did not aim for a large gathering but multiplication. A multiplication of disciples, leaders, small groups, and churches. And we aimed for a familial vibe where people know one another across the church and linger afterwards on Sunday mornings to talk and minister to one another.
We think functionally two services become two congregations and if we’re going to do two congregations we desire for one to be a plant in a specific location with a commitment to that area and with its own local pastors and teams.
How can I help?
Pray – We need God’s power to do this!
Serve – We need God’s people to do this!
Give – We need God’s resources to do this!
Lead – ask God where you can step up and lead in our church. We need to replicate every ministry lead at this new congregation!
Move – ask God if you should move to be a part of this congregation.
Who is going to the Aledo congregation?
Short answer: whoever God leads.
Longer answer: We are open-handed. We don’t feel a need to keep some people from going. We also know some people that live on the westside or in Parker County may not go to the Aledo congregation. But the people that do go, we want them to have a deep commitment to that region and congregation. Planting includes hard work and sacrifice.
Also, Pastor Matt will be the lead pastor at this congregation. He will preach 3 times a month and Pastor Ryan will preach once a month to help share the load so Pastor Matt can spend significant time on connecting, discipleship, and evangelism.
What’s the biggest obstacle in all this?
Arrogance. Interdependence and collaboration are fueled by humility and wrecked by pride. We need a lot of humility.
How does a local elder team operate?
A local elder team at one congregation knows, loves, feeds, and protects “the sheep” at that congregation. Elders shepherd and oversee.
The elders of both congregations work together around a table on the vision and direction of the entire church.
What does shared resources mean?
Centrally together — Human Resources, Finances, Church Planting, Leader Development (some shared elder and residencies, and then everything else done congregational)
As one church there is one financial account, but each congregation will have their own budget.
Members are members of a congregation (and the church as a whole).
Will there be a plan to “roll off” in the future?
Nothing is set in stone. We see this as an open-handed plan and believe the better question we will come back to each year is: Are we better still staying together organizationally or would it be better for one congregation to roll off and be autonomous?
What other churches have done this?
Sojourn Community Church in Louisville
Frontline Church in Oklahoma City
Redemption Church in Arizona
So Pastor Ryan is taking a 12 week sabbatical and we are planting a congregation next year?
Yes. We believe God is leading us to both. And it seems to us that’s exactly what He would do. He would lead us to something that is beyond our power and ability so that He might flex and display Himself as strong.
How do I grieve and celebrate?
On April 30, 2017 Pastor Jim of The Paradox Church preached a sermon on “Gospel Goodbyes” as they sent a core team of us out to plant Grace Church.
We planted this church to be a place of Grace. With the message and culture of God’s overflowing love for us in Christ. To display and proclaim the grace of God to sinners and sufferers which we all are and so are those in our cities. We planted taking specific responsibility for Benbrook and we felt compelled by the Spirit to take ownership to plant other churches in the southwest region of the Metroplex from Burleson to Weatherford. We didn’t just want to plant a church but be a church planting church. And we believe that is our future. And we love it. But that does mean gospel goodbyes. Back to Pastor Jim’s sermon.
He spoke of the joy of sending people out so that more people might meet Jesus. And he spoke of the sorrow of sending people out—grieving their absence. “A gospel people are a goodbye people”—because we multiply, we plant, we commission, we send! “One of the costs of church planting [and church revitalization] we often overlook is the acute pain of gospel goodbyes.”
We rejoice in God’s work, joyfully expecting He is going to save more people to himself and grow them into the image of Jesus. And we grieve as we send out dear friends who we love and will deeply miss seeing weekly.
How does it actually make everyone better?
We don’t have a comprehensive list, but…
Lead Pastors are better because they have a team of other men in the same role who are supporting and encouraging them. Staff are better because they have associates at other congregations who are doing similar work. Volunteer leaders and new staff are especially helped by the experience surrounding them in other congregations. Preachers are better because they sharpen each other and share ideas weekly. Members are better because they have more places to invite friends and co-workers who live in other parts of town to attend. Each congregation is strengthened by the overall reputation of Grace. Church planters are better because they don’t have to reinvent the wheel (especially with admin) and they have the support and strength of a movement behind them. Newer congregations are better because financing is available that wouldn’t be available if they were on their own.
When do we plan to plant this congregation?
Big Picture – Our goal would be to launch on September 18, 2022!
Here’s our current timeline:
May – Night of Prayer in Aledo (5/22)
June – Have an Interest Meeting (6/12) & a Night of Prayer (6/26) in Aledo
July – Begin Sunday Gatherings in Aledo w/Core Team (7/24)
August – Hold Preview Service (8/21), Grace Church 5 year Celebration & Aledo Commissioning (8/28)
September – Hold Preview Service 9/11 & then launch on 9/18!