We have curated 12 passages to memorize this year which are connected to our 2023 rallying cry, "We are humble before and joyful in Jesus!" Let's treasure God's word in our hearts each month.
January
James 4:10 – Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
We are here 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 2023 is not a new project or hill to charge, but a focus on being:
We are humble before & joyful in Jesus!
The road to how we got here is a long one. When you walk into Grace Church and see us with our five teenage boys, with a happy marriage, and the Aledo life it is hard to see where we came from.
We are thrilled to be a part of Grace Church and serve the children and families of Aledo. Our hope and prayer is to see families discipled and formed into the image of Christ so that the next generation of saints may know, trust, and love our good and gracious God.
[from Brian Howard's blog Context Coaching]
Are you a parent?
Then you need to know that your kids are going to learn primarily what you teach them.
You might sometimes wish that you could delegate the spiritual training of your kids, but you are the one who is responsible to teach, train, and disciple your kids. This is not something to be outsourced to Sunday School teachers or Youth Pastors as past generations have sometimes done.
We moved to Fort Worth twelve years ago—shortly after graduating college. Tara, my wife, had a job at Cook Children's and I began teaching in south Dallas. Newly married, first ‘real-world’ jobs and based on a recommendation from Tara’s prior pastor, we were quickly involved in a local church. Five years in, we had made wonderful friendships and were shepherded by a loving pastor, but felt something lacking in our faith. During this time, I became increasingly interested in the Emergent Movement – an imbalanced paradigm of “soft” biblical teaching and strong emphasis on social justice - poverty, race relations, immigration etc. I read every book I could get my hands on and argued with anything that moved. As I delved deeper into Emergent Christianity, I found ways to minimize and downright reject central doctrines of the Bible. Sin was pushed to the back burner, as thoughts of helping and pursuing the poor were pushed to the forefront of our minds and hearts. Because of this, self-righteousness, self-reliance, and self-centeredness became sovereign. After five years at our first church as a married couple, we left bitter and angry.
What is a local church? What is it to distinguish and mark the church?
“The local church is a covenanted community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord."
"Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ's institution, there, it is not to be doubted a church of God exists."
Below are nine marks of a healthy church. This is not an exhaustive or authoritative list. There are other significant marks like prayer and fellowship. But these nine are marks that we believe have tremendous impact on the health of our church and feed into other marks.
In a recent newsletter I laid out the 2017 timeline for Grace Church. I've added it below along with a list view for our three seasons.
A time of prayer: As a family of currently 30 adults and 25 children (that includes four babies with due dates this summer!) and others who are interested in joining our family, we will gather once a month from January to April. Our first gathering will be on Wednesday, January 25th from 6:30pm to 7:45 at the Fort Worth Church of the Lord’s building seen above (fka Korean Central Church): 200 Mildred Ln E Benbrook, TX 76126. Grace Kids will be provided. There are currently 45 adults and 14 children registered! Please register yourself and your children here. We will devote ourselves to God’s Word and prayer. I will teach on Jesus as the grace of God to sinners and sufferers and the implications for our family. Then we will pray together for deep friendships as a family and bold evangelism so more people will meet Jesus and be welcomed into our family.
This excerpt is taken from Being A Gospel Witness: 7 Marks Of A Witness From Mark 6 by Daniel Montgomery
The evangelical world has experienced a gospel craze over the decade, a renewed emphasis on church planting, and a revitalization of expositional preaching. We should be grateful and excited to live in such an era. However, sometimes even these principles can live in abstraction instead of reality.
Recently, I was in a discussion with young seminarians and the question was asked, “What is the evidence of someone being called to church plant?” After responses about theology, leadership, qualifications of eldership, and personality traits I remarked, “What if the would-be church planters were just asked, ‘Write out everyone you have evangelized in your life and how has the gospel grown in them since?”
Over four years ago my wife Bailey and I moved to Fort Worth with the intention of returning to Arkansas after one year. Immediately after moving into our apartment God started opening our eyes and hearts to a desire to remain in Fort Worth with the hope to plant a church. After only two months I withdrew from the graduate program I had begun, we bought a house and decided to become Partners with The Paradox Church. During this time, sin was exposed and we grew in a deeper understanding of repentance and response to the work of Jesus Christ. His call for us to stay in Fort Worth was clear. Over the next two years we pursued community through city groups, I enrolled in Porterbrook Theological Training and we became City Group Leaders. We learned so much and have walked with friends through life, sin and new life.
