Pastors' Blog

10 Reasons You Need to be in a Grace Group

joakley — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:44:55 +0000

Small groups have been a major part of church life since the time of Christ. At GFC, we call them Grace Groups. We believe every Christian should be a part of a small group. Here are ten reasons YOU need to be part of a small group:

1. Jesus is our example and He was in a small group.

2. The early church in the book of Acts met in small groups. (Acts 2:46)

3. Small groups help you feel like a part of God’s family.

4. Discipleship and life change happen in small groups.

5. Small groups provide the opportunity to make friends.

6. Small groups provide opportunities to develop leadership skills.

7. Small groups provide opportunities to pray for others and to be prayed for by others.

8. Isaiah 65:8 says that the new wine is in the cluster. A cluster is a small group of believers who are abiding in the vine - Jesus Christ - and connected to each other.

9. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

10. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Take the 30-Day Prayer Challenge!

joakley — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:38:45 +0000

Thursday, May 6th is the National Day of Prayer. We are hosting the official Grand Prairie event and I encourage you to attend.

But more than that, we want to challenge you to pray every day for the next 30 days for whatever it is you need God to do in you or for you or through you. Maybe it's for a personal need or maybe it's for someone else, but pick something big that will only happen with God's supernatural intervention. Pray big prayers with big faith!

Pastor Deb and I have done this many times. In fact, we did that years ago and at the end of 30 days, we had the word from God to start this church. We are praying now for God to help us get out of debt.

No telling what exciting adventures God may have in store for you! I guarantee you if you pray every day for 30 days something will be changed, even if that something is you! I encourage you to let us know how God answers your prayers!

Multi-ethnic, multi-cultural or both?

joakley — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:14:44 +0000

Grace Fellowship Church is a multi-ethnic church, but we are also multi-cultural. What's the difference?

Multi-ethnic means that our church is composed of people from different ethnic backgrounds. At the beginning of 2010, the ethnic makeup of GFC is:

53% - White

30% - African American

15% - Hispanic

2% - Asian

Multi-cultural means that our services include various cultural distinctives of the different ethnicities that make up our church. For instance, our music is mainly contemporary, but we also sing gospel songs and an occasional song in Spanish.

Also, we recently took part in customs drawn from both the Indian and African cultures. Our prayer ministers are from India and they informed us of a custom in Indian churches to print and distribute a Bible promise for the year. So, at the beginning of the year, we did just that. We had a promise printed in India and distributed it to our congregation. Also, we recently included a Nigerian Thanksgiving service in one of times of worship. Both of these customs from other cultures greatly blessed our congregation.

It's exciting to be part of a church that includes people from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds! Together we are touching heaven and changing earth!

Starting Over After Failure

joakley — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:16:24 +0000

In the eyes of God, failure is never final! The book of Proverbs tells us that a righteous man may fall seven times, but he gets back up!

In his great book, Failing Forward, leadership expert John Maxwell says that failure can actually propel us forward in life if we do three things:

1- Be big enough to admit our failures

2- Be smart enough to learn from our failures, and

3- Be strong enough to put failure behind us.

I want to encourage you with this fact, no matter how big you have failed or how many times you have failed, with God's help, you can get back up and start over!

Dare to believe it!

Welcome to our blog

joakley — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:26:25 +0000

We are very excited about our new website – not just for the amazing new look (thanks Bob Hedlund!), but also for the new additions like being able to listen to our sermons online and read this blog.

For those who are not familiar with this – the word “blog” is the short version of the phrase “web log.” We will post regular entries of our thoughts, commentary on currents events, and updates on our church. You will be able to leave comments that respond to our entry or entries that have been posted by others. This enables us to have discussions on things that are important to us all.

We are looking forward to our future discussions together!

Pastors Joe and Deborah