What is this Real thing?
Well, to understand this ‘real’ thing, we need to understand the definition of real. The word real is defined as ‘being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something.’ This ‘real’ thing, for Grace, is reflecting the genuine character of God.
Real people.
Real people are you and me living life. Just being the person, the neighbor, the friend or the coworker we are everyday. We can’t be a certain type of person one day and a different person the next. That would be the opposite of being real. That’s being phony. Another word that has been adopted for that is hypocrite. Here at Grace, we are doing the best we can to not only try and be real, everyday people, but realize that you are a real, everyday person too. We don’t want to judge you and your life, but accept you and treat you like we would hope you would treat us, with respect for each other.
Real passion.
Real passion is having an intense and emotional connection to 'that thing' that you were born to do. For some of us that’s being a soldier and defender. For others it’s being a musician or an artist. Even others it’s being a parent or business owner. And we love to share our passion with the people that we live around. But whatever it is, when we are passionate about it, the intensity towards it can be so strong that it causes us to have an emotional or physical response. That’s why parents cry when their child is born or takes his first steps. And that’s why at Grace we spend our time, energy and resources trying to connect with people and connect with God. We are so passionate about having a real and relevant relationship with a God that wants us to call him Father and a God that calls us friend. It’s such an amazing and wonderful relationship that we want to share that passion with the people of this community that we live with and around.
Real purpose.
If real passion is the connection to 'that thing' you were born to do, then real purpose is 'that thing.' It’s a wonderful place to be when you know that you’ve found your purpose in life. But unfortunately, most of us don’t know our purpose in life, or exactly what we were put on this earth to do. At Grace, we don’t have the specific answer of what job, career or life path you should take. But we do know that the Bible says that we were created by God, for God. We find our purpose not in the ‘what’ we do with our lives, but in the ‘Who’ we decide to do life with. The choice is always yours, but the purpose is found in being the real person who you were created to be.
We understand that you may have had bad experiences in a church or with Christians in the past. We know that you may see church and Christianity as irrelevant to your life today. We aren’t trying to change you or make you a better person, because we don't have the ability to do that. All we can do is provide a relevant environment where you can make a decision to have a relationship with God or not. Our only goal is to treat you and every other person we connect with in this community with respect and reflect God’s genuine characteristics of love, life and light to you.