Welcome to Grace North Atlanta, Alpharetta GA 30004

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Why Grace is About Grace?

Our Worship location is:
175 Roswell St Alpharetta, GA 30004
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Our Culture

Like the water in which the proverbial fish swims, every organization has a culture – a matrix of ethos, beliefs, expectations, social practices, language, assumptions, habits, and norms. We hope the most evident characteristic permeating our church culture is that the gospel of grace enables people to unmask and be real with one another in the struggles of life. In keeping with the Reformed tradition’s insistence upon self-criticism and self-awareness, we will self-consciously cultivate a culture characterized by…

Centrality of the Gospel

The gospel promotes a type of spirituality very different than religion. In spite of ourselves, God has chosen to love us and redeem us out of our own self-imposed human misery of evil, sin and death. Apart from and completely outside of ourselves, God acted on our behalf in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, accomplishing what we could never do for ourselves. The cross has become our place of rest experienced through confession of sin and living in continual repentance. This gospel of grace is the A-Z of the Christian life and it changes everything.

Re-Discovering the Church

Many people have had bad experiences with the church, including those of us who make up Grace. Consequently most of us, especially Christians, approach the church with suspicion and a jaundiced eye. Our culture’s bias against authority and institutional bureaucracy has led many to conclude that the church is not necessary for one’s spirituality. We understand and even affirm many of the reasons for today’s cynicism towards the institutional church. Rarely does the church get beyond shallow moralism or a superficial form of Christianity preoccupied with worldly criteria for success. But despite that reality, we think a churchless form of Christianity ultimately proves to be unhealthy. We are very excited about re-covering the church as a community of spirituality that nurtures Christians in the gospel of grace and the way of cross.

Worship as a Model for Spirituality

We often talk about corporate worship as a different model for spirituality. God has promised to be present with his people in corporate worship as we listen to and learn the Word of God, participate in the ancient church’s practices of praise and prayers of the people (liturgy), and then meet with Christ Himself in the Lord’s Supper, a practice Christ Himself gave to his church ‘until He comes.’ Our worship service is intentionally designed to be participatory rather than enabling members to be passive consumers during worship. For many of us, our emphasis in corporate worship upon confession and repentance focusing upon the cross through the Lord’s Supper has resulted in a radical change in our model of spirituality.

Depth & Beauty of Theology

At Grace theology is a good word. We intentionally seek to engender a love for theology believing Christians who think deeply about all of life will be better equipped to serve God in our post-Christendom culture than those who uncritically accept a shallow and superficial understanding of Christianity. Christians have always been characterized by ‘faith seeking understanding’ – and this is the heart behind our love for theology. We self-consciously read the Scriptures in conversation with those who have gone before us in the church drawing upon the rich theological treasures of the ancient church’s creeds (Apostles’ and Nicea) and the Reformed confessions of the 16th and 17th century (Geneva, Westminster, Heidelberg, Scots Confession). Classic reformation theology emphasizes the five solas – that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone submitting to the authority of Scripture alone all to the glory of God alone.

Constant Self-Criticism and Change

The hallmark of a ‘Reformed’ church is not arrogance but a humility that leads to self-criticism for the sake of growth and improvement. This is what was meant by the phrase semper Reformanda – the Reformed church is always being reformed. We believe God is the one who enables all changes for the better and because of that belief in the continuing work of God in our midst, we talk a lot about contextualization, creativity, common grace, cultural literacy as ways in which God moves us forward as a church. While we value our Reformed confessional identity, we believe, as one person once put it, to truly represent the Reformed tradition we must re-present the Reformed tradition. Re-presenting our Reformed convictions in our contemporary context involves risk but it is the only way in which we can be faithful to God in our cultural moment.

Compassion and Social Conscience

Christians are committed to something greater than themselves. At Grace we talk a lot about the difference between a calling and a career which can sometimes be a self-absorbed pursuit of wealth and prestige. A Christian’s calling involves at least three spheres – our responsibilities in family, church, and civil spheres. The call of the kingdom raises our eyes to look beyond ourselves as we fulfill our calling in these three spheres. Many evangelical churches have lacked a social conscience due to a concern to guard against the excesses of the social gospel which sidelined many mainline churches. We believe the gospel includes social demands for justice and mercy and therefore even though we find ourselves located in a fairly safe and prosperous area of suburbia in north Atlanta, we believe the shalom of the city and suburbia are intertwined.

Criteria for 'Success'

We will never judge ‘succcess’ in terms of numbers, budgets or buildings but by evaluating our faithfulness as a community to the above characteristics.