PREFACE
Every church is known for something. Each local fellowship has a reputation. In New Testament times, the church of Ephesus was known for sound doctrine. Smyrna was known for suffering. Corinth was known for spiritual gifts. Laodicea was known for compromise.
Today, churches are known for being “purpose-driven,” “seeker-sensitive,” “emerging,” “personality-driven,” “felt-needs-driven,” “consumer-driven,” “program-driven,” “contemporary,” or “traditional.” Other examples abound.
What a church is known for is determined by its distinctives. The distinctives of a church include the sum total of its theology, philosophy of ministry, methodology, and purpose of existence. Distinctives are usually distilled down into “core values” and are the talking points that characterize a church.
Calvary Grace Church (CGC) values the Bible as the inerrant, sufficient, authoritative, perspicuous, relevant, living Word of God. We are committed to letting the Bible determine what our distinctives should be. As a result, we are committed to doing biblical ministry because we make a priority of what God wants us to do, not what man wants us to do. CGC wants to be known for doing the “ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4) which means we exalt Christ (John 16:14), equip the saints (Eph 4:12), and evangelize the world (Matt 28:19-20). That means we are fixed on being “biblically- driven.” We want the Bible to guide every area of ministry.