Values

Who We Are

Men

Women

Christian Ed

Other Ministries

Missions

Member Resources

Calendar

Sermons & Articles

Site Map

Links

our values

Lifetime Christianity. It is our belief that the Bible calls for a radical commitment to Jesus Christ and that every Christian has been called to unconditional surrender of one's total life to Christ. We desire to have an intimate relationship with the living God where we seek His will for our lives in everyday activities and association as well as our life goals and aspirations.

The Bible. We are a biblical people in origin, practice, goals, and identity. All that we are, have, and can ever hope to accomplish is clearly given to us in God's Word - the Holy Scriptures and they are the standard by which we measure all revelation. Our desire is to do and teach just what the Bible says.

Worship is a time of intimacy between God and His people. In this day when God is restoring all things to Himself, we have found worship and praise to our God to take on a new meaning. Our services and gatherings are marked by joyful adoration and worship of God. In fact, we believe our first priority as a people of God is to worship Him. We encourage various forms of worship, ie. style, variety of instruments and modes including such things as dance, arts, creative music and writing. We desire to set a climate for active participation of each member in the worship of the Lord both private as well as corporate. Our worship is an expression of our love for God and therefore must be self-disclosing. For this reason it seems best to be in our language, expressing our thoughts and feelings in a manner we understand. This is why much of our music is contemporary.

Fellowship. As we learn to be open to and relate to God in worship, we can relate to others in a deeper way. A secure relationship with God will lead us into open relationships with people. We see ourselves as brothers to all Christians but especially joined to those committed to this body. Our relationship together is called fellowship and our goal is wholeness. Our desire for "family" leads us to place great emphasis on meeting together in small groups. It is through the small groups of 15 to 25 adults that much of the closeness, personal ministry, identity, oversight and development of each individual will come. It is here that we become known and accountable to one another. We gather to worship, to learn, to encourage, to share our gifts, and to be healed. The leaders of the home groups are appointed by the Elders of the church. Because God has directed Staunton Grace Covenant Church to operate with home groups, we believe that a member not in a home group will receive less than the full care and ministry of the Lord at Grace. However, we realize that there will be some cases where members cannot be in a home group due to work or family circumstances.

Membership. Just as in a family where each member clearly feels a part and knows his role, we believe that in a local church there should be clarity of membership. Therefore, those who are committed to Jesus Christ as Lord, who know our beliefs and ways and who are called by the Spirit to be a part with us may become members of Staunton Grace Covenant Church. We believe when we clearly make a commitment to the people, vision and leadership of a local church, it produces security in our lives and provides for the greatest development of the individual in Christ.

Leadership & Structure. To conduct the affairs of the church, to provide for pastoral care and to train and equip the saints, there must be defined leadership and structure in the church. God clearly places His leaders in the body to coordinate and lead His work. They are to sense the Spirit's direction for the church and lovingly shepherd God's people.

Training. Telling is not teaching and seeing is not learning; we don't know until we do it. Our desire is that every member become knowledgeable, skilled and active in doing the things of God. All can pray for the sick, minister to the poor, and witness to those who don't know Jesus. We have formal occasions for education, a place to gain the theory and doctrine but we desire to place a higher priority on a relational, New Testament model-that of apprenticeship. Therefore we want to teach on a "need and desire to know and do" basis.

Discipleship is God's way of training those who commit themselves to Him. Apprenticeship is the New Testament model of discipleship. A person is discipled to Jesus and we understand that God uses more mature and skilled workers to train the younger and the novices to make unconditional commitment of their lives to Jesus to do His will. We do not believe it is healthy or wise to be exclusively discipled or trained by one person and therefore encourage members to learn from many. We believe in spiritual authority and spiritual oversight; however, no one but the Holy Spirit has the
right to govern and direct the life of another believer.

Prayer is both communication between the people of God and God Himself and a weapon of warfare necessary to advance God's Kingdom. We desire to be a people of prayer - skilled, natural, consistent and fervent.

Miracles & The Supernatural God. We are a people believing in and expecting the mighty moving of God today in our midst. We are a people growing in faith and ready to be used of God. We believe that the gifts of God (power, utterance and knowledge gifts etc.) are available to the body today and may be used by any or all members at whatever time they are needed. We encourage our members to step out in faith; not fearful of failure or being embarrassed, not being timid or complacent. We believe the power of God may be active in public and private ministry in the individual lives and families of those of this body. The power of God is not given only to the leaders, but to every Christian who will use it for His glory.

Spiritual Warfare. We believe that there are two kingdoms upon this earth. The Kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. The enemy, Satan, seeks to destroy those whom he may. Therefore, we desire to be aware of the enemy and we understand that we have been called to engage, in spiritual warfare. We also believe that we are equipped with the armor of God according to Ephesians 6 and are learning to be skilled, in the Godly methods of warfare. We are to be courageous, alert and actively involved individually and corporately in the name of Jesus toward the defeat of the kingdom of darkness. The actual advancement of the Kingdom of God can be measured in tangible ways: 1) in the over coming, holy life of the believers, 2) lives being redeemed and coming under the lordship of Jesus Christ, 3) notable healings taking place in the name and by the authority of Jesus, 4) those in bondage being set free and the demonized being delivered, 5) the poor being ministered to at their level of need, 6) the invasion of the gospel into the affairs of nations.

Evangelism, Outreach, Missions and Church Planting. We are a people under the commission of Jesus to disciple the nations. We are committed to support missions and missionaries and to prepare and encourage participation of our members in short term and life long mission work. However, our main focus will be in the planting of churches in the USA and foreign countries as the Lord provides the opportunities.

Integrity. We believe that Christians have a vital responsibility to be a people of integrity. We embrace old fashioned values that characterize integrity, honesty, moral courage, good citizenship and financial responsibility. We believe that a person's word should be their bond and that a person of integrity will speak clear words saying what he or she really means.

Loyalty. For God's people to mature in their relationship to God and to one another there must be a loyalty (unbroken faithfulness) to one another. This loyalty is not conditional on another's perfection or agreeability but as God's loyalty towards us is revealed in the form of mercy and faithfulness those attributes should be replicated in our relationships with each other.

Serving. In our desire to please God, we actively seek to live unselfishly a life of service to one another. We desire to put others first laying, down our lives and giving to others which we believe is an expression of God's nature. Actively supporting, providing for the needs of others and sharing one's time, talents and possessions ought to be our way of life. A servant also must be humble and teachable esteeming others better than himself.

Graciousness & Friendliness. Since we are a people who have been saved by grace and the mercy of God has been extended towards us, we are now a people who are full of grace. We want to give that grace, forgiveness, tenderness and acceptance to others whenever we have an opportunity. We want to show graciousness in our expressions, tone of voice, actions, words, and attitude with each other. We are interested in all those that we meet knowing that they belong to God, created by Him and that He desires that they be treated with love.

Lovers of all. We believe we are to show respect to all people. Therefore the poor, the downcast and the despised by our society are welcome in our body as well as the rich. All races and nationalities are welcome; although we will seek after no particular one.

Giving and Prospering. We are a people who believe that the tithe, 10% of our personal income, belongs to the Lord and should be given to the local church. We also desire to be generous in offerings (funds given above and beyond the tithe), for the poor, to promote the gospel, to brethren in need and to those in missions. We believe did those giving to the Lord should be cheerful and willing, well understanding the joys of giving. We believe that it is God's desire that His people have their basic needs met according to His Word and it is God's desire that His people be blessed. However, we recognize that sometimes hardships occur and may be beneficial in developing our godly character.

Holiness & Discipline. We believe that all Christians should desire to live a holy life according to God's Word and we are to be constantly encouraging one another to be holy in attitudes, thoughts and actions realizing that purity of heart is precious to God. Our actions and thoughts affect the entire church whether others know or not because of our oneness together in Christ. Therefore, since we love and are committed to one another discipline will be applied for the correction and salvation of those, who are immoral, stubborn and disobedient.

Strong families & homes. We desire that many of our activities be built around the family and the home life. We believe that healthy families produce healthy citizens and we believe that much violence and destruction in our society is directly traceable to delinquent parents and strong negative social pressures on weakened families. Although some are called to celibacy and some of necessity are single, we believe the husband-wife-child relationship to be a sacred institution and held in honor. Marriage is the expression of covenant love between a man and a woman. Because of the importance of marriage and the difficulties of sustaining marriage in our present society, we require all couples who are to be married to undergo rigorous pre-marital counseling and also will use marital enrichment training to keep our marriages healthy. We encourage the procreation of children and believe that godly offspring are a blessing of the Lord. We oppose divorce and see it as the breaking of a solemn covenant and do not sanction it where both members of the marriage covenant are believing Christians. However, when an unbelieving partner violates the covenant and departs then we believe that the faithful person is free. While we oppose divorce, we are nevertheless committed to minister God's redeeming grace to those who are its victim. We especially desire to assist and encourage single patent families and incorporate them in our fellowship.

Christian Education. Training and development for the purpose of renewing our minds is to be an ongoing process in the Christian life. We are committed to teaching our members the ways of the Lord. We are also committed to the normal education of our young people and as secular humanism continues to make inroads into the public education system we will do what we can both to stem the tide of humanism and promote Christian education as an alternative for our children and teachers.

Social Concerns

Abortion: We strongly oppose abortion on demand and see it as a wanton taking of life. We believe that the contemporary attitudes of society toward the promotion and use of abortion clearly represents a philosophy of using death to solve social problems. We believe that the philosophy favoring abortion systematically cheapens human life, undermines the family structure and is contrary to the Word of God. While we do not sanction, nor do we agree with physical violence in the fight against abortion we will do all we can to promote life, help the ones who are pregnant, pray and lobby for a change in our law.

Homosexuality: We believe that every individual is made in the image of God and is, therefore, worthy of respect. Staunton Grace Covenant does not endorse same sex marriage partnerships or ordination for practicing homosexuals. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the teaching of scripture. All men and women are called to sexual purity and must take up their cross and follow Jesus in this area of their life.

Peace and National Defense: While not having a peace stance neither do we advocate offensive military aggression. However, we do support a strong armed forces for our country and do not object to the requirement for men to register for the draft. We believe that it is our responsibility as men to defend our nation and families. We oppose the drafting of women to serve or requiring them to register for the draft. We would support anyone who has a conscientious objection to serving in the armed services, but would willingly do volunteer service.

Community and Government Involvement: We support and encourage members of this congregation to be involved in community and national affairs. Although we are well aware that the Kingdom of God will never come out of secular government, we believe that God will call certain ones to serve Him in governmental positions and we support those people. We believe that we are all called to support our government through prayer and we encourage each of our members to take an active part in our governmental process, including the writing of letters expressing their opinions to federal, state, and local legislators and participating in the local, state and national political process.

Staunton Grace Covenant Church ~ 410 West Beverley Street, Staunton, VA 24401
tel: 540-886-8076 ~ email: info@stauntongrace.org