Our Distinctives

Grace Church is a protestant & evangelical congregation in the Baptist tradition.

In order to grasp who we are as Grace Church, the word "winsome" is a good place to start.  By definition, the word "winsome" means to be "generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence."  A shorter definition would be "humbly engaging."  The word "winsome" has fallen out of favor because many wrongly see it as a cover for cultural capitulation or compromise.  In actuality, when divided into its parts to get the full scope of what it means to be winsome is a desire to"win some".  Our desire in our theological, social and cultural engagements is to live in such as a way as to "win some" with grace and truth while never compromising our Gospel witness.

IN OUR THEOLOGY...

We desire to be winsome in our theologically reflection, not doctrinaire peculiarists. Though we are uncompromisingly committed to our confession and doctrinal commitments, we desire to leave room for those who are still processing and growing into sound doctrine.  In other words, we are not "9 Marxist" or "Cage Stage" in these areas. 

IN OUR CHURCH...

We desire to be winsome in our pursuit of meaningful membership, not overbearing or controlling in our relational commitment to one another.  We seek to live as a Gospel family who invite one another into life together informed by the Gospel and our mission in the world.

IN OUR MISSION...

We desire to be winsome through humble cultural engagement, not culturally tribal or rivalistic.  We have no desire to please man by soft selling the Gospel but we do desire to take 1 Peter 3:8-12 seriously in our desire to be likeminded in our sympathy and brotherly love for one another and our neighbors where possible.  Our neighbors need us to show up with real love when we share the real Gospel with them.

WE ARE PROTESTANT

We stand with the Protestant tradition which has 2 primary streams.

First, we stand with the great reformers like Calvin, Luther and other who sought to recover the true Gospel from Popish, pietistic and monastic drift that had had settled into the Roman church.  Specifically, this means that we embrace the “Five Solas” of the Reformation:

1. Our final authority is Scripture Alone, which reveals to us that
2. Salvation is by Grace Alone,
3. Through Faith Alone,
4. In Christ Alone,
5. To the Glory of God Alone.

Second, we are confessional and creedal in that what we preach is what true churches have preached through out Church history.  We affirm and rejoice in the sovereignty of God over all things. We affirm the historic catholic  (universal) creeds (Apostles' & Nicene Creed) but more specifically, we stand in substantial agreement with more particular protestant confessions such as the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 & the New Hampshire Confession, 1853.

WE ARE EVANGELICAL.

This basically means three things:

1. We believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God and is, therefore, our final authority in all matters of life and doctrine.
2. We believe that all people are born in sin and that man’s only hope for salvation is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. We believe that the church is called to preach the gospel to ALL peoples everywhere and compel them to repent and place their faith in Christ.

In addition to affiliating with Southern Baptists, we also happily partner with the Pillar Network, a gospel centered network of Baptist churches united to plant healthy churches and do historic Baptist work together.  

WE ARE BAPTIST.

We believe that the church, rightly understood, is a body of regenerate, baptized believers. Baptism is the immersion in water of individuals who have repented of sin and trusted in Christ alone for salvation. We are congregational in our polity, meaning that the final authority in our church rests with the congregation itself, under the authority of Christ. While being a Baptist church can come with a lot of stereotypes, we trust that you’ll find that we are a Bible-teaching, Gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, God-glorifying church that believes baptism is for people who repent of their sins and trust in Christ.

Presently, we are voluntarily affiliated with the Nashville Baptist Association, Concord Baptist Association, the Tennessee Baptist Convention, and the Southern Baptist Convention. For further details about what we believe, please see our Confession of Faith “here“

Other Practical Distinctives

Regulative Worship

How God's people worship is one of the if not the most important distinctive of the Church.  We are concerned less with musical style than we are about how God commands his people to worship in the Scriptures.  This means that we seek to only incorporate elements that are expressly commanded in the Scriptures and seek to be careful not to add unnecessary nor unbiblical elements to our corporate worship.  In other words, we are ordinarily ordinary in our corporate worship.  We are more interested in the people of God worshiping God appropriately though word, prayer and song than to attract and gather a big crowd on Sunday morning. This does not mean we are not sensitive to guests and welcome them warmly.  In fact, our experience has been that many guests are looking for more substance in their worship and not less. 

At Grace, we focus on a few fundamentals: We preach, teach, read and sing God's Word. We pray over and with the congregation.  We share in the Ordinances of the Lord's Supper and Baptism each week.  We sing Psalms, Hymns and Spirit songs.  

The Complementary (Interdependent) Roles of Men and Women

"Men and women are created ontologically equal in essence, dignity and value but are different by divine design to complement one another in order to fulfill their mutual calling given by God in creation." - Pastor Tom Agnew