The Vision of Grace Pointe

The Short Version – A Visitor's View

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according

to our likeness…  So God created humankind in his image, in the

image of God "

Genesis 1:26-27 

Reading this short passage from Genesis, the glaring question for all of humankind is – What is it to be made in the image of God?  And, how is the answer to this question to be found out?  Lets begin this way.

The first clue is in this Genesis statement, "So God created."  God demonstrates to us who He is by what he does.  God creates.  Therefore it is fair to say that if humankind is made in the image of God one of our attributes is the ability to create as well.  People all across the world and at every age demonstrate this creativity.  Children everywhere create games and make up stories years before they are taught the intrinsic rules of fair play or before they have learned grammar and story structure.  We quickly grow and use this creative ability to become the individuals we turn out to be.  All of us have this ability to create something; for some it is seen in business, for others in art, still others write stories, poems, and music; some people work with wood, or paint, or photography.  The list of individual creativity is endless!  God even gave people ability to create more people!

Grace Pointe is a church worship experience that explores this individual creativity.  Churches, of every kind, and all the variety of worship styles, reflect this God given creativity.  Churches look different because people are different.  Culture and personal preference drive this creativity of worship.  However, there are some never changing baseline observations that can be made about healthy churches and the worship experience and these cannot be ignored.  The most prevalent of these observations has to be… worship is about connecting people with God.  Some church traditions do this worship connection through very structured liturgy.  God is seen in the order and organization of the different components of the worship experience.  On the other end of the worship spectrum are the churches who design worship around a more fluid, less symbolic series of events.  One worship experience is not better or worse than the other, and especially one style of worship is not right and the other one wrong.  Both are made up for people to connect with God through creative ways.  Both worship styles, and countless other that fit somewhere in between demonstrate significance for people and a way to connect people with God.

The worship experience regardless of tradition, liturgy, symbolism, or the limited use, or all-together absence of any of these has to produce a connection between people and God.  But there are a few more things to consider and again these same elements apply to any church.  First, the Bible has to be read, taught, and be the sole basis of everything that is seen and done in the worship experience.  Second, people have to have opportunities to understand that they are being pursued by God and this pursuit is seen as the love of God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This pursuit of God is on going, beginning with salvation, and becomes a life long learning encounter.  Finally, the third component to healthy worship is people being able to respond to God's pursuit.  This is done in various ways once again through the creativity of people.  But in all worship experiences people need to be able to express their salvation encounter and choice to become a Christ Follower, have opportunities to be baptized as a public demonstration of salvation; and all who have chosen to become Christ Followers share the cup and broken bread of the communion table with one another in the presence of Christ.

With all this in mind consider the Grace Pointe worship experience – People connecting with God through individual creativity.  All-the-while framed in Bible center teaching, living within the pursuit of God, and providing opportunities for people to tell their salvation stories and share in the presence of Christ.  What does all of this look like in the Grace Pointe worship experience?  Let me begin by describing worship this way… A person can view a great sunset and be move by God to paint the sunset, or photograph it, or write a song or poem describing what they have seen with their eyes and encounter in their spirit.  Then when this story, or picture, song or poem is shared with others, these people are also moved by the Spirit of God.  This is worship!  Using our everyday encounters with God and capturing them in a medium that can be shared with others, invites people to come closer to God and closer to one another.  This is worship. 

Not everyone can paint or write songs believe me I know, because I cannot do these things either.  But personal creativity is not limited to only a few outlets but rather personal creativity is as individualistic as we are.  None of us is limited in our ability to create.  Remember it is how God created us.  The key element to turning creativity into worship is for all of us to help one another utilize those spiritually creative ways of connecting people with God.  That is a primary function of Grace Pointe – The Fusion of Fine Arts and Faith.  Each time we gather as a church the arts are the prevailing connection to worship.

Imagine this as a visitor to Grace Pointe, as you walk up the sidewalk to the building you begin to encounter some various types of art, be it paintings, photographs, or sculpture. What would go through your mind as you saw these images?  I know the answer to that question is as varied as the people who are looking, and that is what makes art, art.  But the day has just started for you and already you have been moved by someone else's creativity.  Next you enter a lobby filled with images that begin to describe the themes of the series being taught.  You walk past these posters and pictures, each one making a statement.  Twice now God has had the chance to touch you.  You can almost feel Him touch you on the sleeve and say, "Walk with me today – just for a while."  Something inside of you has connected with God simply because of what you have seen.  But there is more – move inside and you find it is your turn to give something back to God and to the group.

Once inside the music is magnificent!  Not just the sound but the presence of the sound surrounds you.  The music you hear and the words to the song help you express in words the very things you have begun feeling inside.  Without effort you begin to sing, this is worship.  You know you are in a group but you also feel an intimate closeness with God.  You say to yourself, "This is a good place to be."  This is your third connection with God only this time you get to touch Him.  Realize God feels the same closeness to you.  All to soon the music stops and the lights dim.  It would be fine to spend more time singing but there is more to come.  The music explodes and two guys dance and sing a song that makes the whole room feel as if it were all of them doing the singing and dancing before God.  That is the worship these guys bring to the experience, they put words and motion to what collectively we as a church are feeling.  This whole time seems to be filled with connection with God and with others around you.  This is the fourth touch of the morning and right now in the moment it seems to be more of a dialogue between you and God.  Now you are ready to listen.  There has been plenty to look at and sing about, the presence of God is all around, but inside you want God to say something just to you.

The lights dim again and a video clip of an old movie pops up.  What at first seems oddly out of place begins to fit into the whole worship experience.  This short clip makes the first talking point of the day.  When the clip has finished the house light come up and there in front of you is a person with a Bible in their hand.  He is not yelling and waving his arms, rather he has simply invited you to listen for God in what he has to talk about today.  This talk is so practical you feel like you want to accuse this guy of stalking you.  Just off to the side of where he is standing, at the floor level a woman is painting on a canvas.   As the talk continues an image begins to appear – it is a scene depicting a place that was just talked about.  The likeness of a person begins to take form and somehow you think it could be you in the picture.  Things have been said today that you know have come from God directly to you.  You have heard things that will help you.  You feel the encouragement of the moment and realize God has touched you for the fifth time today.

Once again the house lights dim and the video screen come alive with information about what is going on this week and opportunities to get involve with other people.  By now it is easy to tell things are winding down.  This has been an amazing visual, sensory, Spiritual experience.  The group who lead the singing is back and this time one of the women is asking for money.  She says some things that help explain this process.  What stands out is this comment, "if people are visiting Grace Pointe today this is not about you, you are our guests."  "So set back and enjoy the day with us."  What this is called she explains is an offering and people who have made commitments to Grace Pointe help support the church by giving this way.  Everything that happens, all of the programs, the equipment, even the lights and heat have to be paid for by this group of people.  So this offering is how people give money to pay for everything.  There is something unique happening here.  More important than giving money it is easy to tell that these people want to help the church do more, and they know this requires money.  Also it seems, people have taken something away, spiritually, from this time and want to give something back.  Once again it becomes clear God is touching people and people are touching God.