Grace Point

Don't you love Sunday mornings when you are rushing here and there, and getting everywhere you need to be 15 minutes later than you wanted? So that is how our day started. And yet God is still in each moment, still in control - I just thought I was.

Grace Point Church is about 4 years old. Hope church in Henderson partnered with them for the first year. It meets in north Vegas. Actually north of north Vegas. It meets at Legacy High School. We got there late, as I might have mentioned earlier, and went into the theatre where the main service is held (missed worship-bummer). It was really dark and the stage was set up very "mega church" with themed props and lighting. It was very clear by the decorative signs hanging at various heights, each one with a word in various languages,  that the topic was "love'.

The pastor was very engaging, funny and informative. He did a great job of setting up the passage we would be reading. For the believer who has read this verse numerous times or the new believer overwhelmed by what the Bible says, it was good to breakdown key ideas before the verse was ever introduced. For me, I want to be able to break out of the old box of preconceived ideas about the meaning of a verse and to see it from a different perspective. This gives me a chance to create relevancy in a meaningful new ways.  For believers, we allow the Bible verses we have heard over and over to become stagnant in our minds, like the commercial we have seen hundreds of times. We forget what it is really saying or what we thought we understood already.

So we looked at why we don't deserve love, cannot get love by anything we do in advance, and how God loves us anyway, in spite of ourselves. Romans 8 is where we camped most of the time. Then we shared in Communion,Valentines day and after reading Romans 8.

The church service was very pastor focused and because of the theater style, you felt more like an audience than a congregation. It was really easy to sneak in and sneak out. There were plenty of greeters outside which kept you from being invisible but other than that you could probably be fairly anonymous. On the other hand the atmosphere was conducive to individual worship since it really blocked out everyone else around you.

We went to lunch with friends who go to Grace Point. They are a really grounded couple who take church loyalty very seriously. They looked for a church for about 4 months before God laid it on their hearts to come here. They drive 40 minutes each way 2 times a week to come to Grace Point. They love the church for its focused identity, the expository teaching, and community outreach. Grace Point focuses on doing three things well, small groups, discipleship, and community outreach. If they don't offer it as a program then they encourage people to use other programs in neighboring churches but they are focused on what God has laid on their heart to do. They have a great program for kids on Sunday mornings and offer youth groups during the week.

This part of Vegas is booming and Grace Point is already there preparing the way to reach this community for Christ in big ways. It is a mega "baby" church which in a few short years will be huge.