The best planning tool is the one you actually USE and then APPLY. We're attaching three printable resources (and a bonus Life Plan workshop video!) for you to try. So set aside a little time to dive in and do the work you'll thank yourself for again-and-again this year.

1) "4 Questions Looking Back, 5 Questions Looking Forward"
Pastor Josh has incorporated these simple and effective questions into multiple sermons. Don't spend hours with this tool; it should be punchy and capturing your gut reactions. Give yourself no more than 5-10 minutes per question. You might be surprised at the profound simplicity and clarity of what rises to the surface.

Click the icon below to access this tool.

2) The Life Planning Tool
Pastor Carey has led us through this tool a few times in the past and it's ALWAYS helpful to take inventory and build new habits that will grow you as a Christian, family member, employee, student, etc. If you've used it before, review your work from last year, take a fresh crack at it, and plan for this year to be the best yet. Additionally, you can follow THIS LINK to watch Pastor Carey's Life Plan workshop, so you can follow along with him as he walks through the tool.

Click the icon below to access this tool.

3) Donald Whitney's "10 Questions to Start A New Year"
These are insightful questions to fan the flame of your inner devotional life. Start asking yourself how you plan to grow closer to Jesus this year. Plus, he adds in 21 additional, really good questions to consider as you have time.

Click the icon below to access this tool.

Remember...we will all go somewhere this year, either by design or by default. Let's be intentional in our pursuit of Jesus and make the most of the days and breath He gives us! Carve out some time to look back, look ahead, think about your life, and make plans, not excuses.

The Grace City Church house was FILLED with the excited chatter and warmth of 816 women at this month's Made Conference. That's 816 mothers and daughters and grandmothers and aunts and nieces and sisters. That's hundreds of Wenatchee Valley families represented...and others from around the country. Surely, more hugs were given, more tasty drinks shared, more words of encouragement spoken, more prayers lifted, more hearts of women realigned to the heart of the Lord in living out the truly noble calling of being a woman in one place on that day than anywhere else in the nation.

And you're invited to be praying the Lord will continue to use that glorious day and its momentum to ripple out His blessings to positively impact individuals, homes, workplaces, communities, and outward, to the very ends of the earth.

— Our registration page was viewed 7,171 times!

— More than 800 women attended!

— We had attendees from Virginia, Texas, Hawaii, Oregon, Idaho, and a whole bunch from across Washington State!

— 135 attendees are from other churches!

— At least 30 attendees don’t attend church regularly!

— The attendee list was printed and our Noble Women Doorholder Team prayed over the entire campus and for each woman and girl by name on Friday night!

— Thanks to the generous giving of our church family, 98 women were able to attend by scholarship!

We Are Warriors — We Help Bravely

We Are Gardeners — We Nurture Carefully

We Are Teachers — We Make Intentionally

We Are Daughters — We Love Lavishly

Grace City, 

We turn 15 this year! To celebrate, we are launching our most wild and crazy, bold and audacious, dream-big, all-in, Kingdom-accelerating initiative in the history of our church

The last 15 years have been busy. Like the pioneers of old, we've pushed our way over the dangerous trail. We've survived roving bandits, scurvy, hard winters, broken wheels, Indian attacks, snake bites, wrong turns, mountain passes, thieving merchants, and more. We've fixed broken wheels, weathered storms, gone without food, and still we've pressed on.

And finally, we arrived. We found our fertile valley. We found a place to build our home.

For the past 15 years, I've used that pioneer language with you. I wanted us to stay in that hungry, gritty, pioneering mindset. And we have. And here we are.

This fall marks a shift in our focus—a watershed moment in the life of our church.

Not that we stop being hungry, gritty, or pioneering, but now we add to our pioneer mindset the settler mindset. We're still pioneers at heart, but now we shift that energy from driving over mountain passes to pushing up crops and homes and roads and stores and putting down roots.  Now we begin the work of homesteading.

And here is where the vision gets exciting. I will bring a specific focus to our homesteading efforts, and that focus can be summed up in one word...FAMILY. We want to focus the resources of our time, money, and energy pouring ourselves into the health of the family.

Moms. Dads. Kids. Families.

Thriving.

We want to build a place where families are valued, protected, encouraged, and equipped.

We want to build a place teeming with life and love, where the biblical values of family can be tangibly felt and experienced.

In other words, our vision could be summed up in this audacious statement...We want to get to work turning the “apple capital of the world” into the Family Capital of the World.  

What if people began moving here from all over the world (more than already have) not only because of the physical beauty of our valley but because of the spiritual beauty of our valley?

What if word began to spread..."You want to raise a strong family? Well then, you want to move to Wenatchee and plug into Grace City Church. That is a place where families and generations thrive."

This is the vision I will unpack this fall…a vision to build a comprehensive ecosystem for husbands, wives, children, and families to thrive. In the context of a multi-generational community. Everyone contributing to the health of the other.

This vision has been 3 years in the making, stewing in my mind and heart. But in reality, it's a vision that's been burning in God's heart since he spoke those first two words to humanity: "BE FRUITFUL..."

I will kick off this 8-week adventure with a series of sermons unpacking, week-by-week, new and major initiatives we intend to start for the sake of the family. I will lay out a compelling future for the next phase of Kingdom Homesteading as a church family.

And make no mistake, it will take all of us leaning into the plow to see this vision come about.

So make plans to join us, this fall, for our 4th Kingdom Initiative, BE FRUITFUL. September and October will be full of fun events for the whole family.

Be here for weekly services and be sure to get connected to House News and our app for updates, as there is much more information to come.


Wagons…Ho!!

Pastor Josh

One of the coolest things about God's Word is that no matter how many times we've read it or heard it preached, we can always learn something new from it!  It also doesn't matter how old a Sunday sermon is. They often present timeless ways to focus on what the Bible says and how it should apply its truth to our everyday lives. Here are the five most-watched sermons on YouTube from Grace City Pastors.

The popularity of these particular sermons should give us all some insight into the types of questions YouTube viewers are asking. And—for those of us who've been around Grace City for a while—they certainly give us some trips down memory lane.

The most important issue in marriage may not be what you think. In this sermon, Pastor Josh kicks off the Marriage Strong series with a word for singles and marrieds about the single greatest thing determining the health of any marriage. Click on the video above to watch!

Want to know what God's Word says about repenting and rejoicing in hard times? Well, you have come to the right place. In this sermon, Pastor Adam covers just that with a timely example from Zephaniah.   

The Bible covers and is relevant in considering all topics, even the topic of singleness. In this oldie-but-a-goodie, a young Pastor Josh unpacks what God has to say about it through Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.

Do you have—or do you know someone who has—family members who are harder to get along with? Difficult? Dysfunctional, even? The Bible has answers for you!  In this popular sermon, Pastor Josh covers just how to deal with dysfunction in any family. 

What does the Bible have to say about divorce and remarriage?  In this sermon, Pastor Josh discusses these topics through a biblical lens.  Click the video above to watch the whole sermon.

Our Easter in Wenatchee—JESUS IS REVIVAL— celebration turned out to be just that. REVIVAL!

Two years (nearly to the day!) from rolling out the Atrium vision to our church family, we kicked off Easter weekend with a memorable ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday night.

What followed were 4 Easter services, 1 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, of straight-up worship and celebration! The good news was proclaimed that Jesus is revival...and HE PROVED IT! Chains were breaking, dry bones were shaking, and eyes were opening as the Lord moved and we baptized 123 people—more in this one weekend than we baptized all of last year.

Thank you, Grace City Church Family, for your steadfast love and faithfulness, your generosity, your efforts to reach the lost in Jesus' name, and your prayers, which availeth much.

Can these dry bones live? You know, Lord.

“To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Grace City is built on the foundation of Jesus and dedicated to the work of helping more people meet, love, and follow Him. May God give us strength to build strong men, noble women, and thriving families. May God grant us the privilege of inspiring creativity, generosity, and Kingdom-sized dreams in others. And may we never forget that it all started with a 16-year-old kid, a broken leg, and a courageous “Yes!” to God’s holy call.

To the many who have prayed, worked, given, and served, thank you. To the tired, the hopeless, the guilt-ridden and broken; to the doubters, the outcasts, the shame-filled and the laid low; to the dry bones and weary hearts, may all who walk through these doors find family, friendship, hope, and, ultimately—in the person Jesus Christ—a place they can call home.”

Pastor Josh
Phase 3 Atrium Ribbon-Cutting

Each service kicked off with a MEMORABLE spoken word performance by Pastor Adam and the Grace City Worship Team. You can watch the intro below and access the complete Easter 2023 Sing List HERE any time.

Pastor Josh brought a prophetic word for our troubled culture from the obscure book of Ezekiel.

In a vivid vision of the state of Israel, God leads His prophet Ezekiel to a desolate valley full of dry human bones. This is Israel. She has lost her national identity and abandoned faith in God. She is mired in corruption, sexual perversion, and moral decay. Her soul is dead.

Looking out over so much death and carnage, God asks the central question of humanity, “Can these dry bones live?”

The answer changes everything.

God moved powerfully in the hearts of all who heard His answer thunder from Heaven on Easter Sunday, 2023, and we pray He would do the same for you as you listen to this sermon and hear Heaven’s prophet—the risen Christ—declare over your life, “Dry bones…Live!”

We baptized 80 people at our Easter 2022—Jesus Ain't Fair—celebration at the Chelan County Fairgrounds! Eighty!! And we baptized a 115 in all of 2022, the most in any year of our church. This year, we all told our community that Jesus is revival and He showed up to prove it. We baptized 123 people this Easter!

Check these out.

Pastor Adam James

Jesus is in the tomb, but the chief priests and Pharisees are still afraid. What if His disciples come and steal the body? He did say, after all, that after 3 days He would rise?

So they went to Pilate, who agreed to put a seal on the stone and post a guard at the tomb.  

Every measure was taken to ensure that Jesus was dead—really dead—and stayed dead.

There was to be no question. Finally, we’re rid of this Jesus guy.

The sting of death still hangs in the air and the disciples are stunned. It’s over. Done. Jesus is dead. Signed, sealed, delivered. What are we going to do now?

I wonder what the disciples were thinking and feeling?

Can you imagine what life would be like if Jesus stayed in that tomb? The hopelessness and despair would be utterly disorienting.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much more about what happened on Saturday. Only that the women rested from their work of preparing spices and perfumes, because it was the Sabbath (Luke 23:56). And this business about posting a guard at the tomb.

Have you ever had a plan backfire? These folks are about to find out that nobody rules over Jesus. And the disciples are about to be unbelievably surprised.

Friends, Jesus is full of surprises. 

An influential Christian leader, during my time in Bible college, always loved talking about “the surprises of Jesus.”  Whether it’s an answer to prayer. Or an unexpected gift of provision at just the right time. Or an incredible opportunity you weren’t expecting? An encouraging note. A “chance” meeting. A surprise visit. The announcement of your first child or a new pregnancy. On and on it goes… Jesus is full of surprises. He loves to bless His children in ways that are so personal and so particular and sometimes, just flat out over the top.

The anticipation of Easter Sunday morning should grow on us throughout the day today. Because the greatest surprise of Jesus, the Granddaddy of ‘em all, is about to shock (and change) the world forever.

What happens next??

[Join us at any of the 4 Easter Services we have planned this weekend to find out.]

“Father, you are so gracious and kind. You know us so well. You know what we need before we ask. Before the foundation of the world was laid, you set a plan in motion, to send your Son to surprise us all. Lord, help us never grow tired of the shock and surprise of Easter morning. Prepare our hearts to experience newfound joy and renewed gratitude and praise. Lord, as your people prepare to gather all over the world to celebrate the good news of Easter morning, would you bless those who will preach and proclaim the truth of the resurrection. Will you bless those who will hear it. Will you draw men and women to the truth of Jesus and bring more lost sons and daughters home to the Father. We love you Lord and we thank you for being the God of all grace who is still full of surprises! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Pastor Adam James

After Jesus’ arrest—using all four gospel accounts—here’s a compilation of what happened to Jesus:

• The Trials of Jesus Christ:
  • 1st trial, before Annas
  • 2nd (and primary) trial, before Sanhedrin, Jesus is condemned
  • 3rd trial, immediately at dawn (meanwhile, Peter denies Jesus a third time); the condemnation repeated, then Jesus taken to Romans
  • 4th trial, before Pilate
  • 5th trial, before Herod
  • 6th trial, before Pilate
• Jesus is scourged; the city cries, "Crucify Him!”
• Jesus is finally turned over to be crucified
• Jesus is mocked (Roman soldiers), crown of thorns
• Judas hangs himself
• Jesus is crucified around 9am
• Jesus' Seven Sayings from the Cross:
  • "Father, forgive them..."
  • "Today...with me in paradise"
  • “Dear woman, here is your son..."
  • "My God, My God..."
  • "I am thirsty"
  • "It is finished"
  • "Into Your hands..."
• The Death of Jesus Christ (About 3pm; curtain in temple torn, rocks split; some graves opened and people rise and go into the city)
• Jesus' side pierced
• Passover lambs slain in temple
• Jesus buried by sundown in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb

 
We are now at the apex of Christianity—the Center. The Cross event and subsequent resurrection is the nuclear power center that will never diminish in its ability to humble, strengthen, revive, and propel the people of God.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

There is so much opportunity for personal reflection on Good Friday.

We are not the victims. We are the perpetrators. Jesus is the victim. The sinless, innocent Son of God. Never has one been more deserving of being treated well, of being honored and adored. And yet never has one been treated so horribly, so wrongly.

We crucified the Lord of glory. Our sin put Him there.
What sin, what shame, have you brought to the foot of the Cross?

As you ponder and behold this crucified King, what do you see?  What do you see in His eyes? What do you see in His face and in His body? What do you hear in His words? What do you see in His actions and in His silence?

What do you see in Peter’s denials? What do you see & hear in the chief priests' interrogation? What do you see in Pilate & Herod? What do you see in the crowds? What do you see in the Roman soldiers? What do you see in the women who followed weeping? What do you see in the criminals crucified with Jesus?

Consider the words of the prophet Isaiah (53:3-7,12), speaking of Jesus:
“He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth…
…For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.” 

“Father, the pain in this world is so deep, our sin was and is so costly…but I praise you, Lord, because you made a way, through Your Son Jesus for us to be saved and healed. You paid for our waywardness and our denial. You carried our grief and our sorrow. Thank you, Jesus, for your willingness to lay down your life. Thank you for giving us the reminder of your broken body and blood through the bread and cup of communion. Thank you for washing our feet and giving us the example to follow of what it looks like to serve. Thank you for teaching us to love one another and for promising to send us the Holy Spirit. Thank you for praying for us and never leaving and forsaking us, even though we left you. Lord, help us to trust you even when facing our own road of suffering, and help us spread the good news of your sacrificial love with every opportunity you give us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Pastor Adam James

The events of “Maundy Thursday,” the Thursday before Easter, include:

• Preparations for the Passover meal
• Passover meal/Last Supper — Lord’s Supper instituted
• Jesus predicts Peter’s denial
• Jesus washing the disciples feet (John 13)
• The Upper Room discourse (John 13-17)
• Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane
• The Betrayal & Arrest of Jesus (though this may have taken place after midnight, so technically Friday)

Today, the weight will bring Jesus to His knees. This night, the Thursday before Easter, Jesus, overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, cries out in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

How heavy, how dark, how thick does sorrow and the anticipation of death have to be to drive the Son of God to His knees? Sweating drops of blood?

Jesus is now entering into the suffering for which He came. He has come to be the Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But that’s much easier for us to sing about on a Sunday than it was for Jesus to carry out in real space and time on Thursday and Friday.

Consider what transpires on this day in the life of Jesus.

He’s betrayed by one of the Twelve who shares in the Last Supper. As Jesus is breaking the bread and giving the cup, symbolizing his body & blood, the others don’t get it yet...but Jesus does. He knows fully what it represents and what’s about to go down tonight and tomorrow. This is the eve of His crucifixion.

He’s arrested by the guards, after facing Judas one last time. The feet He just washed run away from Him, as He’s abandoned by His disciples. But that’s after they keep falling asleep on Him, unable to pray for Him as He enters into the darkest hour of agony in the Garden.

He’s alone—except for the Father. The cup of wrath against sin is full to the brim and it’s His to drink.

Here we see our Savior surrendering his life. The Sacrificial Lamb—beginning His walk to the slaughter house. What He will endure in the next 24 hours is nearly indescribable.

Read the words of the gospel accounts and let your imagination take you into the reality of what is happening.

What words or phrases grab you as you read it? What emotions does it stir up within you?

Stand in awe. Shed tears of grief and gratitude. Jesus surrendered to this Plan to bring you to God. Jesus entered into this grief and sorrow so that one day He could take yours away.

Let it sink in.

In the deepest and darkest moment of Jesus’ life, He got alone, on His knees, with His Father. Let this be instructional and inspirational to you and me.  No matter what you’re facing or have had to face or will ever have to face… Jesus has already gone deeper into sorrow than you’ll ever go. He can identify with the deepest valley, the darkest night, the saddest sorrow, the worst grief. And even there, He trusted. He surrendered. This is one of the truest pictures of worship. To trust in the face of pain.

He could have called down angels. But He didn’t. The disciples fled, but Jesus stayed the course for us.

“Father, the pain in this world is so deep, our sin was and is so costly…but I praise you, Lord, because you made a way, through Your Son Jesus for us to be saved and healed. You paid for our waywardness and our denial. You carried our grief and our sorrow. Thank you, Jesus, for your willingness to lay down your life. Thank you for giving us the reminder of your broken body and blood through the bread and cup of communion. Thank you for washing our feet and giving us the example to follow of what it looks like to serve. Thank you for teaching us to love one another and for promising to send us the Holy Spirit. Thank you for praying for us and never leaving and forsaking us, even though we left you. Lord, help us to trust you even when facing our own road of suffering, and help us spread the good news of your sacrificial love with every opportunity you give us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

The Humble King (Palm Sunday)
Where's the Fruit (Monday)
The Stakes Are High (Tuesday)
The Clouds of Darkness (Wednesday)

Pastor Adam James

With all the teaching that Jesus did on Tuesday, it’s no surprise that Wednesday is a much quieter day for Jesus in the gospels. But His enemies got busy.

Luke tells us that it was on Wednesday that Satan actually entered Judas, leading him to pursue his plan of betrayal.

Mark’s account may actually shed a little light as to what pushed Judas over the edge. Perhaps, it was bitterness and anger that opened him further to the destructive scheme of Satan.

You see, it was Judas who was frustrated with the “waste” of expensive perfume that the woman poured over Jesus. Judas thought the perfume could be sold for money to be given to the poor—or so he said. John’s gospel, however, makes clear that Judas didn’t actually care about the poor, at all. “He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it” (John 12:6).

Jesus knew that what she had done was actually to begin to prepare His body for burial, and He rebuked Judas to leave her alone. He said, “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.” Later He said, “I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

I don’t imagine Judas enjoyed being called out by Jesus like that. The very next verse (Mark 14:10) says, “Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.”  

And, of course, he did it for money.

Judas must have been the answer to the “prayer” of the chief priests and teachers of the law. They had been looking for “some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him.” Now all they had to do was wait until the Passover Feast was over, so that the people wouldn’t riot.

As we move forward in these final days of Jesus' earthly life and mission…the clouds of darkness grow. Human depravity and demonic hatred are on the scene. Greed, anger, bitterness, hatred, scheming, lying, betrayal…

As the darkness grows, so does the weight of what’s happening. It’d be easy for me to point my finger at Judas in self-righteous disgust. But in this story, nobody gets away with clean hands. Jesus was going to the cross for MY sin… my greed, my anger, my hatred, my betrayal.

As the song  “What Have We Done?” so pointedly states, “Judas sold you for 30…I’d have done it for less.”

The betrayal and scheme to arrest Jesus is a dark, sad scene. And the same darkness was in us before Christ rescued us.

And here’s a crazy thought: Jesus knew it was coming. God wasn’t asleep at the switch. This was all part of the Plan. But woe to him who betrays the Son of Man and fails to repent.

Thanks be to God, Jesus stayed the course even as the clouds of darkness grew.

“Father, how great is your love for us. How incredible your plan to destroy the works of Satan. Jesus, forgive me for the times and the ways that I’ve betrayed and denied you…for the times I’ve given in to bitterness, anger, greed, or hatred. Lord, thank you for your gift of mercy and grace to ransom a sinner like me. Father, continue to purify and refine my devotion to you, that I might be faithful when tempted and sobered by the price you paid and the pain of betrayal you endured to purchase my salvation. Overthrow the work of the evil one in our city, in our nation, in our world. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

The Humble King | Palm Sunday
Where's the Fruit (Monday)
The Stakes Are High (Tuesday)

Pastor Adam James

Tuesday was a full day of teaching for Jesus. Nearly 5 full chapters of Matthew’s gospel account (Mt. 21-25) record all the teachings that Jesus gave on Tuesday. On this day, Jesus re-entered the temple courts to teach the people and engaged in more standoffs with the chief priests and Pharisees. And Jesus didn’t hold back!

From Matthew 21:23 all the way through chapters 22 & 23 of Matthew’s gospel, you find remarkable exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Chief Priests.

If you had time today, you could read about:

• The authority of Jesus questioned (21:23-27)
• The parable of the two sons (21:28-32)
• The parable of the tenants (21:33-46, today’s reading)
• The parable of the wedding banquet (22:1-14)
• Jesus’ response about paying taxes to Caesar (22:15-22)
• Jesus’ response to the Sadducees about marriage at the resurrection (22:23-33)
• Jesus’ summary of the Greatest Commandment (22:34-40)
• And the scathing Seven Woes against the Pharisees—whew! (23:1-39)

Then Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, and delivered what is known as the Olivet Discourse to His disciples (24 & 25), before again returning to Bethany. In the Olivet Discourse, we hear about:

• The signs of the end of the age (Mt. 24:1-35)
• The day and hour being unknown (24:36-51)
• The parable of the ten virgins (25:1-13)
• The parable of the talents (25:14-30)
• And the teaching on the sheep & the goats at final judgment (25:31-46)

Make no mistake, friends, Jesus had things to say.

And not everyone was excited about what he had to say. 

And not everything was easy to understand. But He was on a clear mission from God, and as the end drew near, Jesus didn’t mince His words.

As we consider the events and teachings of Jesus on this Tuesday of Holy Week, we’re reminded that Jesus drew clear lines in His teaching, calling for a clear response. There is no question that a holy sense of urgency is in order for the people of God.

What will it be?  

• Obedience or disobedience?
• Receive Him or reject Him?
• Answer His invitation or make excuses?
• Honor God or fear man?
• Religious on the outside and rotten on the inside? Or humbly broken at the feet of Jesus even though you’ve made a mess of things?
• Love Jesus more and more to the end? Or grow cold and fade?
• Get right with God today? Or fool around with life, run out of time, and miss out on the banquet?
• Steward the gifts and talents He’s given you? Or waste your life in unbelief and go to a place of darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?

Will you hear the words, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world!”

Or, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared of the devil and his angels.”

Jesus brought intense clarity on Tuesday. The difference between eternal punishment and eternal life all hinges on the person of Jesus Christ.

How do you treat Jesus Christ? Do you respect the Son of the Owner? Have you fallen on Jesus or are you waiting for Him to fall on you?

Better to be broken now at the feet of Jesus than to reject Christ—he cornerstone—and be crushed later.

Friends, this is what is on the line. The stakes are high.

“Father, it’s both a day filled with the promise of some of the greatest realities that could ever be imagined—eternal joy!—and simultaneously some of the hardest truths to even try to comprehend—weeping & gnashing of teeth. Help us live our days with a clear sense of urgency to be obedient and faithful, loving you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Help us be those who “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone we find.” Lord Jesus, I believe you are more than just a prophet in the eyes of man…you are the Son of God, the King of the banquet, the Master of the house, the Christ, the true Shepherd of the sheep, the true Righteous Judge who is to come!  And you are also the hungry we are to feed, the naked we are to clothe, and the sick & imprisoned we are to visit. Make your Name known in our city as we build our lives upon You. May we walk in your truth without compromise and may we walk in your love without excuse. Thank you, Jesus, for being and speaking the truth this world desperately needs. That I desperately need. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Pastor Adam James

On Monday of His final week leading up to the Cross, Jesus again entered Jerusalem after retreating to Bethany (where He likely stayed with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead).

We see Him cursing a fig tree and cleansing the temple. These actions carried significance as symbolic and literal judgments on the “fruitless” people of Israel who had abandoned the true worship of God. They honored God with their lips but their hearts were far from Him (Isa. 29:13).

The fig tree had leaves—the appearance of “fruit” and “life." But upon closer examination, there was no real fruit to be had. This was a parable, of sorts, concerning the condition of Israel. And Jesus pronounced a curse on the fig tree that the disciples later saw had caused the tree to wither and die.

As Jesus got into the city and went into the temple, He encountered another troubling scene. There were crooked money-changers, people buying and selling and extorting the people of God…in the temple!

And the righteous anger of Jesus began to clean house.

“My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made it a den of robbers!”

Not only was true praise absent from the people of God, but so were true prayer and righteousness nowhere to be found.

The “showdown” between Jesus and the Pharisees was in full effect. This would have been quite the scene. Many were amazed by His teaching, but the chief priests and the teachers of the law had had enough and wanted Him dead.

Make no mistake, friends—here is a great difference between dead religion and true righteousness.

There is a great difference between phony lip service and soul-stirring praise from the heart of a redeemed worshipper.

There is a great difference between religious-looking idolaters, whose hearts crave money, possessions, and power, and people who carry the aroma of the Spirit of God and traffic in the reality of true prayer.

There is a great difference between the flesh & the Spirit. Between hard hearts and soft hearts.

But beware, they are both often found hanging around Jesus and among the people of God.

Let us be careful to “test ourselves.” Is there the genuine fruit of salvation on our tree? Is there genuine fruit of repentance, worship, prayer, and righteousness?

Let judgment begin in the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). Let those who profess to know God demonstrate the genuine fruit that Jesus is seeking. 

May we find ourselves broken over our sin and longing to be a people with whom Jesus is pleased. Let us be a people of true fruit: sincere worship, authentic prayer, and genuine integrity.

“Father, as we consider the condition of our lives and of those who profess to know You, we confess that too easily and too often we lack the fruit you are looking for. Jesus, even as you found Israel to be lost and barren, so too you first found us in that same condition. But we praise you that you have not left us there! Thank you for the life-giving, fruit-bearing work of your Holy Spirit in the lives of your people. Lord, I pray for all the churches in our city that profess to know, love, and follow Jesus. May our city be filled with sincere worshippers, authentic pray-ers, and those who follow you with genuine integrity. Lord, let it begin in my heart…have your way in me. Show me any areas in my life where you are not finding the fruit you are looking for. And thank you that because of the Cross, the “old fruitless fig tree” of my life is in fact cursed and dead, and in it’s place you have given a new tree, a new life that has been created to bring you praise and bear new fruit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Pastor Adam James 

The stage was set.  The momentum was building.  The crescendo coming.  What an exciting time!

Surely, Jesus was going to unveil his full Kingly authority and overthrow those who ruled over and oppressed Israel, and those who opposed Jesus' claims as the Messiah, right?

Jesus was entering Jerusalem. Yet He knew...this was the beginning of the end.  And the end of the beginning.  His final week would culminate not with the overthrow of an earthly kingdom but with the defeat of a spiritual one, through the agony of the cross.

The praises rang out from the crowd, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

Jesus' miraculous and compassionate ministry of healing the sick, lame, and blind, and even raising the dead, had won him the praise of many.  But not everyone was convinced.  No. In fact, the tension was building to a boiling point.

The Pharisees grew more and more indignant with each resounding chorus, "Hosanna to the Son of David!  Hosanna in the highest!" (Matt. 21:9)  They chastised Jesus and demanded that He rebuke the crowds and the children who sang.  But Jesus replied, "If they keep quiet, even the stones will cry out."

Friends, Jesus really is the King who is worthy of praise.  All creation is on the edge of its seat as Jesus enters Jerusalem.  This is the one who spoke it into existence.  This is the Messiah—the Anointed One—the King.

In this scene, we see the humility of Jesus riding on a donkey.  We see the praise of the crowds.  We see the indignation of the Pharisees.  We see the love and compassion of Jesus...coming to bring peace.

But we also see the sadness of what is and what is to come.  We see the dark cloud growing on the horizon. We can't help but think that the crowds are maybe a bit fickle.  A bit shallow.  These ardent worshippers will soon be either silent and backing away from Jesus, or they'll join another crowd, in a different chant, "Crucify Him!"

No wonder—as Jesus looked over Jerusalem—He began to weep.  

And friends, if we're honest, you and I can find ourselves in that crowd.  Jesus is the humble King, deserving of praise.  And we are often fickle worshippers.

As we enter the week leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us reflect on the reality of who Jesus is—the true Messiah (Anointed One, King, Savior)—the One who is worthy of our praise and worship.  The One who came to bring true peace.  He is so worthy that even if we were to be silent, all of creation knows His worth and would cry out in songs of praise.  In fact, the heavens are daily declaring the glory of God (Ps. 19:1-6).

Let us also reflect on the sadness of unbelief.  There are many who do not see, who do not recognize the truth concerning our Savior.  Each of us at one time has been in that condition.

May we be moved to weep over our cities and to pray for the Kingdom of God to come in power, opening blind eyes and resulting in great praise to the Humble King who has come to set His people free.

by Josh McPherson

In light of the recent tragic events in Nashville TN, where a killer entered a Christian school and murdered 6 innocent people, many have asked me what measures we take at Grace City to secure our House.

I'm glad you asked.

As you know, just as any good dad takes seriously the protection of his family and home, we take seriously the security of our church family and all who visit Grace City.

For years, we had a wonderful volunteer team of faithful protectors who coordinated our security team. But as the needs of our church family grew, a volunteer team just wasn't enough. So,  at the beginning of 2022, we hired Justin Kissel full-time to oversee all security aspects of our church family’s life.

Justin came to our team well equipped. He has over 20 years in law enforcement at the WPD as a patrol officer, SWAT Team Leader, Firearms Instructor, a Field Training Officer, and gifted tactical instructor.

But more than that, Justin has a tender heart for Jesus, a pastoral heart to love people, and a shepherd’s heart to protect our flock.

Since being on staff, he has built up our Watchmen Team to over 30 protectors, added security measures to our physical building, and instituted solid security protocols across all aspects of Grace City life.

Our Watchman Team is dedicated to providing security to protect our house. The team is made up of former and current LEO’s, military, FBI, corrections deputies, firefighters, farmers, construction workers, and business owners—all wired with a heart to protect.

Practically, this means that every youth event has multiple, dedicated Watchmen Team members present, armed, and alert.

As well, at every worship service we have Watchmen Team members spread throughout the building. Some are in Grace Kids. Some post up at the entrance. Some monitor security cameras. Still others are strategically and inconspicuously seated around our Community Hall during the service. And all are connected on state-of-the-art comms for quick communication in the event of a situation.

The team undergoes bi-monthly, reality-based training, including firearms qualification, deescalation, use of force, active shooter, service-disruptions, protests, and mass-casualty scenarios.

In fact, this past weekend, our Watchman Team spent an entire Saturday training for mass-casualty situations through Jenn Foreman’s Combat First Aid course. Led by professional instructors, including Justin and our own Shaun Kelly (former EMS and firefighter), the Watchman Team trained hard in order to be ready and able to serve our church, if necessary.

And serve us they do.

They've handled potential picketers. They’ve escorted disrupting individuals off-site. They've dealt professionally with folks displaying mental instability. And they’ve worked in conjunction with local LEO's to trespass aggressive individuals.

They are trained and prepared. They are measured and professional. They are alert and vigilant. They are ready, willing, and able to protect our House should the need arise.

But not only do we have a team trained and prepared to protect our house, Justin has had the opportunity to work with numerous churches and teams to help them prepare. He’s shared his protocols, his security plans, and his training with other churches to help them keep their churches safe.

[Read these fun reports from Justin for a couple of examples: Mr. Kissel Goes to Eastmont Community Church and Mr. Kissel Goes to Orondo Community Church]

And calls continue to come in from churches and Christian schools. All asking to learn from the program Justin is building.

This is the heart of the people and teams of Grace City. To help serve as many people as we can, free of charge, sharing whatever we’ve built and learned. And we can do that because of generosity of the people of Grace City. Thank you.

With all of our intentional effort, it is our earnest hope and prayer that they are never needed. We don’t train hoping to use it. We train praying it is never needed. But we train and prepare, nonetheless.  

Some have asked how I square faith in God with preparing aggressively for terrible scenarios.

Easy.

It’s the same as I do in every other area of my Christian life. I pray God provides for my family, then I work hard by the sweat of my brow to make a living. I ask God to save sinners, then I preach the gospel with all my might. I ask God to build His Church, then I make a strategic plan to grow Grace City. I ask God to protect my family, then I lock our doors at night.

So we ask God to protect our Church, and we train to be the means by which He answers that prayer. All the while, we invoke the name of Jesus and pray for protection in the heavenly spiritual realms. That’s where these battles begin, so that is where we take the fight first.

But if that spiritual battle should ever make its way to our door in the form of physical threats or acts of violence, we will be prepared to meet them. With whatever force necessary. Until evil stops hurting innocent people.

This is the ethos of our House…ready of mind, willing of heart, and able of skill to protect and defend innocent life. It is our code of honor. And we hold it with deep conviction.

As Lead Pastor of Grace City, I am deeply grateful for this team, for their vigilant heart and watchful eye over our church family. To the men and women who serve on the Watchman Team, THANK YOU. 

If you see them, would you tell them thanks as well? Thank them for training hard, preparing well, and signing up to be the first ones to step into harms way should the need arise in order to protect our church family.

And let us pray, by God’s grace, we never need them.

For the elders,
Pastor Josh

 by Josh McPherson

This week the eyes of our nation were transfixed on the tragic Christian School shooting in TN.

We witnessed the sick mentality of a cold-blooded killer on full display in a twisted manifesto and pathologically evil actions.

We watched the courageous heroism of cops stepping over the body of a 9-year old girl dressed in pink lying motionless on the floor as they charged towards the sound of gunfire.

We listened to the heartbroken pastor-dad of one of the murdered little girls when he said, “Through tears, we trust she is in the arms of Jesus, who will raise her to life once again…”

And in the middle of all this mind-numbing tragedy, the political circus fired up.

As if on cue, the POTUS approached the mic, made a few jokes about ice cream, and proceeded to drone on, in sleepy prose, the tired party-line politics of calling for more gun restrictions.

The cringeworthy, tone-deaf press conference lectured gun owners and blamed guns. No mention of mental illness. No mention of personal responsibility put on a demented criminal. With less then 10 seconds dedicated to mourning the loss of little children, he pivoted to party-line agendas.

Blame the gun, blame law-abiding citizens—barely mention the families.

Had this tragedy happened at a gay night club or a muslim mosque, cries of hate-crime would fill the air. But a Christian school intentionally targeted for its orthodox beliefs? An act of murder in response to repeated calls for violence from Antifa during a “trans day of vengeance”?

No hate crime here. Just another tragic example of how "Guns kill people." Duh.

And then the jeering started. As one progressive partisan mocked on twitter, “Very surprising that there would be a mass shooting at a Christian school, given that lack of prayer is often blamed for these horrible events. Is it possible they weren’t praying enough, or correctly, despite being a Christian school?”  

Smug mockery in the face of heartbreaking tragedy. How nice.

Then came the blame game. It was probably the narrow-minded Christians who made her feel ostracized in the first place. 

And just like that, the political narrative turned a killer into a victim and a 9-year old dead girl into a member of the oppressive class.

Though not surprising, it was breathtakingly disappointing to witness nonetheless. The hatred and vitriol was hard to comprehend. Yet here we are.

This is how nations are destroyed. Refuse to require personal responsibility for actions. Blame other people. Victimize criminals. Encourage mental derangement. Ignore mental illness. Hand out drugs like candy. Gaslight the general populous. Cast baseless dispersions, spread horrific rumors, and hurl wild accusations against a particular class of people ("Christians are waging a genocide against trans people!" was one headline I read). Then use these baseless lies to legitimatizes violence against them in response. And what do you have?

Well, friend, you've got yourself a culture war primed for a violent revolution.

We're literally living out of a chapter pulled from Karl Marx’s playbook.

Though the tragedy happened at one local Christian school, the impact was felt on every Christian school campus in America. Schools who run largely on thin tuition and donated charitable dollars. Schools with teachers who don't have pensions. Schools without tax-funded budgets. Schools that live on conviction and the charitable generosity of a local community. Schools who love children and teach them to sing songs like "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world."

These are the vilified institutions brainwashing children that must be "held accountable." Obviously, they were to blame.

Um, What?

I spoke with the Headmaster of one Christian school in our state this week. “It’s a sad day for Christian education across the country. A sobering wake-up call to the evil that exists and hatred directed towards us.”

Many in Christian education, and children everywhere, went to school with heavy hearts and a nervous eye towards the locked doors this week.

Who's next?

Will copycat actions crop up across the nation?

Are we all in danger?

As I’ve spoken personally with schools and churches this week, all were scrambling to review their safety measures in order to keep their children safe. At Christian schools. Who would have thought? Insane.

In light of such things, how do we respond as Christians?

Well, we respond how Christians the world over have responded for centuries past. In no particular order...

We weep with those who weep, mourn with the hurting, and pray for those who lost loved ones in such a violent and senseless attack.

We honor the protectors who courageously did their job to prevent further destruction of life.

We pray for the family of the killer, whose lives are forever marred with the shame of her actions.

We ignore the lies hurled at us in the spirit of the Accuser.

We keep our minds clear with the Word of God.

We don't take the bait of the mocker by getting down in the mud and rolling around with mud-slingers.

We love the ones who declare they are our enemy & pray for those who persecute us.

And we refuse to live in fear.

And we keep loving all people.

And we keep helping those who are hurting.

And we hold fast to our faith.

And we prepare to protect our own from evil.

And we refuse to stop preaching the truth of the gospel—the only hope for a broken society.

And we thank God that this is not the end of the story.

While evil wreaks havoc and destruction, and the accuser casts lies and dispersions, Christians the world over are quietly, sacrificially, daily loving people. The Church continues to bless communities. And the Kingdom of God advances steadily forward.

This week alone, pastors of Grace City and Doorholders (members of our church family serving on many different Grace Teams) have ministered in powerful ways to hurting people.

One young man, who has been abandoned by his family, found his way to Grace City. He met loving adults and students who welcomed him into our House. He gave his life to Jesus. He forgave those he was angry with. We’ll baptize him this Easter.

Another young man, currently incarcerated as a juvenile felon but allowed to come to Grace City youth events, spoke at length with one of our pastors. After the good news of Jesus was explained to him...that forgiveness and newness of life was available through Jesus, he stood up and declared, “I have to do this, I want Jesus to change my life.” We’ll baptize him this Easter.

A hurting woman in Chelan County jail had been repeatedly molested as a child by her father. This started a broken cycle of sexual abuse by other men. She turned to studying Wiccan witchcraft for comfort. This week she was loved and discipled by our Chaplain Team and encouraged to turn away from demonic worship to her Heavenly Father who loves her. She was prayed for, listened to, and loved on in the name of Jesus.

Another young man started attending youth group. Got ahold of the Bible. Read it from cover-to-cover. Became convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. Gave his life to Jesus. Now he’s praying for his parents and bringing them to church with him. We’ll baptize him next to his family on Easter.

How about the young lady coming out of an alternative lifestyle? Yup, you guessed it, getting baptized at Easter.

Or the man who found his refuge in career success until his career and success let him down? Now he's surrendered his life to Jesus. We’ll baptize him on Easter.

51—to be exact.

51 people will get baptized, and counting. (*editor's note...since publishing this blog, the number is over 60!*)

51 stories of deep, personal, life-changing transformation.

That’s how a nation is changed.

One broken person loved at a time. One hurting person at a time listened to, loved on, and pointed to Jesus Christ.

That’s what pushes back the darkness.

Love. Truth. Grace. Personalized in a face, a conversation, a prayer offered in faith. Through you, the Church, loving people in Jesus name.

It’s an honor to work with you in these days, Grace City, to point more people to the only source of true and lasting personal and social change—the risen Savior.

For my Easter sermon, I’m going to preach from an odd text. In the Old Testament, a prophet of God stands on the edge of a deserted desert valley. The valley is filled with the bones and carcasses of dead animals. The prophet looks across the devastating landscape of death and God asks him a single question, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?" (Ez. 37:3)

The answer is glorious.

So let's come this Easter Weekend ready to celebrate the Risen Savior. Bring a friend, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, mother, father, friend. The world is dark, the gospel is bright, Jesus is alive, and there are still people who haven’t heard. We have good work to do.  

I'm fired up. Even in the face of a hellish tragedy, Heaven marches on. Because of an empty tomb, Death doesn't get the last laugh. Thanks be to God. Jesus is Revival.

Onward,

Pastor Josh

"I had the opportunity today to go out to Orondo Community Church and help them with a security consultation. Hayden McCall (on the left) works for Washington State Patrol and reached out to me a few months back. While Orondo Community Church is his home church—where his family attends and serves—he’s also been attending Grace City since 2017 (notice the SMN hat!). Hayden and his wife attend Thursday Night service at Grace City then Sunday services in Orondo. Hayden is putting new security measures in place and asked if I’d be willing to give some input. I gladly accepted! I met with him and pastor Billy Saul (in the middle). We walked through various scenarios, and I provided them with input on how to prepare and respond. I absolutely LOVE being able to help other churches in this capacity!"

—Justin Kissel, Head of Security

Do you remember what you were doing Tuesday, October 18th 2022 from 7pm to 8pm? Seriously, try to remember exactly where you were, what you were eating, which app you were scrolling through on your phone, or what show you were watching on TV. That's a tall order for most of us, right? Tuesdays tend not to be eventful let alone memorable or impactful.

Those who attended this week's Young Adults gathering, however, could tell you exactly what they were doing at that time. They were learning about the grace and peace of the Lord through Leviticus. And they were celebrating.  

Like all truly good news worth celebrating, this story is the Lord's...and it's Austin's story.

Austin showed up to The Stitch for the first time this spring. That night, after hearing the gospel preached, he gave his life to Christ in a small group that he'd joined.

Afterward, we gave Austin a Bible and he told us, "I was at home trying to decide between a 12-pack of beer or coming to this church thing that my friend invited me to."

Since then, Austin has made the huge decision to join the Marines. Before he leaves for basic, he wanted to be baptized and let everyone know that Jesus is the Lord of his life.

"He is helping change my outlook on life and how I respond to certain situations. He's helped me get rid of a lot of negative habits of mine and certain people. He's given me clarity and opened new paths."

"I feel so much cleaner and lighter and like I can actually breathe for once without a huge weight on my chest."

Austin came to Grace City Church for the first time this spring. Invited by a friend to try The Stitch on a Tuesday night. He chose to accept that invitation over starting in on another 12-pack. He heard the Gospel proclaimed—another invitation. And he accepted!

This is a young man with a rough background. A runaway from a tough home. A young man who lost three friends to suicide, two to drugs, and one to cancer in the last five years. He knows the kind of pain that binds. He knows what it's like to try drinking it away. And, as of Tuesday, October 18th, 2022, Austin has publicly declared that he...is...free! A new creation in Christ! Let the Church rejoice.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

Please join us in praying for Austin as he leaves to join his fellow Marines, for Pastor Kyle McMullen and the Young Adults ministry at Grace City Church, and all those who would have the courage to simply (and profoundly) extend an invitation that the Lord could use to change a life forever.

“I had the opportunity last week to help pass on some of my church security knowledge by doing a security consult at Eastmont Community Church. I was contacted by Matthew Black (right). He’s wanting to start a security program at ECC. He asked if I was willing to help, and I gladly accepted. I met with him and Pastor Eric Barns (middle) and gave them some guidance on how to get their program up and running, as well as how to better secure their facility. I’m blessed to be in a position that allows me to help keep Grace City Church safe, and I’m grateful to be able to help assist other churches in the valley with their safety plans. God is good!”

—Justin Kissel, Head of Security

On Lewis and Life-Trac University
Written by Weston Knudtson (following his first Life-Trac course Spring 2022)

Do you have a literary mentor? Have you discovered what went on in the life of your favorite author while writing your most-loved book? That’s what Robin Carey encourages. She says, “find your literary mentor and go deep”—meaning, know what the author is about and who or what their writing centers on. Discover your literary mentor’s life story and understand the reason behind each of their writings. These details can enrich each of their words.  

In her class, The Life & Works of C.S. Lewis, Robin Carey shares how Lewis is one of her literary mentors. She invites us into the incredible journey God laid out for him. Robin has spent her life studying the works of C.S. Lewis and consistently finds Jesus at the center. She shares her amazement, not only in Lewis, but more significantly in the work of Jesus in Lewis’s life and writings. Robin has not only explored many of Lewis’ works but also went the extra mile (literally), traveling to England to visit sites where Lewis lived and worked. Robin’s knowledge of Lewis and her delight in Jesus as the Author of life, presents an exciting opportunity for everyone to enjoy learning from her.

Whether you’ve heard of C.S. Lewis or not, you will discover a man who wrestled with many of life’s biggest questions, not so different from yourself. He lived no extraordinary life but was drawn to an extraordinary God who inspired his extraordinary writings. A man never emptied of imagination or limited by what he could see, Clive Staples Lewis created stories of adventure and truth. Many of his fantasy stories that we know and love today were formed in his mind as a boy.

Like us all, Lewis experienced a life full of ups and downs. Peering in from the outside, some may consider Lewis’ life more tragic than most. He was no stranger to the pains and sorrow that come from death. At only ten years old, his loving mother died. She was the first of many losses in his life that led to him questioning the Christian faith (which he was introduced to by his mother) and ultimately abandoning it for some time. But it was clear God was not done with Lewis, even if he seemed to be done with God.

Over the next twenty years, through his time at Oxford (before and after the war) and in the Great War, Lewis formed many close friendships, including friendships with Christians. This always puzzled Lewis. How could he have intelligent discussions in logic and reason with Christians? But he loved their company and their conversation anyway. God was on the move. Lewis encountered much more death in his life, but he also built many strong friendships. Lewis said, “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’” God used different people at various times in Lewis’ life to draw him in.  

A slow but lasting transformation, Lewis finally committed his life to Christ. This commitment happened while walking with two of his dear friends. He, as he shared in some of his writings, could not ignore the evidence of God’s hand at work in his life through all the good and the bad. It was apparent God placed him with the right people, in the right circumstances, in the right place, at the right time through his entire journey.

During the last two decades of his life, Lewis became well known around the world. He shared his hope in Jesus Christ through talks on the radio, essays, letters, and books. He studied his audience and spoke directly to their hearts. He was a master at saying exactly what he meant to say, never wasting a single word. Lewis died on November 22, 1963, the same day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. But God was not finished with the work He did in Lewis. Before his death, Lewis named Walter Hooper as his literary executor. Hooper is responsible for publishing many well-known C.S. Lewis works, including letters and essays, that would go on to point many to the hope and truth of Jesus.  

What we observe from C.S. Lewis is a life full of much pain but also of great joy. We can see God has a good plan and purpose for every little detail. Ultimately, God desires for us to know Him deeply and share Him with others through our whole life. C.S. Lewis was one who displayed this in his life and works. Robin Carey shares three things she has learned from Lewis’ spiritual journey that are important for us to remember:

1. People often accept truth in stages.
2. Most people prefer an impersonal God.
3. God can and will use anything or anyone to wake us up.

Some of Lewis’ friends said he was the most converted man they ever knew. C.S. Lewis is a great example of someone who thought about his faith deeply and sought to understand what it truly means to be a Christian and then live it.    

What about you? Are you a life-long learner? Does a class on C.S. Lewis or another topic centered on faith pique your interest? Maybe you find it difficult to squeeze in learning a new subject, one that is outside the continued education needed for your job or projects at home. Maybe you’re interested in learning more about theology and apologetics but you don’t know how to start. Maybe you have a desire to better understand today’s culture to reach people but you find it difficult. Or maybe you’re new to Christianity and need help growing in your relationship with God.

Life-Trac University provides you with the opportunity you’ve been looking for, the help you need, and the tools you can use to share, stand for, and understand your faith through all areas of life. Life-Trac offers a range of courses including finances, marriage, parenting, the current culture, theology, apologetics, and more. Each instructor teaches from a biblical worldview and helps students build on a foundation of truth with Jesus. Are you ready? Please come take your seats.

Class is in session.

Church Family,

For 2000 years, the Church of Jesus Christ has been an indomitable force for good in a world full of bad.

The book of Acts is the story of the birth of the Church. We, as a church, are going to dive in to where it all started.

It would be impossible to calculate and quantify the impact on the world this story has made. And the story still continues to this day…and better yet, you’re in it!

But the book of Acts is also personally meaningful to me because it was among one of the first books of the Bible we studied as a church when we were just getting started.

And man, did we look different back then.

Grace Covenant Church.

No Grace Kids.

No AJR.

No Anchored.

No Vector.

No Little Starts.

No Every Good Path.

No Stronger Men.

No Stronger Man Nation.

No Well or Flourish.

No Grace City Publishing.

No WE Conference.

No Battle Ready or Kneel Conference.

No Life-Trac University.

No “No Town Like Hometown” initiatives.

No home.

But. God.

God used that book of the Bible to give 100+ people, gathered in a rented facility with no money or resources, a vision for what could happen if we surrender our lives to Jesus.

Quite literally, the book that tells the story of the birth of the Church birthed Grace City Church.

Since then, we’ve baptized hundreds of new believers, given away over a million dollars directly to our community, leveraged millions more to build a home we regularly share with our valley, helped plant and fund multiple churches, launched countless ministry initiatives, and seen Jesus flat-out change thousands upon thousands of people’s lives…

…all because a few dozen people said, “All in, one name” in response to God’s work in the book of Acts.

Which is why I’m so excited to preach through this book again. What will God to this time?!

That’s the kind of anticipation I am bringing to this series. I could not be more excited.

So there you have it.

Verse by verse, through the second longest book in the New Testament.

It's about to get real.

Pastor Josh

Commencement Speech for the 2022 Graduating Class
By Carey McPherson

Well, this year is the first of many—the first graduating class of Vector and my first commencement speech. The only commencement speeches I’ve heard were boring and far too long, so I will try to avoid both of those.

Members of the Board of Trustees, faculty, honored guests, parents, and the graduating class of 2022, good morning, and thank you for letting me address you one last time.

It has been a joy to get to know each and everyone of you.

Since I’ve never given a commencement speech, I perused this year’s commencement speakers and was overwhelmed by some of the talent and great minds of those who gave them. Names like Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, one-time but should’ve-been-a-two-time-super-bowl-champion Russell Wilson, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. I feel slightly underdressed at this party.

But today you have with you the 2-time reigning Pull-up Champion of Stronger Man Nation. So there’s that.

As I listened to some of these commencement speeches that are happening across our great country by some of the most gifted people God has made, I couldn’t help but notice that their charges and exhortations were filled with cliche truisms and airy platitudes.

They promised the graduates that they could be anything they want to be (literally)…you could be a man, a woman, a lemming, or a left-handed relief pitcher for the New York Yankees. Whatever you want to be!

Indeed, these are very interesting times we are living in. Maybe you think I’m overstating my case, but in this 39-year-old’s memory…

• we used to appoint Supreme Court Justices without having to ask them to define what a woman is.
• we used to treat a regular flu season with some sense of normalcy, not like the the 4th horseman of the Apocalypse.
• We used to allow only women to compete in women’s sports.
• We used to cheer when a child was saved from slaughter. Now we riot that we can’t.
• And we used to have some sense of what was right and wrong, what is moral and ethical, what is good and decent.

Some people might say this is the worst time in human history to be alive. I think it’s the best time. Some would say that this the hardest time to live the Christian life. Let me assure you, it is not. Those who have gone before would assure you that it is not. There are a cloud of witnesses in blood-stained garments, cheering you on, assuring you that the prize is worth the endurance.

Our culture is going through what seems to be a grand mal seizure, but it will pass. What you must do is live your life in a worthy manner, above the fray, above the cultural babel. God remains on the throne, and it is your responsibility to remember that, to live like it, and to proclaim that with all courage and compassion. This is a period. This is a phase, and this too shall pass. This is not the first time history has seen such cultural madness.

Running to compete in the Olympics is hard. Running and winning a gold medal in the Olympics is even harder. Athletes dedicate their lives to it and still most fail…and that’s with everyone cheering them on. Now imagine that all your training, all your preparation, is met with a crowd that is adamantly against you. They criticize everything you do, and they ridicule you for the prize you seek. They boo your progress and try to hinder you from attaining your goal.

That’s what it’s like to run the race of faith marked out before you. But by God’s sovereign design, by His providence and plan, you have the privilege of coming of age in a time when our kings and presidents, news anchors and celebrities, faculty members and college presidents, and all the rest of that lot, have all gone mad. But really, it isn’t all that new. That’s what’s been happening from page 3 of Genesis.

What a privilege to be alive at this time. What a moment in the blip of history to herald the message of our reigning champion, King Jesus. This is your moment to have faith that God will do great things in your generation.

And that’s why you chose Vector over another school. Your education was not provided to you in order to keep you from battle. Your education was given to you in order to fit you for the fight that is inevitably ahead. So make the best of it. The story would be very dull if there were no dragons to slay.

The feeling we often get is expressed well in Tolkien’s Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, as Frodo and Sam make their way to what seems to be an impossible journey to Mordor that will surely end in their deaths.

“I can’t do this, Sam,” said Frodo.
Sam: I know, Mr. Frodo. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

Class of 2022, this is God’s world, and there is good worth fighting for.

Here is my charge to you, class of 2022: 14 exhortations for living in the Kingdom of God. These are not in any order, nor are they by any means everything you need to know, but it’s a start. The rest, you can ask your mom.

1. Life is Hard, and it often isn’t fair. The sooner you realize this, the more forward progress you’ll make in life. You’ll stop feeling sorry for yourself, you’ll stop seeing yourself as a victim, and you’ll begin to contribute in positive ways to the world.

2. Think for yourself. Not to think is a bad idea, and if you don’t think, you’ll sell your mind to the highest bidder. Don’t let Fox News or CNN or Tik Tok or celebrities do your thinking for you. God gave you a mind, and that mind was meant to wrap itself around His truth.

3. Relationships are your best long-term investments. Life’s greatest rewards and greatest experiences and greatest blessings involve people. Your life will be shaped by them. Pursue the right ones, invest in the right ones, cultivate the right ones. God will do his greatest and deepest work in your life through relationships

4. Think Generationally. Start with the end in view. Don’t live for the now. Think about what you want at the end…what you want for your marriage, what you want for your relationships. Make your decisions in light of your grandchildren.

5. Obey God, leave the outcome to Him. The longer that you think you can control outcomes in your life, the more frustration you're going to experience in this journey of faith. Embrace the process. If you’re unsure of what to do, go back and do the last thing God told you to do. Opportunities don’t show up looking like opportunities when they knock, it might look more like routine obedience. And with obedience comes freedom…the freedom of not needing to know the outcome but trusting God. So obey God’s Word, obey your conscience, and let the chips fall.

6. Commit to and serve a Local Church. Don’t drift. Don’t make finding a good church the last thing on your list. Make it a focal point of your decisions. Serve her, love her, build her up. No wife was made beautiful because her husband complained and critiqued her. So, too, the Bride of Christ. Some people stop attending church because they had a bad experience…but just because you had bad meal at a restaurant doesn’t mean you should never eat again. You have to follow Jesus for yourself, but you can’t follow him by yourself. At least, not effectively. And the greatest hope for the world is still the Local Church.  

7. The words “I’m sorry, I was wrong, will you forgive me?” has the power to begin healing to the deepest hurt in any relationship. Use those words often and you will find your relationships thriving; use them sparingly, or not at all, and you find your relationships withering.

8. Strive for Excellence in the Small things. Most of life is often made up of the mundane: Going to work, changing diapers, mowing your yard, paying your taxes. And during those times it doesn’t feel like you’re changing the world. That’s because we don’t value diligence and fortitude anymore. But in your routine obedience, as you plant seeds of the fruit of the Spirit in every area of your life, you will find yourself carrying around heavy baskets full of fruit. That’s why Paul said in Galatians 6, “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

9. Develop your Gift. God has made you uniquely and specifically for a purpose. God has deposited something in you, but it’s your responsibility to develop it. God’s gifts should come with a warning label: “Some assembly required.” Just because God put a gift in you doesn’t mean that it will come out of you. In order for the gift God put in you to make a difference in the world you have to develop that gift. So put your time in. God will give you everything you need, but he’ll expect you to put it together through the process of diligence. Sharpen your skill so you don’t needlessly hack away at a tree wondering why it won’t fall because you’ve forgotten how to sharpen your hatchet.

10. Work hard at being hard to offend. People are so easily offended these days. It’s almost as if they are looking for a reason to be offended. They’ll leave marriages, churches, relationships, and much more often because they didn’t talk to the other person or hear their point of view, or were offended because someone disagreed with them. Stick things out. Show a little grit. The world needs more stable people.

11. God is at work in the Hard. Just because you encounter something difficult or painful doesn’t mean God isn’t at work. The opposite is actually true. Just because it’s hard, just because it’s painful, just because it’s inconvenient, just because you don’t feel the love or passion you once had doesn’t mean you should move on from a situation or relationship. I used to admire most the people who had the faith to start things. But now I’ve come to admire even more the people who have the fortitude to stay.

12. The best version of you is the humble version of you. There have been plenty of irritating people that I’ve known, including myself, who are incredibly difficult to work with, to live with, to interact with, to be in community with, to do business with, until something changed: they humble themselves. And now some of those people are my closest friends. Humility will take you to places no other character trait can, because it is humility that allows other character traits to flourish

13. Your ability to see God at work in any and every situation (and particularly in your pain) will greatly increase your measure of joy. If you can learn to put that lens on, your life will be a sweet aroma to those around you. God is more interested in your character than your comfort. That’s what the Apostle Peter was getting it when he wrote “though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Or as Spurgeon once said, “I’ve learned to kiss the wave that dashed me against the Rock of Christ.” Suffering is a strange gift, so learn to put a bow on it and receive it as one.

14. Treasure the Word of God. Let the Word of God have it’s way with you. Let it shape you, let it conform you, let it heal you, let it comfort you, let give you confidence. Too many people have bled and died for dust to collect on your Bible. Ignorance to God’s word will lead to ignorance of God’s will. Within it lies the path to the eternal city.


Let me leave you with a word from the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 10
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For,
“In just a little while,
   he who is coming will come
   and will not delay.”
‘my righteous one will live by faith.
   And I take no pleasure
   in the one who shrinks back.’
But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

Congratulations, class of 2022.

Doctrine—a word tarnished by a cold and rigid reputation, forced to live on the dusty shelves of intellectuals and deemed trivial by most of the world.

And since doctrine surrounds itself with the great names of Christian history (such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Saint Augustine) and clothes itself with profound, and at times, abstract terminology like “triperspectivalism,” “eschatology,” and “hamartiology,” most of us tend to file doctrine into a mental box titled, “Confusing! Therefore, Uninteresting!”

It seems like any term typically represented by well-known and well-revered theologians isn’t a practical discussion for the everyday Christian but is, instead, meant to be reserved for the deep meditations of wooly cardigan owners.

Doctrine, however, pertains much more to our daily lives than we realize. It is not a stuffy topic strictly meant for the highly-esteemed theologian. It is, in essence, the very structure shaping all of our worldviews and supplying reason to our core values, our good-Samaritan virtues, and our evangelical actions.

Somewhere along the fuzzy line of history, doctrine and discipleship found themselves expressed through “cold” and “warm” dichotomies, separating them into seemingly opposite sides of Christianity.

But if discipleship isn’t supported by doctrine, it isn’t discipleship. Neither is doctrine complete if it doesn’t support discipleship. They need each other to reach their shared goal of worship because, together, doctrine and discipleship establish truth, love, and action, and, together, they bring about doxology, the expression of worship.

They’re a three-in-one pairing, unable to be separated and still maintain their meanings (triperspectivalism!).

While it’s true that doctrine can have its dry and bewildering moments, it plays a crucial role in the very makeup of our faith. Without tackling the WHY’s and the HOW-TO’s of Christianity, how can we share Christ with others?

Jesus perfectly models the two-way dependency of doctrine and discipleship in John 4, when He speaks with the Samaritan woman at the well. As Jesus reveals the woman’s sins and declares that He is the Messiah, He is ultimately establishing the foundation of Soteriology—the Doctrine of Salvation. Soteriology explores what salvation looks like, and it asks how we can be saved: by Whom and by what means. And directly in this text, the Word Himself answers those questions: by confessing our sins and accepting Jesus Christ as Lord over our lives. Thus, we can see that the Doctrine of Salvation (Soteriology) wasn’t man-made; it’s not given its name to express the superhuman thought of some theologian who suddenly figured it all out. Soteriology was born from God’s Word, and He blessed us with the ability to give names to His own creations (Genesis 2:19-20).

Additionally, Jesus reveals to the woman that she doesn’t know, therefore she cannot worship:

To know is doctrine, and we study it to understand more about God, ourselves, and the world. Christ explains that knowing is a foundational base of worship because you cannot worship that which you don’t know. The Samaritan woman was unable to worship the true God or recognize the Messiah because she didn’t know how and, more to the point, she didn’t know Him.

The same logic applies to us. We cannot worship God if we do not study with the intent to know Him. If we do not take into consideration the Who we are worshiping (to not consider doctrine), we are simply failing to worship. If we do not share the knowledge of the Who (to not disciple as the woman does in verses 28-29), we are, again, failing to worship. The three-in-one pairing of doctrine, discipleship, and doxology then crumbles if all three aren’t present.

They are a reflection of the characteristics of the Trinity—one cannot be missing, corrupted, or forgotten without exposing the entirety as false or non-existent. This is another example of triperspectivalism!

When we study the unity of things around us with the perspective that all of it was created by a three-in-one God, we begin to recognize Him as Creator and understand more of the Who. If we don’t recognize how creation proves and glorifies God, how are we able to know Who we’re worshiping?

So when you stop and marvel at sunsets and starry skies, you’re not only enjoying God’s creation but witnessing His power and divinity. You’re witnessing doctrine in real-time. Doctrine gives structure to our beliefs; it’s the backbone of our actions as believers.

See, you and I know and rely on doctrine more than we give ourselves credit! And it’s because we, as the Body of Christ, are all theologians (whether we wear wooly cardigans or not).

As Christ-followers, we are called to show our faith by our deeds (James 2:14-25), and with our faith-filled deeds, we are the salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16). Being the salt and light through our good deeds is the premise of the doctrine + discipleship = doxology formula.

Our biblical knowledge needs to be put into action in the real world with the intention of bringing others to Christ and glory to God. Ultimately, doctrine was never meant to be inactive on dusty shelves or seen as irrelevant to our daily walk with Christ. Doctrine is used. Doctrine is a part of the Gospel, as Jesus shows in John 4; He reveals her sin, reveals she does not know, and then tells her the truth so that she may worship God. He disciples her by explaining doctrinal points and brings her to worship of the Father.

To exercise the doctrine formula as part of the very first Vector Term, we students were challenged with applying our newfound knowledge of doctrine in a creative project. Not only did we learn the importance of utilizing our biblical knowledge, but proactively used it.
 
With grateful hearts, we Vecterns want to share with the Grace City Family what we’ve been learning and how God has been using the Lift-Off provisions to forge us into strong and fully equipped leaders.

On behalf of the Vecterns, I thank our church family for your prayers, generosity, and most importantly, your love for God and His Kingdom.

"If you're new, welcome. My name is Josh, the Pastor of Grace City Church. We've been working our way through the Gospel of Luke. We have two Sundays left to complete the Gospel of Luke, and I'm already mourning that a little bit. I have loved teaching that book so, so much. And so, we're going to finish that in two weeks, but today we're going to do something a little different. We're going to do a bit of a Lift Off recap and review to share all the things that are going on here at Grace City. We keep trying to tell the stories and there's just too many to tell. We thought, 'Well, let's put a bunch on one Sunday,' so that's what we're going to do this morning.

"But before we get started, Pastor Adams mentioned it and we've noted it, but I just don't want us to miss that it snowed 40 inches on Wenatchee Heights between Tuesday and Friday of last week. Okay? And all of you thought... You all got worried. I was there. I had no stress last week. I was full of faith... Full of faith, no stress. Snowed like all the snow in Heaven got directed to the Wenatchee Valley Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday morning. Yeah, Monday was cold and rainy and miserable, and between those events, that happened. We shouldn't miss that. It was like the Lord was like, 'Josh's beard isn't completely gray, all gray yet, so watch this. This will be funny.' And so, we had the snow thing happen and then the rain and the clouds last week.

"You can now say that you've experienced God parting the Red Sea. He parted the weather sea, and we walked through on dry grass. You know what I mean? It was just remarkable. There was this much snow on the county fairgrounds grass on Friday. We thought, 'Man, should we go out there and try to drive it around and plow it and shovel it?' And we got there Sunday and not a damp blade of grass to be seen. Just remarkable. So many stories coming in from that day that we'll tell in the days to come. You've heard of them some already.

"I was talking to Catherine out there in the Junction this morning. Sweet, sweet dear follower of Jesus. Her son who's been watching online from Seattle—in fact, he might be watching right now, and if he has been, we can give him a wave—he is recently clean from heroin and is following Jesus, gave his life to Jesus, raised his hand at his house watching the service. He calls this his home church. He could not wait to get baptized at his home church, so he drove over from Seattle to get baptized with his mom on Easter Sunday.

"And she said, 'I was texting him back and forth as he was driving home. We were in tears.' We were just talking like, 'Can you imagine—could you have imagined—six years ago, bud, that you'd get baptized with your mom on an Easter Sunday at a church in a town you don't live in and be clean from heroin and be walking a new life and just crying in tears of joy?' That's what God's doing. That's what God's doing. I mean, it's just remarkable. It's just remarkable.

"And some of you guys heard Jake's story. Jake wave your hand. Aren't you grateful for his story on Sunday? Wasn't that incredible? I heard Quincy Jake. We call him Quincy Jake. And what God's doing in his life and more to his story. It's just remarkable. How old are you, Jake? 36. And you heard the testimony that God's given him. And bro, seriously, I was like, as you were talking at the end, I was super tempted to scrap my sermon. I was like, 'We should just have Quincy Jake preach to us right now. Come on, give the man the mic and let that guy go.' God's doing such sweet things in his heart.

"Part of his story that he wasn't able to get in was that his dad was going into the ministry, was in school for the ministry, going to Bible school. Jake was six years old, got a Bible from his dad. And at six years old, his dad had graduated from this school, and then for whatever reason, left the family and shattered the family, tore the family apart. Older brother and sister left (they’re older than Jake by quite a bit) with the dad. He hasn't seen his older brother for 30 years. And so he was associating Jesus, church, and the Bible to his dad bailing. And so that's his church experience. 'What’s my experience in church? My dad was going to lead one and then he left us.'

"So flash forward 30 years, Jake's 36 years old. God radically is going after him. And Jake Collins from here in our church is connecting with him and praying with him, inviting him to church. He said, 'I thought I'll go because I've heard it's big and I can hide.'

We're talking-- and it's funny-- we're talking afterwards with some buddies and he's like, 'I came. I sat right up there in the back. I thought, "I'll sit in the back. Nobody will see me." I had no clue that eight weeks later I'd be talking to 4,000 people. That was not a part of the plan. Whoa.' You know what I mean? Like, dude, if you're trying to hide from God, good luck with that one. You know what I mean?

"And so God's just doing a great thing in his life. He got to share that with us on Sunday and two things that are super cool are coming out of that. He invited his brother to Hometown Easter that he had not seen in 30 years. His brother comes and finds him afterwards, grabs him by the face, and looks him in the eyes and says, 'I'm so proud of you. I'm so sorry. We have 30 years of making up to do.' And now that relationship has been reconnected. Yeah, come on, you can thank the Lord for that. Isn't that awesome?

"And he was telling Adam, he said, it's just like the Lord just kind of moved in his life and like, 'I know what I got to do. I need to take a road trip.' So I think next week, something like that—he’s working on getting some time off or whatever—he’s getting in a vehicle, and he's going to take the Bible that his dad gave him when he was six, and he is going to North Dakota to find his dad he hasn't seen in— how long? And he's asking the Lord to help him find his dad in that huge state, so he can give his dad back the Bible his dad gave him when he was six years old and tell him, 'I forgive you for leaving our family. And I love you.'

"That's what the Gospel does. It gives us the capacity to love other people. Amen? So, super cool. Love you, Jake. If you're sitting close to him, if you want to just put a hand on Jake, we’re going to pray for this guy right here. We'll just extend our hands to Jake, if you're not there. Let's just pray for this brother.

"Father, in Jesus' name, we pray that You would anoint Your son, our brother, for this mission trip he's going on, that You would fill him, that You would send him, that Your favor would be upon him. We pray that one, he could find his dad and we pray two, that his dad would be open and receptive to receiving the love of the Father in Heaven through his earthly son, Jake. And we pray in Jesus' name that the Gospel message that was once apparently alive in this man's life and then went dormant would come back to life. That You would use his physical son that he betrayed and abandoned to extend the love of Jesus to him. That You would fill Jake with Your Spirit, that You would fill him with Your words, and that You would use what You're doing here in Quincy and Wenatchee to splash over and spill onto a broken dad in North Dakota. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

"Tons more stories to come. Just more stories than we can keep track of. That's all coming. But first off, Lift Off Mission Update. If you are new to Grace City church, 12 months ago we initiated our Lift Off campaign. Again, if you're new, how it works is this thing takes money to run. Just like a ship takes fuel, ministry takes dollars, and Mission Advance was our first campaign to raise the money to buy this property six years ago now. And that's memorialized in that picture up there on the wall. All those folks that signed that gave to buy this property. Then Building Home came right after that. That was a three year resource initiative. And that was to raise the funds to build this space. And all the names are memorialized on that brick wall. Everyone brought a brick.

"And then one year ago, we decided to do a one year campaign and that was Lift Off. And that one we told the story of Apollo 8 and just remarkable things happened. So we launched 12 rockets from that initiative, one building and eleven ministry rockets. We want to give you an update on all those things going this morning. But before we do a little recap for those of you who are new and a moment of reflection for those of you who were there. Check it out. This is the Lift Off story.

"That was a bit of a recap of all that happened. We gave Hank and his wife $150,000 to finish their place, 50 of which came from ANCHORED alone. Just remarkable. And so our Lift Off campaign kind of crescendo-ed on Commitment Sunday. And again, if you're new, just bringing you up to speed. How we've done these in the past is we'll talk about the vision of where we want to go and there's two ways to give to Grace City. There's a tithes and offerings that everyone is participating in. It's just kind of the normal thing around here. You give 10%—whatever you want to do, somewhere in there—of your income to Grace City Church as a tithe and offering to the Lord. And then we also do these campaigns where we give over and above gifts. So this is money that was given over and above our regular tithes and offerings just to keep the lights and ministry on here. And it was to do all of these rockets that we wanted to do.

"And so we had Commitment Sunday. People brought their gift to the wheelbarrow there. That's Chad Hurst throwing his envelope in. And the gift came in two parts. One was a cash gift and the other part was a pledge for 12 months that you hope to give over the course of that 12 months, again, over and above what you normally give. And so if a family wanted to give 1,000 bucks to Lift Off, they'd get, they might bring 500 bucks in cash and Commitment Sunday and then make a pledge to finish that remaining $500 balance over the course of the next 12 months. And we just ask everyone to pray, seek the Lord, ask him to give you a number, what you could do that would be sacrificial, that would require faith, and to bring that number.

"We were shooting to raise about $3.1 million to $3.2 million. That was our estimate for what we thought it would take to get all these rockets launched and all these construction projects finished. So cute. Anyways, that was our goal, because that's what we thought. And we didn't have a crystal ball, but thankfully the Lord did. So we have Lift Off.

"On that day we celebrated raising in cash and gifts $6.3 million, which was double the amount we thought we needed and that we were shooting for, which was just remarkable. That told us that God was either protecting us from some unforeseen event or providing for us to do more things than we thought we had originally planned, both of which have turned out to be true. Not only did we realize that God had more planned for us than we had ever could have ever anticipated, God was also protecting us and providing for protecting us from this little global event we could not anticipate called global inflation.

"And so we raised $6.3 million in pledge. It's only been 11 months. We're going to end, of course, that pledge period at the end of May next month. Would you like to know how much you have given in the last 11 months over and above keeping the lights and ministry going here in tithes and offerings? Would you like to know how much of that number you've given so far? Okay. Here it is. You have given 92% of that 6.3 million. Isn't that amazing? Come on, give yourselves a hand. It's incredible. It's mind blowing. It's absolute mind blowing.

"So here's the deal. Three things. One, if you finished your pledge, thank you, thank you, thank you. We’re so grateful for that. If you haven't finished your pledge and can, I couldn't more strongly encourage you to execute on that and finish that in the next four or five weeks. And if you haven't been able to finish your pledge and can’t—something happened unexpectedly or catastrophically in your life—please hear me say this morning, you are absolutely off the hook. Now, it's between you and the Lord. And if you're like, 'Well, I gambled this. And I bought four new motorbikes. And I went to Disneyland nine times,' that's also between you and the Lord. But if something happened outside of your control, you were not anticipating it, do not carry it as a burden.

"I know that people at Grace City Church are, 'My word is my bond. I'm a person of integrity.' I understand that. I get that. I appreciate that. The Lord sees it, too. But if something happened that's just been, like I said, unexpected and catastrophic in your life, please do not carry this as a burden. Be relieved. Be let off the hook. The Lord’s been providing, bringing people to play, and he knew what was going to happen in your life and in our life. He's made provisions for it. It is okay.

"And lastly, if you weren't here when we started and you'd like to participate in it, there's still room to help us out. And this is why it's critically important that we hit this. I'm going to give you an update here in a moment. We made an estimated plan for what we thought building this was going to cost with patio and atrium and the barn. And the barn, as you'll see in the video... Well, I'll let the video tell that story. We shot for what we thought was going to be about a $6.1 million construction project. We had money to put in on that on top of that plus rockets to launch. It's become about a 37% increase due to inflation. Now big numbers. Percentage rates with big numbers add up to bigger numbers, right? And so we're actually quite grateful that number's not smaller. We're talking to suppliers that are like, 'Yeah, well this used to cost 10 bucks a foot. Now it costs 40 bucks a foot.' 200, 300, 400 percent increases on some supplies.

Check out the Building Projects update here!

Check out the Uganda Son Mission Hub and Roatán Church updates here!

Check out the Chelan County Jail Chaplaincy update here!

Check out the Vector Academy and Life-Trac University updates here!

Check out the Publication Platform and Grace City Worship Updates here!

"We launched The Stand, which was the ladies' conference in October. They're planning for that next one this fall. A really great lineup of speakers, that I'm excited to tell you about in the days to come.

"Battle Ready was the conference that we launched for the men last fall. We're going to take the Man Event that was last June and the conference of the fall and combine it into one super event we're calling Forged on Father's Day weekend. We'll drop the trailer to that this week. Please spread it. Invite all the dudes you can: fathers, sons, cousins, uncles, brothers, friends, neighbors. It's going to be epic. We're going to hit a ceiling capacity. We're approaching that. So please, please sign up as soon as you can. It's going to be an epic day. We're going to talk about what is a man and how to become one, what a Forged rite of passage looks like.

"And this next here, just to the end our time, this is a Battle Ready and Stand recap that was done by one of our Story Team vecterns. We call them vecterns. A Vector intern. Vectern. This was done by a vectern, and this is one of the things they've done this year. Check it out.

"I love the dudes of Grace City. Oh, super fun. Great job to the vecterns for putting that recap together. Like I said, we launched that last year.

"Forged is going to be this father's day weekend, Friday and Saturday. We'll drop the trailer this week. Get signed up while you can."

Check out our "No Town Like Hometown" update here!

"No Town Like Hometown Christmas Edition. You guys remember that? You guys remember what we did there? So we did a bunch of different things for that, but one of the things we did was on Christmas Eve we gave some money away. And so Christmas Eve came and we had our Christmas Eve Eve service, I should say.

And if you were at the first one you saw Maria Gonzalez get a check for $10,000. She's the vice principal at Mission View Elementary School. And she had nominated a family whose dad had tragically died unexpectedly and a widow left with a couple kids and was just needing help. And so we didn't want to give the school the money because it'd get lost. We gave her that money personally. She took that money and gave that money, allocated it to bless that family. Super, super cool. And if you were there that night, it was just a super, super cool story. Love the women in our community who are involved and engaged and caring for these kids and these families who are in trouble.

If you came to the next Christmas Eve Eve service back to back, you would've heard the Cody Curry story. He's a member of AES crew out here building our barn and our atrium, and he nominated his mom. She has a rare lung disease. She lives in a small house that she's not proud of, full of asbestos, not good for her health. And so he was just wanting to nominate her for a gift. We ended up being able to give him a gift for $10,000. We abated the asbestos in his house and then he got this gift to buy resources and materials to remodel her house, to use the blue collar trades he's learned to AES to then bless his mom.

Incredible story of grace. We've been connecting the dots and got notes from her and connected people that she knows here. Really cool stuff going on there. Really proud of Cody. He’s the kind of man we want to see God raise more up here in our community. That was a great story.

The third Christmas Eve Eve service, we brought up Steven Allen and his sweet bride. If you don't know his story-- in 30 seconds: Grew up homeless. Never lived in a home. It was cars and shelters and apartments that they'd snuck into. Never got to live in his own home. His dad just wasn't able to provide that way. Steven met Jesus, got a job, got married, was very successful in his business. Realized he could start his own business, work less, make more. Wanted to start his business, but didn't know how to do that because he needed a box truck.

Now I want to back this up. Steven came to me at the beginning of Building Home, which was our resource initiative to build this space four years ago, maybe even five years ago now, and said, "I don't know what to do. Pastor. I've got this chunk of money that I've been saving with my wife to put down on our house, but we also want to give to build God's house. And we're not sure if we should, if it's selfish to try to buy a house for us."

And I said, "Steven, have you ever lived in a house that you've owned or that your family owned?" He said, "Never in my life." I said, "Buddy, not even a second thought. You'll be the first man in your family to be a man, to be a provider, and buy a home for your family. Absolutely no question." He said, "Okay."

Next Sunday, I see him coming down with his wife and an envelope. He puts an envelope in the wheelbarrow, smiles at me, and walks away. And I'm thinking he better not put his down payment for their house in there, right? And sure enough they had. Monday he goes to work. Boss calls him. He's like, "I bet I'm going to lose my job.” Boss calls him in, "Hey, you are the best employee we have. You're killing it. We meant to give you a raise a while ago, but forgot. So by the way you have a raise. And oh, by the way, here's the back payment for the raise that you got earlier we forgot to give you."

To the penny, they matched what they'd given to Grace City Church. Now you can't make that up. What? So, I mean, it's just crazy.

So he wants to start a business. He delivers bread all over. I mean, works at all these bakery food companies around town and the region. He needed a box truck. I heard about it the Sunday before Christmas Eve. So you compiled dollars. You gave him a $10,000 check. He went down to Portland that week bought a box truck for... I don't know how you did it for 10,000 bucks. Had money left over. Tricked it out with a new lift and everything. And the first delivery he made was a box truck full of chips and food that he and his wife donated to ANCHORED. And they delivered it here to the church. Isn't that cool?

And his truck was at the Touch a Truck at Easter. He was like, "Hey, I could bring my box truck out for Touch a Truck. And I was like, "What kid wouldn't want to touch a box truck. Sure. Bring it out."

So he was out there. Steve Allen, everybody, in the box truck. Oh my God, I love it. And there's so many more stories. Again, I mean, these are literally all stories I have that I just don't have time to tell. Families who lost their home in a fire that we got to help kind of fix up to survive in a trailer with a heater while they designed their new home. Widows. Orphans. People who lost their jobs to the vaccine mandates. People who lost love ones to unexpected tragic illness and death. People who've been sick in the hospital for weeks and weeks and weeks who've got to support their business and bless their staff who are keeping their business running while they were in the hospital. Just incredible stories.

One of our favorites here that's just, I don't want to say a standout story because they're all amazing like this, but here's one just to follow up that you know about.

This Jacquie. She shared her story at Easter last week:

That's is her husband with the two kiddos. You remember, five miscarriages and then lost her baby stillborn at eight months last November, right?

And so Mike and Brooke. Mike was formerly employed at Washington State Patrol until his employment status changed because of the vaccine mandates. They nominated them for bless a family because they knew them through law enforcement because Jacquie is a Douglas County deputy sheriff. So they talked, "Would you please come to our church? We have a gift for you."

So in that picture they're ex-Mormons. Don't know Jesus. Don't know anybody at Grace City Church really except for the Ballards and the folks who go here, but had never been here to go to church. That’s Pastor Kyle. Gave them a gift for, I forget, 10, 15 grand, whatever it was to pay for the funeral expenses of their precious little baby, and then to help offset some living expenses from losing his job which was a significant impact all at one time. So that was Jacquie on Christmas Eve Eve of 2022.

And this is Jacquie at Easter Sunday. Isn't that awesome? Christmas '21. Easter '22. Pretty cool story there.

That's Dorian, if you remember him. The painter? That's at the staff meeting. We gave him some money to cover his medical bills and expenses. He couldn't paint anymore because of stage four lymphoma. Over in Seattle trying some kind of trial treatment nuked his immune system with all sorts of stuff. Was kind of trying one last wild thing. Didn't think we'd ever see him again. He's the guy who painted the chapel white for us and cut half the bill, if you recall. Gave him some money to pay for living expenses.

I got to give him an air hug two weeks ago because his immune system is shot, and he can't be around people. I think he's watching online today, but he came back from Seattle two weeks ago. Remember we prayed for him four weeks ago. He came back two weeks ago from Seattle cancer free. Cancer free. Isn't it awesome?

Oh, but wait, there's more. I mean, it just keeps getting better in the family of God.

So No Town Like Hometown Christmas Edition. We did The Chosen showing 16,800 bucks to help The Chosen keep filming videos. Marlin Handbell Choir, that concert we did at a charity conference concert. Jail Ministry Christmas workshop, Chris did it with a bunch of kids, wrapping presents for their kids and then the kids for their parents. Gift for Kids. If you recall, 700 unattended kids in the valley were blessed through that initiative in local public schools. And then the Bless a Family initiative I just showed you about.

Friends, here's the point I'm making and then I'll let you go I promise. Just when you think God is not working and everything's going to Hell in a hand basket, and all's I hear is bad news, and what's going on?  

We just don't always see it or hear about it. Today was the goal to help you hear about it and see it.

Isn't that remarkable? That's crazy. That's crazy. So super excited."

"I talked to Luke Ellington a year ago. I said, 'I want to hire you, to bring you on board, to build a war machine.'

"We're in a cold war of ideas in our nation. And we want to be a part of writing and producing and then spreading good content, unpacking the Christian worldview, fighting and combating the lies that are quite frankly taking over our culture. So we wanted to build a war machine that would launch daily Gospel salvos.

"Having said that we launched a few things this year, Every Good Path: Thinking Biblically, Discerning Wisely, Acting Boldly. This is a free quarterly publication that gets sent right to your mailbox. It goes to about 1100 households right now in 22 different states. And we're hoping to double that by this time next year, just getting good content out there. I'm writing right now the article for the next one. If you don't receive this, grab a free copy in the lobby, sign up on our app or website, or get it sent right to your house.

"This is all the printed resources we've done this year. We got the WE Conference Booklet, the Vector Academy book, the Stronger Man Journal, The Stronger Man book we handed out at the conference, 9 Critical Lenses for COVID, and 9 Protests Against COVID Vaccine Mandates.

"The vaccine mandates dropped the first day of my vacation. Spent the next three weeks on vacation, 10, 12 hours a day with Pastor Kyle Strong and the team writing this material to produce it, to help serve the 560 folks who came to the Sunday where we helped them navigate this thinking they might lose their job. Many of whom did. This has since gotten legs and run nationally. It's been digitally handed out. We've had folks drive from other cities and states to get boxes of these to hand out. It's helped a lot of people.

"We Do Not Consent is another book that we wrote there. Lift Off material, and more. All of these are things that we've done this last year.

"More to come. We have three books forthcoming, hopefully going to write and publish and drop this next year. Every Good Path has launched. We have printed resources, a new website built by our home team on the inside. So Karis and Carey and Luke built a website on the Subsplash platform. The guys at Subsplash were like, 'This is incredible. Who built this?' 'We did.' 'Can we show this to everyone else to show them how to do it?' 'Why, why, sure.'

"So we got a new website up. It's super awesome. We're going to be loading it with more resources as we can. Just dropped the blog this last week with the Easter recap. More of those that will be coming. Our app is growing daily in terms of hits in and times it gets launched or opened every week. The YouTube platform, it's just doubling and quadrupling by hundreds of percentage points every week. Hits, views are up. Sean's running with that and spreading that message. A podcast is coming. Facebook and Instagram, we fired that back up.

"Because here's the deal, it's not that God isn't working, people just don't see it or hear about it. And one of our jobs we believe is to help people see it and hear about it. And one of those ways is through digital platforms. So we're firing that up so people can hear the good news at the Gospel and what God is doing in our town and around the world. So all those things have fired up. The footprint, our digital footprint and our publication footprint and our content footprint is growing. And we have plans to grow that even more in the days to come. Luke's running with that. Carey, and Karis, and Sean, that's kind of their department in the comms area. Can you give them a round of applause for all the work they've been doing? It's just excellent. Just really, really excellent. So that's the publication platform."

"Grace City Worship's just hustling here. Pastor Jared has a hymn album, a worship album, and an original songs EP dropping in the next three or four months."