Grace Chapel Wilsonville

A Church That Gives Itself Away

Welcome To Grace

Grace Chapel started with a vision to “Give Itself Away.”

Since the founding of our church in 1998, God has surprised, challenged, and blessed us beyond anything we could have imagined. He has allowed us to effectively serve both locally and globally, in ways that have put us on the front line of seeing Him usher in life change.

Looking back at God’s faithfulness gives us the assurance and courage to boldly step forward into a bright and exciting future. With a strong and vibrant past, we look forward to an amazing future. Below are the beliefs we cling to as we explore God’s best for our lives.

Our Culture

Our Church Culture
When Jesus imagined disciple-making he imagined a loving community in the process of transformation and formation. At Grace Chapel, We call this process Experiencing and Expressing the Essence of Jesus, where people experience the fullness of Jesus’ life, personal breakthroughs, the supernatural power and presence of God, and live out their eternal destiny.

Kingdom Citizens Represent Heaven’s Culture
When Jesus imagined disciple-making he imagined a loving community in the process of transformation and formation. At Grace Chapel, We call this process Experiencing and Expressing the Essence of Jesus, where people experience the fullness of Jesus’ life, personal breakthroughs, the supernatural power and presence of God, and live out their eternal destiny.

An Authentic Culture
Authentic leadership is about a “grace oriented” and “fail forward” strategy which recognizes that leaders are developing while they are in the process of leading others. Authentic leadership is about vulnerability and leading out of our brokenness not just our strengths. Authentic leaders are open and transparent about their own journey and impact through personal influence rather than positional power. Not only does authentic leadership seek to have an impact where lives are being transformed, but it embraces the goal that the leader is being transformed in the process as well.

A Spirit Filled Culture
Spirit filled leading is the opposite of “Me-Filled” leadership. Each of us possesses our own uniqueness in abilities, experiences, personalities, and passions. Even though each of these personal elements are expressed through our leadership styles, Spirit filled leadership is not driven by these. Spirit filled leadership is about leading out of the a deep connection with the Holy Spirit and walking in step with His leading, anointing, gifting, and empowerment. The key to effective public leadership is a genuine private walk with God through His Spirit. Spirit filled culture is about operating in the power and authority of believers to carry on the mission of Jesus to do supernatural works.

A Jesus Centric Culture
Jesus centric leadership is about experiencing and expressing the essence of Jesus through our leadership. It defines the motive of leadership by keeping Jesus the central focus of our ambitions. Jesus centric leadership models itself after the example of Jesus and who he was as a leader. At the core of his leadership style Jesus was a servant and demonstrated that leadership is a selfless action. One of the key marks of a good leader is that they seek serving others over self-interest. A Jesus centric leader seeks to leverage their influence and position to express the essence of Jesus and inspire others to follow him.

A Disciple Making Culture
At the heart of disciple making is the pursuit of others. As we pursue others we start with evangelism and then lead them to become mature spirit-filled followers of Jesus. Disciple making is relational, intentional, and transformational. It’s about inviting others into relationship while investing in them and inspiring them to live out their calling and maturity in Jesus. Disciple making is a process, giving people the room to grow through grace and love without expecting perfection overnight.

An Empowering Culture
Empowering leadership is about a pipeline of leadership that raises up and releases others into their calling. A culture of multiplying leaders requires a process that has the goal of releasing the gifting, passion and calling of others with authority. This process includes the aspects of identifying, inviting, modeling, equipping, coaching, and sending.

A Value-Based Culture
Values-based leadership is based on the notion that personal and organizational values should be aligned. Value based leadership is leading others by staying true to the shared values in your own life. It means to lead others by remaining consistent with the values of the organization and the values aligned in our personal lives. When values are not consistent in our lives they are merely good intentions. We prefer to use the word “Rhythms” for values implying they will be lived consistently as a daily part of our lives.

A Team Oriented Culture
Team leadership is the recognition that nothing of significance is created alone. All great work is the result of a group of people working together towards a common goal. Team leadership is about engaging the hearts and minds of others in the pursuit of a shared vision. It creates the space for everyone to contribute according to their own unique strengths and talents. Team leadership demands collaboration, creativity and innovation in how the team works towards achieving their goals. Team leadership is also a matter of spiritual stewardship and seeks to embrace and leverage individual assets for the betterment of the whole.

A Church that gives itself away

Our Strategy

Our strategy uses the relational metaphor of the Park, Coffee Shop, and Living Room. Through relationships we desire to see the world experiencing Jesus and invited into community to live out these kingdom rhythms.

The Park
One of the most natural environments where community takes place is the park. When you think of a park, you imagine people gathering around barbecue grills, throwing frisbees, and enjoying activities together. Our “park environments” are where we have the opportunity to engage the brokenness of the world and share the hope of Jesus. These settings revolve around shared interests and meeting needs in our vicinity and beyond. These are often where Grace Chapel makes its first impressions with the community through service projects, school partnerships, neighborhood events, foster parent outreaches, or social events.

The Coffee Shop
It seems that when you want to spend time getting to know someone in a comfortable environment, you end up in a local coffee shop. Coffee shops are a place where ideas are exchanged. Our “coffee shop environments” are spaces that help us discover more about who God is, who we are, and how we live for Him in this world. These settings revolve around shared curiosity for going deeper with God. At Grace our coffee shop gatherings take the form of weekend services, men’s events, women’s events, youth events, conferences, and equipping sessions.

The Living Room
Imagine spending quality time over the course of several visits to the coffee shop. Before you know it, you’re inviting your new friends to come over to your house. When they arrive you invite them into your living room. The Living Room is where we have the opportunity to process what we have discovered about God and ourselves in a more intimate context where everyone feels a sense of belonging. These settings are our small groups that meet in homes and smaller rooms across the city and region.

Risk all that we have in order to be all that He wants us to be.

Our Beliefs

About God
God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. He has eternally existed in three personalities: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are co-equal and are one God. [Genesis 1:1,26,27; 3:22; 1 Peter 1:2; Psalm 90:2, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Matthew 28:19]

About Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is co-equal with the Father. By the miracle of the virgin birth, Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless human life, and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all men by dying on a cross. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to Heaven and will return again to earth to reign as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. [Matthew 1:22,23; Hebrews 4:14,15; Acts 1:9-11; Isaiah 9:6; 1 Corinthians 15:3,4; 1 Timothy 6:14,15; John 1:1-5, 14:10-30; Romans 1:3, 4; Titus 2:13]

About The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is equal in essence and nature to God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. He permanently indwells each believer at the instant he regenerates them. At that very instant the believer is baptized by Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit and placed into the Body of Christ. He gives at least one spiritual gift to every believer for the edification of the church. The Holy Spirit then instantaneously begins the process of sanctification, teaching, assuring, producing spiritual fruit, guiding, convicting, and empowering each believer. Throughout the believer’s life the Holy Spirit prays for him or her. The filling of the Holy Spirit is meant to be a continuous experience for the believer through submission to His controlling authority and power. [Matthew 3:11, 28:19; Romans 8:9-11, 14, 26, 15:16; Ephesians 4:1-12, 5:18; John 1:33, 16:8-11, 12-15; 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:11, 19, 12:4-11, 13; Acts 1:5; Galatians 5:22-23]

About Man
Man is made in the spiritual image of God, to be like Him in character. He is the supreme object of God’s creation. Although man has tremendous potential for good, he is marred by an attitude of disobedience toward God called sin This attitude separates man from God. [Genesis 1:27; Romans 3:23; Psalm 8:3-6; Isaiah 59:1, 2; Isaiah 53:6a]

About Salvation
Salvation is by grace—a gift from God to man. Man can never make up for his sin by self-improvement or good works. Only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God’s offer of forgiveness can man be saved from sin’s penalty. Eternal life begins the moment one receives Jesus Christ into his life by faith. Because God gives man eternal life through Jesus Christ, our salvation is forever and secure. It is the grace and keeping power of God that gives the believer this eternal security in salvation. [Romans 6:23; Titus 3:5; John 10:27-30; Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 3:26; 1 Timothy 1:12; John 14:6, 1:12; Romans 5:1; John 6:37,39]

About The Bible
The Bible is God’s word to all men. It was written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of truth for Christian beliefs and living. Because it is inspired by God, it is truth without error. [2 Timothy 3:16; Psalm 119:105,160, 12:6; 2 Peter 1:20, 21; Proverbs 30:5; 2 Timothy 1:13]

About Unity
We believe that we who are the many members of the Church are one in Christ Jesus and under Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit is our source of unity and the basis of our freedom and diversity within it. We seek a unity in the Essentials of the Faith*, yet we do not suggest that we must agree on all things relative to our daily walk in Christ. As Christians, we understand that our liberties granted by Christ are limited by our love for Christ and for one another. While we do not presume to dictate one’s private worship practices, we agree that, for the sake of harmony and unity of the Body, in our public worship and other sanctioned church meetings, we will strive to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). [1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Romans 12:4-5; 14:13-18]

Reaching a broken world requires a “Whatever It Takes” attitude.

Our Rhythms

Dying: The Christ-Centered Life
Jesus declares that dying to self, dying to our agendas, dying to our preferences and ideals and making Him the center of our lives actually leads to a fuller, abundant and meaningful life.

Living: The Spirit-Filled Life
Instead of our feeble, inadequate and debilitated strivings Jesus promised the provision of the Holy Spirit. He has provided us an endless supply of His life being lived through us and in spite of us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Cultivating: Community with Others
As image-bearers of God humanity was created to live in community with one another. The church is in its greatest expression of love when we live in close proximity with each other as a community that gathers around the person of Jesus.

Aligning: Prayer & Humility
Aligning is about creating space in our schedules to meet with God, giving Him permission to search our hearts and minds for any thought, feeling or motive that is out of alignment with all that He desires for us.

Stepping: Into the Misery & Margins
Stepping into the margins is more than awareness or advocacy, it's about associating, sharing life, and rescuing those who have been ignored and victimized by this cruel world. We show love and compassion in practical ways and share the gospel boldly in order to heal the sick and set the captives free.

Leveraging: All That We Have
Leveraging all that I have for God’s greater purpose is about realizing that all I have has been entrusted to me by God so that I can play a part in his redemptive story for this world and my life.

Breathing: The Word In & Through Us
The Bible is more than a how-to, self help book. Breathing God’s Word is first about taking in a deep breath and inhaling all that He desires for us to take in. At the same time, His Word is not intended to just remain in us but that we would learn to exhale and breathe His words to those around us.

Worshipping: Glorifying & Enjoying God
Worship is a lifestyle that permeates every aspect of our lives. Worship is seen in how we manage our money, how we run our business, how we parent our kids, how we respond to people and how we manage our dreams and ambitions. The heart of worship is a heart that enjoys God for who He is and all that He has done for us.

Identifying: Baptism & Communion
Being a Jesus follower means being a part of something bigger than our individual selves. Baptism and communion are sacred experiences that represent both the individual, inward commitment to a personal relationship with Jesus and the corporate, outward sign of being connected to a local community of Christ followers—the local church.

Nurturing: Family on Mission
A family that serves God by being on His mission, changing the lives they touch as well as their own. As families pray together, discuss God’s Word together, serve together and love a broken world together it empowers them to live out their faith and rhythms side by side.

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