I am New
FAQ's
What kind of people make up Living Grace Church?
We are a diverse community of people who have found themselves living in Bakersfield for one reason or another. Some of us were born and raised here which means we actually understand country music (that doesn't necessarily mean we like it), and we probably have a cousin somewhere in Oklahoma. One of us even grew up surfing in San Diego and somehow became a preacher in Bakersfield. Go figure! However we got here we stayed because Bakersfield is a cool city and a great place to raise a family. Most importantly, we are followers of Jesus Christ who have experienced unsurpassing grace extended to us in the Gospel, and found this church to be a place where grace is lived out in the daily lives of people.What if I'm not used to going to church?
No problem. You're the reason we started Living Grace Church. We want to be a place where those whose souls are being drawn to God can experience the joy of being a part of Jesus' church. At Living Grace you can ask questions, apply what you're learning and wrestle with who God is and what He wants for you. It's okay if you don't have it all figured out.What will the worship service be like?
At Living Grace Church we keep it simple. People don't need flashy or big productions to meet God. We believe that Jesus and His Gospel are enough. On Sundays we follow a basic pattern of meeting together. We teach from the Bible. We pray, sing, give, take communion, and enjoy being with one another. Our goal is to respond to the grace that God has poured out on us.What does the pastor talk about?
The sermons at Living Grace Church are always rooted in the text of Scripture. We seek to understand what God has said and done and how that impacts our lives as His people. We want to be biblically faithful in the way we live, so we present the ageless truths and story of the Bible in a way that is easy to understand, even if you've never been to church. We never water down God's Word or avoid its difficult subjects. We are committed to presenting the Gospel every time we preach the Word. Typically, we study one book of the Bible in its entirety so we may fully understand God's truth in context, and sometimes we work through topics that are particularly relevant for our church.What should I wear?
We're not concerned about the externals, so there is no "dress code." Come comfortable and you'll fit right in. Only the following are banned: Mullets, running shorts from the 80's, and anything else that distracts us from worshipping God.What about my kids?
We think ministering to kids is about the most important thing we can do and Living Grace Church is dedicated to instructing our children in the faith. We've been blessed with a terrific children's staff who are adored by our kids and parents alike. Whatever your child's age, we're committed to providing a safe and spiritually enriched Sunday School experience.
At Living Grace we believe that families should worship together. We ask that children seventh grade and older join in the worship service. We purposefully plan our worship services to include music and teaching that appeal to the entire family.
We also recognize that teens and pre-teens enjoy studying God's Word together and just hanging out. Kids in these age groups meet during the week in a leader's home. Please visit our information kiosk to find out more about our youth ministries.
Can I invite my friends?
Please do. We seek to be a welcoming environment for people who are curious about Christianity or who are seeking to belong to a community of believers.How old is Living Grace Church?
What time is it? Just kidding! Living Grace Church is about as new as churches get. We began in the summer of 2009. Know what's great about that? We're all new! Come join us for an exciting fresh start.What kind of church is Living Grace Church?
We are a Gospel-centered, non-denominational church passionate about reaching lost people with the Gospel and seeing lives and families transformed by the Word of God.
Deeper Thoughts About Our Theology & Practices
Church planting manuals are fine. As are the how-to websites for starting healthy churches. Barnes and Noble has shelves of resources on successful organization building. But at Living Grace Church we believe that God's Word should foremost shape who we are as Jesus' church. We have studied the Scriptures in hopes of laying a sound theological foundation upon which we can build a faithful church. Theology must inform methodology, and so here are some of the core theological convictions we have embraced.
We keep the Gospel central to everything.
Living Grace Church holds to the historic Christian Gospel without compromise. The Gospel is everything. The Gospel is enough. It is the center of our church. It is the center of our lives. It is the filter through which everything else in our church and lives is sifted. It is the incredible, stunning, unexpected, life-altering, propositional truth that God has in Christ redeemed sinners like us from the curse of our sin. It is the story of a loving and holy Father sending His son to take our place on a cross, pay our debts, forgive our sins, cleanse our filth, make us right, adopt us as sons and daughters, give us eternal life, and conform us into the image of the One by whom we were created. It is such good news. We could speak all day about what the triune God has done for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And we do. We talk about it. Sing about it. Preach about it. Study it. Meditate on it. Wonder at it. If you want to read more about what we believe, here it is: Doctrinal Statement.
We talk about Jesus all the time.
Jesus is what differentiates us from all the 'spiritual' confusion that exists in our pluralistic culture. Talk about "God" and everyone is cool with it: he/she/it/they are all just different ways of saying the same thing, right? But mention Jesus and the questions come and the (good) sparks fly. Jesus is the line in the sand. At Living Grace Church, we say the word Jesus more than any other. We proclaim His uniqueness as the way, the truth, and the life, and the only path to God. We affirm His atoning and bloody death on a cross in our place as the only hope for sinners to be freed from their sin. We long to walk as His disciples and we eagerly await His return.
We maintain a high view of the Bible as God's Word.
The Bible is the inerrant Word of God. We serve a God who works through words. God created the heavens and the earth by saying the word. Jesus was the Word and became flesh. Preaching (spoken words) is an instrument that God uses to convict our hearts and birth faith. And for thousands of years believers have responded to God's Word with words of their own... songs, chants, prayer, praise and more. And so words are important to us at Living Grace Church. Whether it is time spent reading and studying the words of the Bible, laboring over the words we will use in our sermons, or selecting the lyrics for our songs of worship, our hope is to be shaped by the God who speaks. This whole exercise in words begins with His inspired Word, captured on the pages of the Bible. We cling to our Bibles and allow God's truth revealed there to define for us right and wrong, good and bad, worthwhile and worthless. We long to sit under the text of Scripture, allowing it to guide, correct, inspire, convict, shape and teach us.
We value highly the importance of preaching.
Every Sunday at Living Grace Church, we preach from a Biblical text. We are not ashamed of it, we don't hide from it, and we don't apologize for it. Our pastors stand there and preach. Our church sits there and listens. Our God does the work. He doesn't walk in the back door or float in through the wall. When the Word is preached His Spirit comes and works a hearing miracle in our heads and hearts and spirits. Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ. This 'hearing-miracle' is not a one time thing. There can be a first-time faith response in our hearts when we initially hear the incredible Gospel message. But our faith is increased every single Sunday; every time we come with humble hearts and open ears and say, "Speak, Father, for I am listening." This is why we highly value the importance of preaching. A quote that captures our heart for the vital role of preaching and hearing in the life of our church is, "In the multitude of tasks of a pastor, his identity as a preacher may be lost, the quality of his preaching may decline as he fills other functions and neglects the disciplines required for effectual preaching. Confidence in the superior efficacy of preaching may fade as other ministries appear more redemptive. But, history proves that the church can exist without buildings, without liturgies, without choirs, without Sunday schools, without professional clergyman, without creeds, even without women's societies. But the church cannot possibly exist without preaching the Word. Preaching has power like nothing else the church has or does. Moreover, preaching reaches more people than anything else the preacher can do, whether it's visiting, administering or counseling. The time has come to restore preaching to its rightful place, its primary position in the work of the ministry. In preaching there is power. The power of the Spirit is the power of the Word and as the Word is proclaimed the Spirit is busy working in the mind and hearts of the hearers. Rise up, O men of God, and preach."
We believe in authentic community.
Church for us is not just a Sunday event. So an invitation to Living Grace Church is not an invitation to an event, but to a life. A new life. A different way of living life. And ultimately, eternal life. A church is not a place, it's a people; redeemed people who are knit together and being conformed to the image of God. Coming to Living Grace Church is not about attending a 'religious service'. It's about responding to a life-altering message in concert with a community of people who are responding the same way. Our desire is for Living Grace to be a church where friendships run deep and our shared culture is significantly different than anything that our unbelieving friends have ever experienced. Our people gather regularly for prayer and discipleship and also just to become friends... eating together, playing together, reading the Bible together, and just being together. This reality will enable trust, accountability, and a connectedness that will move us from individuals to a community.
We believe in church planting.
Read the New Testament and you will learn that starting new churches is a significant way the Gospel spreads. There is no better way to connect with unbelievers than by planting churches near them. The local church provides the perfect context for effective evangelism: people who love and follow Jesus, gathering weekly to hear the Word preached, and walking through life together in Jesus-centered friendships. How can you beat that? At Living Grace Church we are committed to raising up leaders who have been called of God to plant churches.
We believe in constantly addressing myths that keep people from responding to the Gospel message.
It is vitally important for our leaders and our people to be aware of the cultural myths that drive people away from Christ. For our culture this includes false ideas like: people are basically good, God never gets angry, all roads lead to heaven, love is all that matters, Darwin was right, I can earn my way into heaven, there is no such thing as truth, God isn't there because there is so much suffering in the world, I am free right now, God is obligated to save everyone, all Christians are hypocrites, and the Bible can't be trusted. By repeatedly addressing these myths and deconstructing them with the truth, we can break down the barriers that prevent people from hearing the Gospel and surrendering their lives to Christ as their Lord and Savior.
We believe that every Living Grace member is a missionary.
As a missional church, we see ourselves not only as a gathered people, but as a sent people. We are sent into the world to honor God with our lives, worship Him at every moment of our lives and to announce to the people around us the good news of the Gospel. Our pastors are not the only people called to do this. Everyone at Living Grace Church is a missionary; on mission with Jesus to see His kingdom overcome the kingdoms of this world. The entire tenor of our lives should bear witness to the gracious work God has completed in our hearts; from the way we work, to the way we parent, to the way we study, to the way we play, to the way we spend our money, to the way we speak, to the way we love the poor, to the way we do anything at all. As missionaries for Christ we should live Gospel-drenched lives fully aware that it is a great God, a worn out Bible and a good church that form the foundation of that life. Over the years we pray that our church will build a reputation in our community that causes people to discover the One who has transformed our hearts and lives.
We believe in being a giving people.
When it comes to money, there's something about about our self-indulgent nature that makes our hands sticky... we don't want to let it go. But what if the people of Living Grace Church held their money with 'kingdom' hands? What if part of our forging a redeemed culture at our church was to be redeeming in the way we give? What if instead of asking, "How much must I give?" we asked, "How much dare I keep?" What if we lived like life is a vapor and, by faith, stored up treasures in heaven? What if Christ was truly our greatest treasure? These are the attitudes we long for in the giving and spending at Living Grace Church. We pray and expect our people will give generously, joyfully, faithfully, and sacrificially, and that our checkbooks reveal faith-marked obedience.
We believe in an elder-led church.
We are convicted by the Scriptures that an elder-led ecclesiology, in which qualified men shepherd the church and lead the members of the congregation, is a distinctly Biblical way of governing the affairs of our local church. The leaders of Living Grace Church understand the gravity of this responsibility. The Scriptures call pastors/ elders to fight like soldiers, train like athletes, and work like farmers. There is heavy lifting involved. When God calls you to be a pastor/elder, He calls you to be an ox. Hopefully, by God's grace, if you do your job well, one day you will lift up your head, look over your shoulder, and see a beautiful harvest of faith, obedience and redemption bursting forth from the soil you've tilled. Because leadership is such an important call, we will only install men of God who are clearly called, gifted, and qualified for the task. Men whose lives reflect a humble awareness and repentance of sin, a diligence to walk in obedience, a God-honoring relationship with their wives and children, a good reputation with outsiders, a burden on their hearts to lead, and an incessant passion for Jesus.
