Leading in a Multi-World!
Jorge Acevedo, Lead Pastor
Grace Church — Cape Coral, Olga-Fort Myers Shores and North Fort Myers, Florida
www.egracechurch.com
Grace Church DNA:
In the final presentation at this year’s School of Congregational Development, Jorge Acevedo shared the core principles that has turn-around his congregation. Here are the notes from his presentation:
1. We are unashamedly Jesus-centered! Jesus is the Savior, Healer, Transformer and Friend that every human being needs.
2. We strive for healthy relationships! Maintaining genuine and authentic relationships are of supreme value. Repairing our relational messes is essential.
3. We are passionate to reach people! This means loving people where they are and helping them grow into who God wants them to be. Everyone is a “child of God and person of worth.”
4. We hunger for transcendent, culturally relevant, meaningful and experiential worship! The human heart desires to regularly connect with God. Music, drama, creative arts, and video are some of the ways this happens.
5. We engage people in biblical, relevant and creative teaching! God’s Word addresses the most fundament issues of life. Children, youth and adults need to be taught from the Bible.
6. We endeavor to be a radically diverse church. This includes a mosaic of persons joined together as one community of faith.
7. We value hospitality as an expression of God’s “welcome.” The kindness of God is expressed intentionally through things like warm greeting, clean bathrooms, and good food.
8. We are a center for healing and recovery! God has asked us to assist Him in rescuing people from the hell they are living in as well as the hell they are heading to. We recognize that healing takes time therefore we strive to very patient with people in their healing and recovery.
9. We strive to unleash God’s love, power, and people in ministries to meet the needs of our communities. These compassion ministries include both aid (meeting basic needs) and advocacy (being a voice for the voiceless).
10. We have a passion and commitment to fulfill for the Great Commission! This is expressed locally, nationally and internationally.
11. We understand that spiritual growth is a lifelong process of becoming more like Jesus! Growing in our discipleship includes spiritual habits like self-feeding through daily devotions, using time, talents and treasures for God, engaging in Christian community and serving in the church and world.
12. We are a multi-site congregation. We believe strategically located, multiple campuses enable us to more effectively reach our community while being wise and efficient stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us.
13. We believe ministry is best accomplished in teams of people with diverse gifts and abilities who are bound together with common purpose and covenants of trust.