grow

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (2 Peter 3:18, ESV)
"...so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1:10, ESV)

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We believe that the Gospel is more than fire insurance. Jesus' work on the Cross does give us power to face death...but even more so, He gives us power to face life. Today we live as a part of the Kingdom of God and today we can grow in maturity, grace, love and faith.

At CGS we believe that full devotion to Jesus is normal. We are trying to create a culture of grace where people can fail often while moving forward. Our goal is to become mature individually and as a group, learning how to "love the Lord with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our strength."

The church in America has a bad reputation at times. Many people think this has happened because we take the Gospel for granted and hold back from fully engaging ourselves in a deliberate process that will help us grow. Elton Trueblood once wrote:

Perhaps the greatest single weakness of the contemporary Christian Church is that millions of supposed members are not really involved at all and, what is worse, so not think it strange that they are not. As soon as we recognize Christ's intention to make His church a military company we understand at once that the conventional arrangement cannot suffice. There is no real chance of victory in a campaign if 90% of the soldiers are untrained and uninvolved, but that is exactly where we stand now.

The solution to this is to continue to apply the Gospel to ourselves every day. We can't settle for a lukewarm spirituality.  John Wesley was convinced that "The church changes the world, not by making converts, but by making DISCIPLES!"

An essential ingredient to our growth is community. We have small groups and other ministries that will connect you to people who will encourage you and support you in this adventure of faith. We were created to be in real, heart-to-heart community. This connection can happen in a small group, mentoring relationship or in other micro-formats.

  • Every follower of Jesus should have someone whose steps they walk in - they will follow that person as they follow Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

  • Every follower of Jesus should be a role model to others, serving as lights that will illumine the pathway for them (Philippians 2:14-16)

When two people connect, when their beings intersect as closely as two bodies during intercourse, something is poured out of one and into the other that has power to heal the soul of its deepest wounds and restore it to health. The one who receives experiences the joy of being healed. The one who gives knows the even greater joy of being used to heal. Something good is in the heart of each of God's children that is more powerful than everything bad. It's there, waiting to be released, to work its magic. ... but it rarely happens. - Larry Crabb