Can you recommend a grace-based church in my area?
I get asked this question a lot. What people want to know is, where are the grace preachers? Or who are the grace preachers?
As if there was a special directory of those preaching grace.
Who are the hypergrace preachers? I usually recommend Paul, John, Peter, James, and Jesus of course. And let’s not forget David, Isaiah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Joel and even Moses.
But that’s not the answer people are looking for.
Grace preachers list
About 15 years ago a prominent grace preacher thought about starting a database of like-minded churches. We all thought it was a terrific idea, but it never got off the ground. Turns out making a list of grace preachers is hard.
Where do you draw the line? What defines a grace preacher? And what is grace?
A grace preacher is anyone who preaches the unconditional love of God, with no ifs, buts, or maybes. Most preachers preach the gospel of grace, but a grace preacher preaches grace alone.
Not grace plus law or grace plus works. Just grace.
“Well, sure, we all need grace for salvation. But what about sanctification?”
Just grace.
“What about spiritual growth?”
Just grace.
“What about…”
Just grace.
In the new covenant, we stand on grace alone. All the blessings of heaven come to us by grace alone (Eph. 1:3).
Those who don’t preach just grace can be recognized by the sticks and carrots they add to their mixed-grace message.
“If you confess, you’ll be forgiven. If you do right, you’ll be accepted. If you act holy, you’ll become holy.”
Others dismiss what they call “the modern grace message,” as though grace was some kind of fad.
These are dangerous messages. You can’t mix law, works and grace any more than you can mix flesh with faith. And grace is anything but modern. The message of radical, extreme hypergrace is biblical.
Dismiss or dilute grace and you may fall from grace.
Who are the grace preachers?
A true grace preacher will always point you to Jesus and what he has done and what you can do because of what he has done. Because of Jesus you are loved, forgiven, accepted, righteous, holy, and all the other things. All your needs are supplied on account of his riches in grace (Eph. 2:7, Php. 4:19).
Your part is simply to rest in his finished work and receive by faith God’s gracious provision.
(That’s hardly a recipe for idleness, by the way. Those who are abiding in the Vine are fruitful and often work harder than those trying to make bricks without straw. But I digress.)
So how do you find a grace preacher? Here are two ways.
A list of those who preach grace
I maintain a modest list of “Grace preachers” which includes ministries, bloggers, and authors. But if you are looking for a grace-preaching church, I recommend you check out Ted Nelson’s Locate Grace Ministries.
Ted visits a lot of churches and he is personally familiar with many of the ministries he lists. He puts a huge amount of effort into maintaining his database and his website is an invaluable tool. Best of all, the database is constantly being updated as new churches get added. (Perhaps you want to add yours?)
When people ask me to recommend a grace preacher or a grace church in their area, I invariably steer them towards Ted’s Locate Grace Ministries website. It’s a much-needed resource that will only get better with time. I encourage you to check it out.
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