Why We Exist
Everything we do at GCM is for a reason--to glorify God by evangelizing the lost and equipping the saints with the goal of Christlikeness.
We desire to glorify God in all we do (1 Corinthians 10:31). So that means our outreach should honor God. Our worship should mirror His reverent character. Our preaching must exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. Our spiritual mentoring should be focused upon a biblical growth model. As people broken by sin and mended by the grace of God in Christ, we seek to be godly (1 Peter 1:16-17). When Gods people seek to honor Him, they will desire to mirror Christ's character in their lives. They will live Christs love in their homes and communities. As we remain lovingly faithful to Christ, God will add to His church according to His Word and the church will know growth and peace (Acts 9:31).
We long to be a stable church. A stable church is a spiritually mature church (Philippians 4:1-16). At GCM, we don't seek to grow their numbers by participating in the ungodly practices of instability such as ungodly worship styles, teaching that God's Word is only found in one translation, utilizing pragmatic church growth models, or implementing pop psychology to counsel hurting souls. At GCM, we just simply seek to love Christ and honor God's Word. When you come, you will be simply blessed by the elementary desire we have to just do church God's way.
A necessary aspect of a stable church is teaching (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Outside our Bible Study hours, and multiple Bible study venues for folks of all ages, we support the efforts of our own Great Lakes Bible Institute. This school is a vital part of our church mission. Many members and nonmembers alike are equipped to do the work of the ministry at GLBI (Ephesians 4:11-12). From new Christians to the most mature believers, all are benefiting from the equipping ministry of GLBI. As already stated, a stable church is a mature church. At GCM it is our responsibility to provide a dynamic learning environment for every spiritual age.
When a church is stable within, it will have a loving, consistent outreach in the community. We follow the Acts 1:8 model for reaching our community and the world for Christ. This means that we focus not only on our local mission field, but also a national and international evangelism and church planting. Even our church budget mirrors this model. As we saturate our community with the good news of Christ, new works for God will begin. So a number of years ago we began ARCHministries. We are about to start our tenth church in 11 years. Six of these churches have been started with a 50 mile radius of Grace Church of Mentor. ARCH is dedicated to continue what New Testament churches are called to do--begin new churches. This ministry has now expanded to a nation--wide network of God-honoring churches that have a passion to begin new churches. All of these new churches will preach Christ in our great nation. Our goal is to have a network that will re-seed America with good churches that will in turn send hundreds and maybe even thousands to the mission fields of the world.