Important Note: While a Church or Ministry may be considered a
Grace church in general terms (e.g. based on their Statement of
Faith, their public teachings and publications, etc.), it is very
important to note that not every individual local church of a
particular group or ministry is necessarily a true Grace church. Local
Pastors may slightly differ in their teachings and practice, and
therefore when searching for a local church, it can be very helpful to
use the Doctrinal
Identifiers of a True Grace Church
in order to find a true Grace church in your local area. Also, the
specific leading of God is so very important when searching and joining a
local church. If you have questions about
the doctrines or statements from a church or pastor, if these are truly the Pure Grace message taught in the Bible, then please let us
know and we'll be glad to answer your questions. Please send all inquiries to:
ds@scherf.com
Some GRACE-oriented Churches
around the
World
>>
Find a Bible-believing Grace
church in your area.
Contact
a
Bible-believing local Church in your area today and "Grow in the Grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!"(2 Peter
3:18)
MISSION PHILIPPINE ISLANDS ... While
traveling to the remote islands of the Philippines in 2013, we saw a
tremendous hunger for the Word of God. The need for discipleship and
teaching is great. God has put this country on our heart and we're
preparing right no to open a permanent missions office in the Philippine
Islands. Please join us in this wonderful work of God to reach and to
bless the poor!
MISSION AUSTRIA is a new vision
God gave us. It actually started already in the 1980's when Giadoni
Mission founder Dietmar Scherf as a
newly born-again Christian began evangelizing Austria. Together with a few
friends he established by the Grace of God a few Bible Studies and an
evangelical church in Vienna.
Obviously, a key identifier of a true Grace church is that the
leadership of a local church and at least some of their members practice the love
of God (1 Cor. 13) expressed by attitudes, words and actions of Mercy and Grace,
and that there is evidence of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). But we must remember that we are all at different stages of
growth. Needless to say that a true Christian church will believe and teach the cardinal (principal) doctrines
of the Christian faith (for a quick basic overview please read
through our
Statement
of Faith). Aside from the principal doctrines of the
Christian faith, the true Grace church with its pure Grace teachings
is usually easily identified by commonly accepted labels of certain
key doctrines.
Now, we're not too excited about attaching labels, but these labels can help to identify the teachings
of the pastor of a local church a little quicker. But we must repeat
that because of continuous growth in the Grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, each pastor with his congregation will
be at a different stage of understanding the Grace of God, and we all
need to grow into the comprehension of these divine things, which
may take more or less time with one or the other person. Anyway,
here are a few key doctrinal identifiers of a true Grace
church (we must also note that a number of churches are
affiliated with denominations that may teach otherwise, while the
attention should be given to the individual local church with its
Pastor-Teacher who hopefully has his personal illuminations of the
Word of God and therefore his own convictions in regards to
doctrinal issues):
>
Salvation by Grace through Faith(Salvation/Eternal Life is a gift and freely available to
every person who at one moment in time accepts Jesus Christ as
Savior by
simply trusting in Him as their personal Savior; please read our article
on Salvation)
>
Eternal Security (once a person is genuinely saved,
he/she is always saved as a saved individual has received
Eternal Life at the point of salvation; please read our article
on Salvation)
>
Eternal Rewards are obtained by Grace and not by human merit (the distribution
of eternal rewards is not based on human merit; although
a missing out of eternal rewards is possible, it is absolutely
impossible to ever lose eternal rewards; please read our article on
Christian Living especially the
paragraph regarding the Rewards
Issue)
>
Pre-tribulational
(the rapture of the Christian church will take place before the
7-year Tribulation period)
>
Premillennial (the
second coming of Christ at the end of the 7-year tribulation
period will be followed by the establishing of His Kingdom on
earth for 1,000 years)
"WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ABUSE?" is a very
interesting and noteworthy article. In our present age, spiritual abuse is
rampant. We all need to be aware of it so that we develop proper
discernment and so that we don't get caught up in a group, local church,
denomination or movement who practices spiritual abuse in one form or the
other.
