Just down the street is the community of Normal, Indiana. Just outside of Normal is the Grace Ambassadors church in the cornfields of Swayzee.
Our location is not the only thing outside of normal.
We don’t have a baptistry, choir, daycare, game room, or softball team, yet people continue to be involved. That’s not normal.
We never pass collection plates nor teach tithing, yet all our bills still get paid. That’s not normal.
We don’t have paid staff, a worship team, or special pastors for youth, yet more ministry work is done each year. That’s not normal.
We don’t preach Christ by hanging tinsel on evergreen trees, yet we gladly preach Christ hanging on the cross at Calvary’s tree, and us with him (Gal 6:14). That’s not normal.
While many churches claim not to be “normal”, their pursuit of the peculiar often leads away from studying doctrine and toward entertainment, religious affectation, marketing hype, or anything new and trendy. That is the new normal.
Behind all the things that make us not normal is something very simple and traditional: grace doctrine.
The gospel of grace, the dispensation of grace, studying and applying the doctrine of grace drives why we do and don’t do.
There are plenty of folks who claim to be believers of grace, and may even have learned grace doctrines, but fail to heed the instruction of Christ concerning grace:
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” – Col 2:6
We receive Christ by grace. We are told to walk in him according to grace. It is normal to think grace allows us to lay down on the job. This is misunderstanding grace.
The doctrine of the grace of Christ, when applied, leads to the worthy walk in Christ. If grace is not being applied, then there is not a worthy walk.
This leads us back to why we are not normal. If what we do is not normal, it must be because there are so few walking worthy in Christ.
Doing so requires not only understanding grace, but walking according to grace.
It is much easier to do something else. We don’t do those other things in order to magnify the grace of God in Christ. Apparently, that’s not normal.
Pray it becomes more normal.
For the glory of His grace,
Justin “abnormal” Johnson