Grace Covenant Church

Grace Covenant Church is a large and growing church in Austin, with a membership of around 2000 people. A stereotype I often hear about large non-denominational churches is that the sermons are typically shallow and generic, designed to give people a pleasant experience, offend no one and keep them entertained. Otherwise, they may not come back. I don't know if that's a fair characterization, but I've heard it spoken more often than not (usually by people in small denominational churches, now that I think about it...). Regardless of whether the stereotype is true, I can tell you that Grace Covenant Church does not, in any way, shape or form, resemble that stereotype. In fact, one of the first things that came out of my mouth when I walked out of the service is that my faith in the human race (and Christianity) has been restored.

Driving onto the "campus" of Grace can be a little intimidating until you get your bearings. It's like walking around a small college setting. People are walking in all directions at once (I'm assuming it was between services). In fact, after finding visitor's parking, I walked into the wrong building. Walking back out, I started to head towards the visitor's center and then saw a prominent "Worship Center." It's not really that hard to get around, but this is a warning to visitors. Do not assume visitor parking is directly in front of the sanctuary. If you don't make that assumption, you'll get around just fine.

The service opened with contemporary praise music, similar to what you would hear on a Contemporary Christian music radio station. With the exception of the offertory hymn, the singing was congregational. The band was talented (from what I can tell) and wasn't showy. The service I attended was packed and, although all ages were represented, it appeared the people were largely young singles, young couples and young families. The place is rather lively (not in a charismatic, raising hands, dancing around way) with quite a few people joining into the singing, sometimes clapping at the end of songs, etc. There are many activities going on here (which seems to be a theme in the last few churches I've attended), with women's retreats, men's retreats, youth retreats, missionary work, marriage seminars, small groups, etc. The church is led by a group of pastors and elders.

Senior Pastor Matt Cassidy preached the sermon. I noticed a couple of interesting things in the bulletin just before Matt stepped up to the pulpit. The first is that it had the title of the sermon, an outline and a place to take notes. At the bottom, it had the title of next week's sermon with homework for the church. The homework was two chapters of a book related to the sermon. The second thing I noticed was that the adult learning communities brochure really emphasized things like Bible-based classes, learning community, solid biblical teaching, and studying the Bible inductively and chronologically. An insert in the bulletin advertised a marriage roundtable discussion (which is related to the sermon series). When Matt rose to speak, he said something like, "Now we come to the teaching part of the service..." I can't remember the exact words, but it was something of that nature. It is very clear this is a church that is highly invested in training and equipping it's members with Biblical knowledge and experience. In fact, the visitor's guide has a reference to one of my favorite passages about the role of the pastor, which is to "equip God's people for works of service" (Ephesians 4:12).

What followed was a sermon that I would compare to a speaker at a seminar. Matt is intelligent, well-studied and well-versed in the Bible. He is very down-to-earth and relates very well to the people there. However, his sermon was filled with Biblical references, references to original languages, and had an expository style. The sermon was on marriage and was brilliantly delivered, talking about how to strengthen relationships through reliance on and seeking God. He had humorous anecdotes, serious reflections, quoted everyone from folk singers to philosophers and really brought his points home well. However, it was not all book knowledge. He reached a point where he then talked about application and how to apply the principles taught to your everyday life, regardless of whether you are single or married, have children or not, etc. It is clear this church does not just emphasize learning the Bible, but also applying what you've learned to your life. The sermon was thought-provoking and conversation-provoking. It would be difficult to attend and not come away talking about it and digging deeper into the meaning.

As I looked around, hearing this sermon, I was amazed at the number of people who were listening, taking notes, hanging on to what was being said. As I said above, it served to restore my faith in the human race and in Christianity. To see young families eager to learn more about the Word of God, eager to embrace the sometimes hard teachings of Christianity and eager to apply it to their lives was exciting. I grew up in a small town, in a Bible-based church, where you memorized Scripture, studied the Word with a certain deliberateness and did more than just drop into church on Sunday morning to get through the hour and go home. I have often wondered if that type of church is a thing of the past and if the current trend in Christianity (as I often see it) is to "dumb down" the message so this generation of sound-bite, fast-food people can get it. This week, I saw that the message is still powerful, the words still have meaning, the people are still eager to learn and the Scriptures are still relevant.