Boston Globe Article on Grace Chapel

Check out the article in the Boston Globe by Michael Paulson on Grace Chapel. He visited Grace recently and wrote about his experience. Read it here. GracePoint is briefly mentioned (though not by name).

Diane Frates, In the Arms of Jesus

Diane (Velten) Frates, 65,passed away on November 23, 2008 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital after a courageous battle with cancer. She was the wife of Robert P.Frates with whom she had shared 36 years of marriage.

Born and raised in Stoneham, Diane was the daughter of Alice E. Velten of Stoneham and the late Clifford A. Velten. Diane was a graduate of Stoneham High School,class of 1960. She was employed as a draftsperson for the Raytheon Corporation, RCA Corporation and the Inforex Company.

Diane enjoyed traveling and square dancing with her husband Bob. She was a member of the Northeast Regional Square Dance Club. She was skilled in many crafts, including painting, sewing, scrap booking and creating miniature room displays. She was a member of the Stoneham Arts and Craft Society of Stoneham and the White Mountain Painting Guild. Diane most enjoyed working on crafts with her grandchildren and nieces in her craft room at home.

Diane was a very loving person who attended GracePoint Community Church in Andover and the First Baptist Church in Stoneham. She loved singing the hymns and enjoyed talking about our beloved Jesus Christ. Diane was a very compassionate, loving woman who made a permanent impression on all the lives she touched. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her and knew her steadfast belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In addition to her mother and husband, she is survived by her son Michael R. Frates and his wife Donna of Lynnfield and her daughter, Deborah Walker and her husband Christopher of Oakham. She is also survived by a brother WayneVelten and his wife Ann of Peabody; sisters, Joyce Turner of Wilmington and Janet McLaughlin and her husband Leonard of Billerica; three beloved grandchildren Madison and Nathan Frates and Ava Walker; six nieces and three nephews. She was the mother of the late John C.Brown III.

AIDS Awareness Event Nearby...

Just as a heads up to a great event you might want to go to, provided you have the time is a World Vision experience that is being put on at Grace Community Church in Chelmsford. This experience is a narrated walk through a typical African village. And it is put on from October 24th to October 27th.

World Vision puts on these events so that we might be able to experience what a typical African child encounters in life due to the AIDS pandemic. For more information from World Vision about what it is like, check here.

Come One, Come All

We're still looking for people to help out. Call Ryan (978-681-6483) if you'd like to help.

Benched

Benched from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

All Church Picnic This Sunday!

Come on out to our annual church picnic this Sunday after church from 12:30-4. We provide the food, you provide the fun! It's being held at Berry Pond in North Andover. For directions:

From Andover
From North Andover
From Haverhill

Go down Berry Pond Rd. and the entrance will be on your left.

GracePoint in Outreach Magazine

A few months ago an editor from Outreach Magazine was on the web looking for churches who were finding innovative ways to serve abroad. Somehow, he landed on GracePoint's website and our our Moldova project. He contacted Steve, asking if they could do a write up on us. Colleen Young gave him all the info and now we're published! The article is in their current September/October issue. Here is the text from the article:

"Traveling out of the Moldovan capital of Chisinau is like going back in time as paved roads give way to dirt, and shacks pass for homes. Two hours outside the city, one of many orphanages in this, Europe's poorest nation, is home to 100 children.

"Living a modest existence there—where showers are rusty and moldy and children use an outhouse because the bathroom is broken—the kids know when visitors from an American church arrive and run to
greet them.

"These kids have nothing," says Colleen Young, a member of the outreach team at GraccPoint Community Church (GracePointne.org) in North Andover, Mass., who visited the orphanage in January. Providing necessities and spiritual hope to the orphanage in Tocuz, Moldova, has become an outreach mission for the congregation of 100.

"Since its inception almost three years ago, GracePoint has partnered with missions agency Little Samaritan Mission (LittleSamaritan.org) to support orphans throughout Moldova. In the last two years, the church has focused on helping the orphans in Tocuz. One year, church
members filled backpacks with school supplies and other items. Most recently, the congregation stuffed clear plastic bags with gifts like flashlights, toothpaste and new winter coats. One church member donated a new pair of sunglasses for each child.

"'The kids loved them,' says Young, one of five GracePoint congregants who traveled to Moldova this year. 'They had never had sunglasses before.'

"The congregation also plans to pay for repairs on the bathrooms and showers. While the children cherish the gifts they receive, GracePoint's team intends to show them the love of Christ—not just be the 'Americans who bring things and leave,' Young explains. During their visit, the team played games with the children, studied the Bible, and prayed with and talked to them about reaching out to God when they feel alone. Back home, GracePoint members pray for the kids daily.

"'It is a country where the people feel forgotten, and having the love and peace of Christ will change their lives,' Young says."

A Quote on Difference Making

“You don't have to know a lot of things to make a huge difference for the Lord in the world. But you do have to know a few things that are great, and be willing to live for them and die for them. People who make a difference in the world are not people who have mastered a lot of things. They are people who have been mastered by a very few things that are very, very great. If you want your life to count, you don't have to have a high IQ; you don’t have to have a high EQ; you don't have to be smart, you don’t have to have good looks; you don't have to come from a good family or a good school. You just have to know a few basic, simple, glorious, majestic, obvious, unchanging, eternal things and be gripped by them and be willing to lay down your life for them, which is why anybody in this crowd can make a world-wide difference. Because it isn’t you, it is what you’re gripped with.”

-John Piper, transcribed from the audio of "Boasting Only in the Cross"

Every Member a Theologian

Thabiti Anyabwile answers the question, Why is being a theologian important for the average church member? Don’t we have seminary professors for that stuff?

"We love seminary professors, and are thankful for the gift that they are to the body of Christ. But theology is knowledge of God, and no professor can or should be asked to take our place in the privilege of knowing and savoring God! The great joy of Christianity is that we are actually brought into saving and everlasting knowledge of the marvelous Creator of all things. That knowledge of Him is “theology.”

"We’re all theologians. We’re either good or bad, hungry or lazy, grudging or joyful, accurate or sloppy theologians. But we are theologians. And I hope Healthy Member encourages the average Christian to not be afraid of the word “theologian,” to embrace it as their new birthright, and to take some practical steps in deepening their knowledge of God. For it’s as we know God more deeply, that our daily lives are changed more radically."

I would only add that every member is a theologian because even scholars and seminary professors are susceptible to fallibility. We should never look to any theologian or scholar or professor as distributors of perfect, truth. Our only guide should be the Bible. Acts 17:11: "Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."

Thabiti Anyabwile has written a book called, What is a Healthy Church Member? I look forward to picking it up.

What is Real?

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. My mind keeps on racing toward the existential question, "What is real?" Mostly, I keep telling myself that this is all a hoax. Though it sounds like I am wrong.