The church in Grand Rapids is a local church which is affiliated with other local churches. The history of the local churches dates back to the time of Jesus and the twelve apostles. The only two times that Jesus mentioned the church in the Gospels was in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17 where He said “I will build my church” and “tell it to the church”, respectively. Here Jesus’s church is universal, which includes all believers regardless of time and space (Matthew 16:18), yet it also exists specifically with regard to time and space (Matthew 18:17), i.e. the local churches.
After Jesus’s resurrection from the dead about 3,000 people in Jerusalem repented, believed, were baptized, and continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles (Acts 2:38-42). They gathered daily in the temple and in their homes, partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God (Acts 2:46-47)! The first use of the word “church” in Acts refers to the believers in Jerusalem as simply “the whole church” (Acts 5:11), meaning the called out (congregation), or assembly (in Greek, ekklesia). In Acts 8:1 they were referred to as “the church which was in Jerusalem”. This is the first church established in the Bible in Acts and it included all the believers living in Jerusalem. The record concerning the establishing of the church in its locality is consistent throughout the New Testament (Acts 13:1; 14:23; Romans 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 8:1; Gal. 1:2; Revelation 1:4, 11).
Although the practice of meeting as the church in its city was lost throughout the centuries, based on the classical writings of some 19th and 20th century Bible teachers, Christians began meeting as the church in Grand Rapids in 2015. In addition to meeting on Sunday, we like to gather in the homes of the church members for prayer, fellowship, reading the Bible and singing together throughout the week. We welcome you to join us!
Our Purpose
To build up the church as the Body of Christ.
To practice the church life according to the pattern in the New Testament.
To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people.
To edify and perfect Christian believers with the teaching of the Scriptures.
To fully join in the universal fellowship of Jesus Christ with all Christians.
To minister to the spiritual and temporal needs of people, according to the brotherly love inspired by God in His Word.
To promote the proper Christian community life according to God’s will.
To carry out and fulfill God’s eternal purpose as revealed in the Bible for His good pleasure and glory.
Our Standing
We stand on the Holy Scriptures, not according to an interpretation, but according to the Word of God in the Bible.
We stand on Christ as the living rock, the foundation stone, the Head of the Body; He is the life, the content and reality of the church.
In the church, we stand on the universal ground of oneness as the one unique Body of Christ.
We are not sectarian, nor denominational, nor non-denominational, nor inter-denominational, we simply identify as “the church”, which includes all the blood-redeemed and Spirit-regenerated believers in Christ as its members.
Our Mission
To preach the gospel of Grace and of the kingdom to the world, that all may be saved.
To minister Christ as Divine life to all believers, that they may grow in Christ and have Christ as the preeminent one in every aspect of their living so that God can be expressed and glorified!
To establish a local church in each city, that the believers in that city may become the corporate expression of Christ, in the universal oneness of Christ.
To fully recover the lost understanding of the truths in the Bible and the normal church life practices.
To release the living and rich truths of God in the Holy Scriptures that the believers may be nourished and come to the full knowledge of the truth.
To bring Christ back for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.