A church plant for Dallas-Fort Worth
“Make disciples who make disciples, and plant a church that plants churches.”
Caleb and Stasia Brake are planting Gracebound Church: a sending church that raises up leaders and missionaries for the nations.
What Gracebound is about
Deep with a few, like Jesus did.
Both halves of the equation
We preach the Word, “a stern calling on the church.” But “life change happens when that knowledge is applied to daily life,” so preaching and day-to-day discipleship go together.
Every member teaches
“You don’t really learn something well until you’ve taught it.” So we take a high schooler or a college student under our wing and walk through life with them.
The Word and people
Take people’s struggles to the Bible. Take what the Bible teaches to people. Lose either one and the ministry suffers.
A simple Sunday
One guitar, a microphone, a slide deck, and a meal together. Deep fellowship and rich biblical teaching don’t need production.
Who we want to reach
An open door to American life.
The service is in English. Our outreach focuses on internationals.
Coming to the States, it is much easier to find other Chinese people than to break into American life. We want to give people the opportunity to experience American life, and give ourselves the opportunity to learn from them. It runs both ways: each side helps the other see what it can’t see from inside its own culture.
“It’s easy to get along with everyone who’s like you, but the glory of the gospel is that it’s broken down the walls of hostility between people groups, so that we’re all one in Christ.”
Why a new church
A time to emphasize going.
“The Village is trying to take care of its members and provide care and support for every generation of life, which is fantastic. That’s what you want to see a healthy church do. But there is always a time to emphasize going.”
Tim Keller makes the same point in Why Plant Churches: new congregations “are forced to focus on the needs of its nonmembers, simply to get off the ground.”
It reaches the lost
A new church reaches people that existing churches can’t easily or naturally reach.
It helps existing churches
A plant is the R&D department of the church. When it finds a new way to reach people, existing churches can use it too, and the whole kingdom benefits.
It deepens existing Christians
Church plants call people into greater service, and that deepens their faith and their sacrifice for God.
Where
Dallas-Fort Worth, leaning North DFW
Not final yet. The focus on internationals goes wherever the church is.
What it takes
$10,000a month in monthly support
About 60 partners giving monthly would carry Caleb through the residency, the launch, and the first years, until the church can support its pastor.