Sanctuary of Grace - Mission Video

Our Mission

The mission of Sanctuary of Grace is to make disciples by connecting people to Christ, growing together in Christ, and strategically serving to radically impact our world for Christ.

In practical terms, this involves seeing lost people come to Christ,found people maturing, and mature people reproducing themselves and influencing their world.

Our Vision

Vision is a positive picture of a future outcome. It is what we believe God wants us to become as a body of believers. It is our dream for SOG. Our VISION has two components—an inward focus and an outward focus. Looking inward at what occurs at SOG, we strive to create an environment that speaks to people in a relevant way. Our passion is to make SOG a place where people are empowered and motivated to pursue intimacy with God, community with insiders, and influence with outsiders. Practically speaking, what does this look like?

Becoming a place where the hurting, the depressed, the frustrated, and the confused can find love, acceptance, help, hope, forgiveness, guidance, and encouragement.
Welcoming hundreds of members into the fellowship of our church family—loving, learning, laughing, and living in harmony together.
Nurturing people to spiritual maturity through Bible studies, small groups, seminars, retreats, and a Bible School for our members.
Equipping every believer for a significant ministry by helping them discover the gifts and talents God has given them.

Looking outward, we strive to be a catalyst in creation of a movement of biblical Christianity that will impact the lives of thousands of people in our community and beyond. We strive to see people brought to Christ and then equipped and motivated to commit themselves to doing their part in accomplishing the task of fulfilling Jesus’ command to take the gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation and cultivating Christ-followers to the ends of the earth. We strive to see this accomplished through:

Sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with thousands of people living in the Tri-State area and beyond.
Sending out missionaries all around the world; sending our members by the hundreds on short-term mission projects to every continent of the world; and empowering every member for a personal life mission in the world.
Facilitating a dynamic church-planting movement (at home and abroad) focused on evangelism, leadership training, and the multiplication of local fellowships that will contribute to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Our Commitment to the Unchurched

Statistics show that 80% of church “growth” in our country comes from believers moving from one church to another. While we might welcome those who have left other congregations for legitimate reasons, we desire to grow by winning the unreached for Christ and growing them to maturity. We are not seeking “church” people to fill our seats.

What our area needs is not just another church, but a safe environment where the unchurched can come and experience the life-changing truth that Jesus Christ cares for them and died for their sin. We hold the strong conviction that God has called us to be an alternative to the other churches in our area—a church that has “outsiders” in mind. What do we mean by having “outsiders in mind?” It means having a passion to make SOG a “safe” place for outsiders and a safe place for insiders to bring outsiders. Our target is those who don’t know Christ—those who have had little, no, or bad church experience—that is what we mean by an “outsider” or “unchurched” person.

This philosophy of being sensitive to unreached, unchurched people in our community will, by necessity, take us down a different path than many other churches. Much of what the traditional church does is not connecting with the unreached in our country. We must learn to speak the language of the culture that we live in. We want to be faithful to the Scriptures, but relevant to the culture we live in. This will mean a departure from the normal way of “doing church” in all facets. Our vision is to be contemporary, casual, and Christ-centered. Why? Because we are trying to reach people to whom this approach will make sense.

Our Purpose at Sanctuary of Grace

We believe we exist in order to be a local body of Christ. We are, therefore, to do everything that He did. We must love the unlovable. We must sacrificially serve the community in which we live and work. We are to be an agent for life change as the Lord Jesus works through us to impact the world. Sanctuary of Grace exists to be Christ’s body, living in our community and radiating the glory of the indwelling presence of Jesus. We are to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, extending the contagious atmosphere of God’s Kingdom to every person in the Tri-State area (and the world) in order to see our community (and our world) enveloped in Christ’s love, acceptance, and forgiveness.