What if I Don’t Have a Free Grace Church in My Community?

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

The following is a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. What if none of the churches in your community teach that salvation is a free gift by faith apart from works? Where do you go to church? What are the alternatives? This is Grace in Focus. Thank you, friend, for joining us today. We are a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society, which is located in North Texas, and you can learn about us by going to our website, faithalone.org. We have a magazine published six times per year, full length, full color. You can subscribe to it and it is available to you for free. It will come to your mailbox and you only have to pay for postage if you live outside of the 48 lower United States. Find out more and get subscribed. Go to our website, faithalone.org. Now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Catherine Wright and Ken Yates.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:58

We have a question from Cheryl, right? Yes. And this is, I would say, probably the number one question we get. Now, there’s different ways of wording it. And there’s also, if you ask five different Grace people the answer, you’re probably going to get 10 answers. More like 20. Yeah, more like 20. But let’s look at the question first. Catherine, what did Cheryl ask?

SPEAKER 04 : 1:24

I’m kind of summarizing it, but she is in an area community where there are no solid free grace churches. And they would like, you know, her and her husband would like to be active in their community. However, the church that they’re going to right now, the pastor is Lordship. So there is a church that’s free grace that is an hour drive for them. And so she’s looking for guidance as to whether they should remain or drive that hour to the free grace church, knowing that they probably wouldn’t be able to be as active in the free grace church due to the distance. She does also add that her parents are elderly and they take care of them. And so there’s a lot of other kind of strain there. And so basically, should they stay at the local church where they can be more active, which is lordship, or should they drive the hour to the more solid church, knowing that they won’t be able to be as active there?

SPEAKER 02 : 2:24

Boy, there’s so many variables here because like in this case with her parents, for example, and there could be other issues. I think reading between the lines, we would say there’s going to be if they drive that hour, there’s going to be some Sundays where they’re not able to go at all.

SPEAKER 03 : 2:41

Right.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:41

And so what does it mean to be active? I mean, it’s there’s a lot of issues here. So we’re going to talk about this in very general terms.

SPEAKER 04 : 2:49

Yeah, I think to be clear, she’s asking for guidance. So we’re just going to give guidance here with her specific situation. But we need to acknowledge that there’s so many other families and family dynamics and situations. And so I just want to say kind of as a disclaimer, you know, we want to be gracious. We want to walk by grace here and realize that the application will look different depending on those variables that you mentioned.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:17

Yes, and I think in certain circumstances, believers are going to make different decisions. You might look at my situation and say, I wouldn’t do that. Or I might look at you and say, well, I wouldn’t do what you did. So what are some of the options? Well, let’s just talk about this in general terms. Today, fortunately, we have so many good resources online. So many solidly free grace Sunday school classes you can attend. And if anybody is looking for those things, you can contact the office and they can give them to you. Catherine and I are involved in a Sunday school class that’s Zoomed and a worship service. I know Bob Bryant’s church is on Zoom.

SPEAKER 04 : 3:58

Yeah, and Bob has his Sunday school that is live streamed as well. And so lots of online services.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:05

Yes. And for some people, the answer would be pretty simple. An hour drive wouldn’t be a big deal, you know, particularly if you didn’t have any other family issues like any parents to take care of or small children or whatever the case may be. I mean, in Dallas, we don’t live in Dallas, but Dallas. An hour drive isn’t much of anything.

SPEAKER 04 : 4:28

That’s a normal commute. A lot of people drive that just to work and back.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:34

And Catherine and I, for example, our families, we travel 45 minutes to church to go to a free grace church. But we also, you know, again, there’s some people who wouldn’t be able to do it. What we would say is make sure you’re getting solidly free grace teaching through these Zooms or through these classes or whatever, whatever’s available to you.

SPEAKER 04 : 4:57

Yeah. I think part of the issue is with the question of what does she mean by active?

SPEAKER 02 : 5:01

Right.

SPEAKER 04 : 5:02

And we’re not entirely sure what she means by that because, you know, Are you looking for the church for the doctrine? Well, then obviously we would say don’t go to the Lordship Church.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:12

You’re wasting your time. You’re wasting your time. If active there is, oh, I’m just going to attend and I’m going to go to these Sunday school classes. To learn. You’re not going to learn anything. Right. It’ll be so frustrating. Right. I speak from a lot of experience because as a military chapel, we would move around a lot and we would check out churches. And we know what it’s like to not have a free grace church to attend.

SPEAKER 04 : 5:41

So if that’s what she means by active, then I think we would just say even… At a limited capacity, the driving would be our recommendation and then supplement with the online resources.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:52

Sure. And even if you couldn’t go every week, it would be better. Right. Even a little bit of good teaching is better than a whole lot of horrible teaching. Right.

SPEAKER 04 : 6:05

But there’s the issue of, is that the definition of active that she means?

SPEAKER 02 : 6:09

Yes. Now, this is where people get in disagreements with one another. For example, if this lordship church, and there’s different levels of lordship churches, you know, there’s guys who are lordship who don’t even know that they’re lordship. They’re open.

SPEAKER 03 : 6:24

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:25

And that’s not just lordship. You could run into all kinds of people who don’t know the issues. They might appreciate someone like you, Cheryl, or your husband. Being there, teaching grace. Right. In which case you could lead a woman’s study or lead a Bible study or lead a Sunday school class or something like that. And if the church allows you to do that, then it’s more like a mission field. Right. You’re acting as a missionary. And my personal opinion is… that’s a very good option. You can go to a church and be a light.

SPEAKER 04 : 7:01

Be bold and be a light. Yeah. Going in. We know some free gracers who have left churches, but then went to others and you go into them and people just don’t know the issues.

SPEAKER 03 : 7:09

Right.

SPEAKER 04 : 7:09

And so you’re not trying to be divisive. You’re not coming in there to undermine the leadership, but you’re just going and you’re a light to them and you’re able to have these discussions and you can be active in that way. In which case, like you said, that would be more of like a mission field. Right. It would be going into be served. It would be to go to serve.

SPEAKER 01 : 7:29

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SPEAKER 02 : 8:04

That is a very good option if such a place exists. You know, I’ll tell you one day my wife, when I was in the military, she was visiting a little country church. And Catherine, you may have been there. I don’t remember. But she was visiting a country church and the guy preaching was a coal miner. And he was up preaching and he was talking about a passage and he literally stopped in the middle of the sermon. And he goes, I’m going to just be honest with you folks. I don’t know what this passage is talking about. Is there anybody here who can help me understand it? That makes me want to cry. I’m sure that guy was not a grace guy. Matter of fact, my wife told me. She goes, he wasn’t. He tried his best, but he was completely open.

SPEAKER 04 : 8:52

He was confused.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:53

And so if there’s a church like that, oh, man, I would jump on that with both feet.

SPEAKER 04 : 8:57

Yeah, I was speaking to a friend recently who said his pastor is very open. He’s not super solid on things, but that he’s open to discussion and is meeting with him and having those discussions. So that’s an incredible opportunity.

SPEAKER 02 : 9:12

Yeah. And for other people, there may not be anybody who’s even open around them. There may not be the free grace people around them. And for you, the answer may be, I’m just going to start a home church, a home Bible study or whatever it might be. And so this is a tough question to answer. And one size does not fit all. We even talk to free grace people who say, well, I’m going to move. And for some people, that may be an option. But for others, it’s really not. To move, you know, would it be better to move or would it be better to travel an hour? And two families may decide two different things. You know, I’m willing to travel an hour, hour and a half one way because I can’t move. Because again, like in this case, if her parents are tied to some care facility, for example, they just can’t pick up and move, you know, particularly if their business is there and this is the way they support their family and their kids, you know, or whatever. I mean, people are going to come up with different answers to this question. I will say that in my own experience, because I traveled so much, Most places that we went to, and you can tell me if you agree with this, most places that we went to did not have a solidly free grace church. But almost always there was a place that was open and that would allow me… We had home Bible studies. We had Sunday school classes that they allowed me to teach. And they would allow me to preach there as well. But there are a lot of lordship churches that will be adamant that you cannot spread free grace theology.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:01

In which case you submit to that and say, okay.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:04

And you need to move on. Right.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:05

It reminds me of Paul, right? He goes to the synagogues first. He goes to the meetings. You know, I think of when he meets Lydia, he’s looking for people who are spiritually minded and sometimes they respond well. And other times they don’t.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:22

Sometimes they run him off.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:23

And they run him off and they beat him up and he has to go to the next spot.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:26

Well, I’ve never been beat up yet. I’ve been yelled at, but I’ve never been beat up and I’ve certainly not been stoned. Right. But this is what we would do for anybody. There’s just so many answers to this. There’s so many variables. Make sure you’re getting solid free grace teaching and make sure you’re bold in proclaiming it wherever you’re at.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:46

Yeah. I also just want to say, I think it’s also important, you know, at the top of this conversation, we talked about speaking in general terms, trying to walk in grace. I think it’s also important for those who have solid free grace churches in their areas. They look at maybe some of their brothers and sisters in these deserts to be merciful to them as they’re making those decisions. It can be easy to judge one another on this. Right. And to be judgmental. Well, why don’t you just drive the hour? Right. Well, that’s easier said than done for some people. Or why don’t you just move? Well, that’s easier said than done for some people. I have friends in Italy who there are no free grace churches, as far as they know, in the whole country.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:27

That’s right.

SPEAKER 04 : 12:28

So what do you do then? So we should be very gentle towards each other as we’re making these difficult decisions.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:35

Yeah. And again, we’d really encourage everyone to take advantage of the stuff that’s online. The Lord has really blessed all of us with that. Well, we hope that helps. Again, this is a very common question that we get. And until next time, remember, keep grace in focus.

SPEAKER 01 : 12:55

Would you be interested in some free e-books on topics you hear on this program? Well, if you are, you need to come visit us at faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. We would love to hear from you. Maybe you’ve got a question, comment, or some feedback. If you do, please don’t hesitate to send us a message. Here’s our email address. It’s radio at faithalone.org. That’s radio at faithalone.org. And when you do, very important, please let us know your radio station call letters and the city of your location. Ken and Catherine, join us again on our next episode. They’ll be answering a question about Acts 2.38. Please join us, and in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus. The preceding has been a listener-supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.