About Us
What We Believe
The Bible
The Bible is the inspired and only Word of God to mankind. While it reflects the personalities and cultural settings of human writers, its ultimate authorship is God. So we seek to understand this book and apply it to our lives believing that its wisdom is best for this life and its revelation of spiritual truth is essential for eternal life.
God
There is one God existing in three persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the creator and sustains all things, actively working in human affairs to invite all of us back to relationship with him. He is gracious, loving, holy, just and righteous. He is all-powerful, yet he invites rather than coerces men and women to follow him and his ways.
Salvation
God created humankind for his pleasure and ours--so we could relate to him in friendship and enjoy his abundant provision. However, we believe in the reality of sin so obvious all around us and within. We have alienated ourselves from him through our independence and going our own way. All of us have fallen short of God's moral standard and need his forgiveness. Such mercy has been provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Salvation must be appropriated by a heart that admits its sin, invites God's cleansing and endeavors to follow God's leadership in life. Salvation is a free gift from God that cannot be earned by good works. It not only includes God's forgiveness but his presence and power to help us overcome sin.
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Trinity. He was born of a virgin, lived a life of perfect obedience and voluntarily died on the cross for our sins. His sacrificial death demonstrates God's hatred of sin and his love for mankind while satisfying God's righteous judgment by taking the punishment we deserve. He is eternal and will be acknowledged as Lord of all (Phil. 2:1-7).
The Christian Life
The Christian life is moral, relational and supernatural. God calls us to live lives of integrity, honesty, compassion, faithfulness and service. Of course, all of these moral qualities have to do with others. So the Christian life is relational at it's core. However, the Christian life is more than loving one's neighbor. It involves a relationship with a God who does miracles. God has chosen to live in us by the presence of his Holy Spirit. As a result, believers experience physical healing, divine intervention in daily affairs, the baptism of the Holy Spirit as described in the book of Acts and a very real sense of God's companionship on a regular basis. To someone who is not a Christian, this is difficult to understand since it is beyond human or scientific explanation--it's miraculous and a very normal and dynamic part of the Christian life.
At Point of Grace, we try to present God's word clearly without adding human rules or detracting from God's clear instruction. We realize that there are some areas that are controversial and some issues on which the Bible is silent. We strive to respect God's word by not manipulating it to say things it doesn't. In other words, we will leave controversial matters to the discretion of individual believers as much as possible. In teaching on such issues, we try to present various viewpoints so that our members can prayerfully make their personal decisions as well-informed Christians.
Human Destiny
We believe in the reality of heaven and hell. In fact, it is the awareness of these that motivate us to serve the way we do. Every person will give an account for how they lived and how they appropriated God's truth and invitation to relationship with Him. Those who spurned his offer of salvation and clung to their own autonomy will be separated from God into condemnation. Those who received his forgiveness and trusted his authority as God in this life will live with Him forever.
The Church
Individualism is an American value. God's ideal is the church. He calls us to be a community of believers growing in deep relationship and support of each other. He commands us to pray for one another and worship together. As a group, our highest goal is to glorify Christ by our love, service and worship. As a body, we have been gifted in various ways to work together so we can accomplish far more good than anyone could do alone.
Our Values
We believe God has brought us together to build an accepting community of people who invite others to seek, know, follow, and celebrate Jesus Christ.
We value Christ-centered discipleship—My prayer for you is that you will overflow more and more with love for others, and at the same time keep on growing in spiritual knowledge and insight, for I want you always to see clearly the difference between right and wrong, and to be inwardly clean and blameless until the day of Christ. May your lives always be full of true goodness, produced by the power that Jesus Christ gives you--to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11
We value lost people—This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not be lost, but should have everlasting life. John 3:16
We value loving
relationships—Now you can have real love for everyone
because your souls have been cleansed from selfishness and hatred when
you trusted Christ to save you; so see to it that you really do love
each other warmly, with all your hearts. 1 Peter 1:22
We value authenticity—Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So now I am
glad to talk about my weakness; I am glad to be a living demonstration
of Christ’s
power, instead of showing off my own power and abilities. 2 Corinthians
12:9
We value spiritual gifts—Each one should use whatever gift
he has received to serve others, passing on God’s many kinds
of blessings. 1 Peter 4:10-11
We value faith-filled prayer—If you live your life in me and my words
live in your hearts, you can ask whatever you wish, and it will be given
you. John 15:7
We value excellence—Don’t just do what you have to do to
get by, but work wholeheartedly, as Christ’s servants doing what
God wants you to do...you’re really serving God. Ephesians 6:7-8
We value creativity—Compose new songs of praise to him, play skillfully, and shout for joy. Psalms 33:3
We value relevance—Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him. I do this to get the message to them and also for the blessing I myself receive when I see them come to Christ. 1 Corinthians 9:22-23
We value compassion—I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. Matthew 25:35-40
We value holiness—And so, dear brother, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice, holy-the kind he can accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you. Romans 12:1-2
Message from Our Pastor
Pastor Mickey Best
Alright, here's the formal stuff first...I graduated Wheaton College with a B.A. in Biblical Studies and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary with a M .Div. in Pastoral Ministry. During high school and college, I was exposed to a phenomenal church in the Chicago area called Willow Creek. In fact, my wife, Diane, and her family came to know Jesus Christ personally as a result of this ministry. Willow Creek has influenced thousands of churches around the world to rethink how church is done. While we are "conservative" concerning biblical truth, our attempt to communicate it with relevance and creativity may be new to some.
Before we felt led to Madison to start Point of Grace, I was the youth pastor of First Assembly of God in Waupaca, Wisconsin and enjoyed a very warm and fruitful ministry there. The Wisconsin and Northern Michigan District of the Assemblies of God has provided great training, support, and accountability for POG.
If you are considering being a part of Point of Grace, the most important thing you should know about me concerns my relationship with Christ. Although I was privileged to grow up in a Christian home, I strayed from God during my high school days. He graciously disciplined me and brought me back to himself. In the process, I developed a pretty legalistic and rigid view of God. It was the fall of 1987 when I first came to understand his amazing goodness and grace. I'll spare you the details here but I'd love to talk about it if you ask! Let me just say that I came to realize what a huge difference there is between being religious and having a genuine, intimate, faith-filled relationship with God. Such a friendship with him is possible and absolutely life changing.
Besides a passion for the Church, I love my wife, Diane, and our three kids: Brandon, Colton & Kailey. I also enjoy sports, history and eating. So if you ever want to talk about the Packers, kids, or the Civil War over fast food, I'm game.