Page 0: Page 1: Founding Pastor: Teddy Awad Spiritual Gifts: Entrepreneurial Spirit, Visionary Leadership, Strategic Thinking, Evangelism, Faith, Communication Family: Wife Mary and one Child … Tiffany–9 Teddy and Mary Awad have been married for 12 years, and have spent the last 15 years in ministry, the last four years as the Director of the Young Adult Crisis Hotline. GRACE COMPASS CHURCH ARE ‘REAL’ PEOPLE ON A JOURNEY BUILDING PEOPLE WHO BECOME THE CHURCH! 1 Page 2: Grace Compass Church … are real people on a journey building people who become the church that will leave the mark of Christ wherever they are living, working, and ministering. The ultimate purpose our authentic Biblical Community is to be the church in our communities, neighborhoods and sphere of influence. The To be the church to us means to be the hands, heart, and feet of Jesus in very real and meaningful ways together in community that is organic and not organizational. Jesus Answered Life’s greatest questions with two simple profound Faith Goals: Love God with all your heart and love others as yourself. It is our relationship with God and our relationship with others that bring identity, meaning and purpose to our lives together. Why Tampa Bay? God has given us a burden for lost people in the Southeast and a passion to reach them with the message of Jesus Christ. My goal is to be used by God to impact the Southeast with the kingdom of God which will change the spiritual landscape of this entire area to a community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ that worship the one true God. About the Tampa Bay Area  Spiritually open people who are ready to respond to God when His gospel is presented through an authentic and culturally relevant community of faith. Florida has an average church attendance percentage (15.1%) lower than the national average (18.7%). Pinellas County has an average church attendance percentage (12%) lower than the state average being one of the least churches counties in the state of Florida even though being the most populated. Growing population of over 4 million people with 9% growth in population expected annually. This county has the Youngest demographic in Florida (18-40 years old) nearly 42% of Tampa Bay’s population is in the highly desirable target 18-40 age group.  To accomplish our vision we have joined with Converge Southeast which is a regional representative of Converge –Worldwide the Baptist General Conference. Our Mission Grace Compass Church will be used by God as a catalyst to design, launch, and grow numerous churches in the Tampa Bay area through collaboration. Collaboration is the act of united labor to serve our city with the Gospel of Grace. These churches working in collaboration will be used as a catalyst to launch and reproduce church planters which will impact the entire southeast area of the USA, as well as minister to people groups in many other parts of our world. Grace Compass Church is committed to MULTIPLICATION of disciples and missional servant leaders who will build people who become the church We believe Church planting is… Our Purpose: The nature of God is multiplication and reproduction. Our Calling: The church as the Body of Christ is called to multiply. Our Effectiveness: Church planting is the most effective form of Evangelism. Biblical: Church planting is the biblical strategy for increasing the Kingdom through collaboration. 2 Page 3: Central: The local church is the center from which evangelism and ministry spread. Right: It’s an investment in the only thing Jesus said He would build – the church. America needs God and never before has the climate for evangelism and church planting been riper for America! Three generations influenced by secular humanism have created a spiritual vacuum and over 195 million unchurched people – who are not the enemy! They like are very much like all of us on a journey searching for hope, meaning, security, and significance. Now is the time to plant more and better churches! What Does Sunday Nights Look Like? Sunday Nights are all about celebration where we together as a community seek answers to life’s important questions with relevance, encouragement, and safety. Together we connect individuals to the life of Christ and encourage the next steps of the journey. We are essentially preparing and building people to be the church on mission with God in the midst of this fallen world that is searching for hope, meaning, security, and significance. Why Did You Start Grace Compass Church? We started Grace Compass Church because we believe that people matter to God – in fact, they are the pinnacle of His creation. Not only that, but every person was created by God with a need to connect in authentic community with others. Together we are better in Community than when we are alone. We want to make a difference our community together and have provided a safeharbor to the many who have left the church or who have never participated in church. In America, many have left the Church or refuse to get involved because it often lacked relevance, seemed too operate in Hypocrisy (duplicity), got political, were judgmental of others, and unfortunately focused on the Rules and behavior instead of belief and relationship. Therefore, we have established this authentic faith community to care about the needs of others. We are a Church where we have thrown away our masks. We realize no one is perfect and everyone is welcome to be real and authentic with whom God made them to be. We encouraged our community to accept and value people just as they are. We want to provide a safe place to become like Christ in Community of faith. This is only a snapshot of our redeemed community of faith. 3 Page 4: Driving Values: Values Form the Central Way and how we live our life together. Our Values shape our Character, which directly influences and guides life together at Grace Compass Church. G R C race-wholeness: We equip people to know who they are in Christ, help them to discover their new identity In Christ; and to experience new life on their spiritual journey. Wholeness is the process of Living life to the fullest in Christ and the removal of selfmade masks. The journey of becoming a whole person is only through the grace of God and in the context of biblical community. elevance: We engage today’s culture in its context with significance without selling out or watering down the Gospel of Grace. We will live our lives out to bring the gospel in visible form to people all around us. uthentic Relationships: We pursue being real, authentic, and honest with one other, so that we can encourage, celebrate, grow, and mourn as a family in relationships that build community. A ompassion: We actively love all people like Jesus did and minister to them daily regardless of their age, race, social status or spiritual condition. We will grow together in Incarnate Living which is outflows from the life of Jesus by the power of the Spirit to others in their community. ternal Truth: We learn and apply the Living truth of Scripture to all of our life piece by piece, avoiding the temptation to replace its truth for the best ideas of people, or defining its truth based upon our personal experiences or wounded emotions. We will welcome the freedom that comes with questioning things so we can seek God’s answers together without arrogance in God’s revealed will contained in scripture. E 4 Page 5: Our Strategy Grace Compass Church will be a missional church “with an edge” targeting young Gen X families (“20-30 somethings”) and postmoderns who live in the Greater Tampa Bay. It will be a center for worship and recreation center containing numerous multi-purpose rooms, skate-park, performing arts center that bands can rent, dance groups and other artists can use in the Community. The church primary goal will be to to start other churches. The strategy of “Grace Compass Church” will be accomplished by establishing “environments” that will be implemented through the missional community groups of the church. These missional groups will create life which will flow from their desires and passions which God will birth uniquely in each individual of every missional group. Therefore, we have established our authentic faith community to care about the needs of others. We are a Church where we have thrown away our masks. We realize no one is perfect and everyone is welcome to be real and authentic with whom God made them to be. We encouraged our community to accept and value people just as they are. We want to provide a safe place to become like Christ in Community of Faith. This is only a snapshot of our as a redeemed community of faith. We intentionally want to help people transform their city and live a life of significance in Christ. The Church is not only a once WEEK event on Sunday but an everyday learning the Habits of Christ from God’s Word and the working of the Holy Spirit in a organic missional community groups. The Church service will be a celebration of our King and Master Jesus Christ. When we celebrate our King Jesus, we will sing and celebrate the highest of Worship listening actively to God’s Word of Life. The celebration of Grace will be an opportunity reach the un-churched and non Christ–Follower’s seeking for answers of life’s important questions. The main emphasis of Church on Sunday will be to connect individuals to the life of Christ and encourage the next steps of Discipleship with intentional personal development of a Christly Life. By These Environments?  Grace Environment: Jesus is the “Living Water of Grace” that quenches our spiritual thirst and transfigures our life from  within. Hearing the Word causes our faith to grow in grace as we are transfigured internally to the image of the one whom we are called to follow Christ. GRACE is not merely “unmerited favor” that causes new birth which it is; Grace also is our living mentor who tutors us all in the character and nature of Who God is, what He has done, and what God is doing now. We want to plant this church to take a Stand for the Gospel of Grace and welcome those who have been wounded and hurt by the universal churches image problem. Growth Environment: Holy Spirit spreads the message of Jesus through us to others as we share our individual and collective lives with them through God’s Word’s of Life. Our missional spirit as a church, and our commitment to reach out and to share the message of Christ in concrete contemporary ways to all corners of the world will be our Collective purpose that Glorifies God our Father. This is done through missional community groups that will make learning fun and life transforming. 5 Page 6:    This process of transferring rudimentary head knowledge to spiritual formation is the work of the Holy Spirit not the work of Clergy or other believers. Spiritual Formation Environment: It takes time for meaningful progress and a safe place where you can practically process what you are learning in your daily life with God’s people. The environment must be safe from evaluating people on the basis performance and production. Measuring success and failure into spiritual metrics only hinders an individual’s growth. Success in the business world and world system is very different from what God defines as success. The world measures success is by individualism, outward appearance, production, performance, and obvious external results. God works in the invisible and His work is in an individual. The hidden work on the inside will eventually be revealing fruit in God’s timing not by our own effort, production or individual outward works. Missional Environment: As God’s creation we are called to cultivate and reproduce Spiritual life through ministry for God’s glory. At Grace Compass, we believe the church isn’t a place you go to once a week – the church is a people who are a living organism on a glorious mission of proclaiming their King and His Kingdom. We are to be “outward looking” and “others focused” as we live out our living faith in our daily lives. Christ is constantly on mission through our lives to reach out and serve the poor, our neighbors, our communities, and our world in relevant ways each and every day with Joy. We serve not because of the sense of obligation, programs or duty, but because of the radical inward work of grace in our lives, and desire that others also experience the revolution of Grace personally. Worship Environment: God has placed a passion in our hearts and spirits for worship which is illuminated as we draw closer to Him. Our hearts set ablaze with worship, both corporately and individually, as we continually give ourselves over to Him and draw closer to His glory. To receive all that God is and what His Word teaches radically changes lives and causes internal change that is a result of progressively growing in Grace through worship. 6 Page 7: Blueprint plan of Vision and Mission Implementation: Blueprint of the Implementation of our vision and mission of “Grace Compass” will be as follows… 1. Building relational bridges into the community through our missional community groups inviting individuals to a celebration of Grace on Sundays or to the numerous missional community Groups events of Celebration (Three keys here: Intentionality, Unconditional Love , Acceptance, and “Telling Our Story”) 2. Living out an authentic living faith for others to see (People don’t just want you to tell them about your faith; they want to see evidence of it in the way you live your life – are you for real or a fraud? People do not care how much you know until you show them how much you really care. Has Jesus REALLY radically changed your life and given you a new set of values and desires to live your life by?) 3. Inviting and Gathering an un-churched friend to an authentic service designed for particularly them to observe the Celebration (The key is to have several relevant services and events for different age groups: adult, teen and children’s service). This also allows for the development of new emerging missional leaders and the mentoring of missional community leaders learning and growing effectively in reproducible authentic maturity. Attend, Invite, tutor and serve others! 4. Encountering the Spirit of God and teaching the Word of God through the worship experience (it needs to be real and relevant) making the complex simple and applicable in daily life for everyone, not just for seekers attending. The worship service become the template for the following weeks teachings and discussions at the missional community Groups. Making the content reproducible in daily life and practical application. 5. Making a decision to follow Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (You shouldn’t have to force or manipulate this – Jesus didn’t! – Just gave them an opportunity to respond to the Gospel when they came and saw) We are only a pencil in the hand of God, God will do the writing on individuals heart if we are only faithful to present Him and invite people to a decision as we celebrate our Master in relationship. 6. Connecting into the life of the church community through Christ honoring relationships, friendships, and spiritual discipleship. The organism of the church the missional community groups is where we do life together corporately and discipleship occurs. 7. Learning how to live like Jesus lived and taught from the Word of God we will develop genuine growth together. Spiritual formation and reproduction of life transformation in others (Mentoring / Teaching / Reproduction) 8. Serving others outside the church (Community Service and servant evangelism thru our Missional DNA and Missional community groups) 9. Loving God as a lifestyle (Worship – it’s not just an event you go to on Sunday, it’s a lifestyle! We will teach people what it means to live the Christian life 24/7) 10. Reproducing other believers and churches This is a flexible blueprint of how we will reach out to people, connect with them, and lead them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. 7 Page 8: Our Beliefs are modeled after the Apostles Creed and the Lausanne Covenant: They Form the Why and What of Life Connected To Our Values the Way and How We Live Click for more detailed version Detailed video about the Lausanne Covenant Click here please! ABOUT GOD God is the creator and ruler of the universe. He has eternally existed in three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are co-equal and are one God. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is co-equal with the Father. Jesus lived a sinless human life and offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all men by dying on a cross. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to heaven’s glory and will return again to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son as God. He is present in the world to make men aware of their need for Jesus Christ. He also lives in every Christian from the moment of salvation. He provides the Christian with power for living, understanding of spiritual truth, and guidance. ABOUT THE BIBLE The Bible is God’s word to all men. It was written by human authors, under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of truth for Our beliefs and living. Because it is inspired by God, it is truth without any mixture of error. ABOUT MANKIND Man is made in the spiritual image of God, to be like him in character. He is the supreme object of God’s creation. Although man has tremendous potential for good, he is marred by an attitude of disobedience toward what God called "sin.” This attitude separates man from God. People matter to God – in fact, they are the pinnacle of His creation. Not only that, but every person was created by God with a need to connect in authentic organic biblical community with others ABOUT ETERNITY – Man was created to exist forever. He will either exist eternally separated from God by sin or in union with God through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is hell. To be eternally in union with him is eternal life. Heaven and hell are real places of eternal existence. ABOUT SALVATION Salvation is a gift from God to man by grace through faith we accept. Man can never make up for his sin by selfimprovement or good works – only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God’s offer of forgiveness can man be saved from sin’s penalty. When we turn from our self-willed life and turn to Jesus in faith, we are saved. Eternal life begins the moment one receives Jesus Christ into his life by faith. Because God gives man eternal life through Jesus Christ, the believer is secure in salvation for eternity. Salvation is maintained by the grace and power of God, not by the self-effort , behavior modification, or the performance the Christ follower Our Beliefs form the Spiritual Content of our Driving Values what we value together at Grace Compass Church as a central part of our lives together. Our Beliefs shape our foundation which is directly linked to what we Value. What you believe reflects the life you will live, what you value reflects how you will live your life. If you do not believe like us we do not believe you are the enemy and are welcome to join us on the journey in our discovery of who God is, what he has done, and talk about how he is moving in your life or not moving in your life. 8 Page 9: 9 Page 10: