Grace Compass Church
Come…Discover…Experience…Live
a place for ‘real’ people on a Journey
NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED!
Sunday Nights at 5PM
For more information please call us at:
410-808-6483
or call us toll free at 1877-702-2GOD
7868 Causeway Blvd South,
St. Petersburg, FL 33707
Come as you are!
Music…Snacks…Fun…Interaction
Casual and comfortable dress
All Ages Welcome
For more information Please call us at:
410-808-6483
1-877-702-2GOD
gracecompasschurch@gmail.com
http://gracecompasschurch.blogspot.com/
Grace Compass Church will be a place for real people on a journey to come, discover, experience, and live out an incredible faith together through Grace. Reproducing disciples and individuals that will leave the mark of the Gospel of Grace wherever they are living, working, and ministering is the ultimate purpose of a Church that is patterned after the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
We intentionally want to help people transform their city and live a life of significance in Christ through Grace of God. The Church is not only a once WEEK EVENT on Sunday but an everyday learning the Habits of Christ from Gods Word and the working of the Holy Spirit in a organic missional groups. The celebration of Grace on Sunday at 5 PM will be an opportunity to reach the un-churched and provide a safe place for those seeking the 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 Discovery with intentional personal development of a Christly Life.
Three generations influenced by secular humanism have created a spiritual vacuum and over 195 million unreached people – people who are searching for hope, meaning, security, and significance.
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 organic Missional community with others. We can establish real, encouraging, safe, and honest relationships with one another as we learn to do life together as a redeemed missional community of faith.
Why Tampa Bay?
Over the past year God has given me 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 for His kingdom by changing the spiritual landscape of this entire area from one that worships and idolizes nature, leisure, and individualism 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%).
· 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.
· We believe that we have been called by God to seek and build people who will become the church because it is the single most effective form of evangelism today, and the best method for achieving the common objective of reaching all of North America with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
WHY START CHURCHES IN NORTH AMERICA?
· North America is the only continent where the church is not growing.
· Church planting is the most effective way to reach the un-reached and unchurched.
· New churches grow faster than established churches.
· New churches help keep up with population growth.
· New churches are more likely to enlist people in Kingdom Advancement
Why A New Church?
Church planting is the single most effective form of evangelism today, and a necessary method for reaching all of North America with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. New churches grow faster than established churches because new churches are focused on reaching the un-churched. People are also more open to change in new churches and thus excited about trying new and innovative ideas which, in turn, attract other people. New churches also encourage the raising up of new leaders that may otherwise not readily get or seek leadership opportunities in existing churches. This is an important consideration given that a church’s ability to identify, empower, and equip kingdom-minded leaders largely determines the level of its success.
Vision:
Grace Compass Church will be a place for ‘real’ people on a journey together discovering, experiencing, and living out an incredible faith together through Grace. Reproducing disciples and individuals that will leave the mark of the Gospel of Grace wherever they are living, working, and ministering is the ultimate purpose of a Church that is patterned after the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
Mission:
Compass will be used by God to design, launch, and grow numerous churches through collaboration. These churches will in turn reproduce, and be used as a catalyst to launch and reproduce which will impact the entire southeast, as well as minister to people groups in many other parts of our world. Compass is committed to MULTIPLICATION of disciples and emerging missional servant leaders who will build people who become the church.
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.
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.
Core Values:
Values reflect what we will do at Grace Compass Church as a central part of our life together.
Authentic Relationships: We will pursue being real and transparent with each other, so that we can encourage, celebrate, grow, hold accountable and mourn as a family.
Incarnate Living: We will grow in living out of the life of Jesus by the power of the Spirit.
Biblical Truth: We will learn and apply the truth of Scripture to all of our life, avoiding the temptation to replace its truth for the best ideas of people.
Compassion: We will love all people like Jesus did and minister to them daily regardless of their social status or spiritual condition.
Missional Living: We will live our lives out to bring the gospel in visible form to lost people all around us.
Grace-wholeness: We will equip people to know who they are in Christ, their new identity in Christ; how to remove their masks of who they think they are outside of Christ and the importance of yielding to the overflowing life of Christ which will overflow from their new lives in to others in their community. Becoming such a whole person is accomplished only through the grace of God.
Relevance: We will engage today’s culture in its context with significance without selling out or watering down the Gospel of Grace.
Global Impact: We will be part of a global network that makes a kingdom impact.
Freedom to Question: We will welcome the freedom that comes with questioning things so we can seek God’s answers together without arrogance
Strategy:
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 numerous ministries and community outreach which will flow from their desires which God will birth uniquely in each individual of every missional group.
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 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. 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 and we are called to cultivate and reproduce Spiritual life through ministry for God’s glory. 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 “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 our neighbors, our communities, and our world in relevant ways each and every day with Joy. We serve 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.
Implementation of Our Vision and Mission
This is a flexible blueprint of we will use to reach out to people, connect with them, and lead them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
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”)
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?)
Inviting and Gathering an un-churched friend to an authentic service designed for particularly them to observe the Celebration 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!
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.
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.
Connecting organically with the Body of Christ. Christ honoring relationships, friendships, and spiritual discovery. The organism of the church the missional community groups is where we do life together corporately and discovery occurs.
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)
Serving others outside the church (Community Service and servant evangelism thru our Missional DNA and Missional community groups)
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)
Reproducing other believers and churches
WHAT WE BELIEVE
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 Christian beliefs and living. Because it is inspired by God, it is truth without any mixture of error.
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.
ABOUT MAN
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.
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 places of eternal existence.
ABOUT JESUS CHRIST
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.
ABOUT SALVATION
Salvation is a gift from God to man by grace through faith. Man can never make up for his sin by self-improvement or good works – only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God’s offer of forgiveness can man be saved from sin’s penalty. Eternal life begins the moment one receives Jesus Christ into his life by faith.
ABOUT ETERNAL SECURITY
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 of the Christian.
ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
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.
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Compass Church … a fresh perspective on God’s timeless truth and amazing Grace which will reproduce the next generation of missionaries that will impact everyone, everywhere they are!
Founding Pastor: Teddy Awad
Spiritual Gifts: Entrepreneurial Spirit, Visionary Leadership, Strategic Thinking, Evangelism, Faith, Communication
Family: Wife Mary and one Child … Tiffany–8
Teddy and Mary Awad have been married for 10 years, and have spent the last 15 years in ministry, the last four years on staff with a Young Adult Crisis Hotline.
To accomplish our vision we have joined with Converge Southeast. The focus of Converge Southeast is staring new and healthy churches throughout the region. For more information about Converge south east please visit their website at:
The focus of Converge Southeast is staring new and healthy churches throughout the region.
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LAUNCH TEAM RECRUITMENT AND MENTORSHIP
Catalyst Church Planting Family
God has really been deeply touching us with a vision to gather missionaries in the Tampa bay area from all over the United States. We together as a Missional community with various gifting and unique God given abilities will be able plant numerous churches together as a catalyst family. A Catalyst family stimulates movement that precipitates a response, development, and lasting change. As a Catalyst family we are more effective than on our own as just Church planters. Together we can make an impact, working alongside one another, instead of apart building our very own kingdom. Let’s work together to plant a healthy church that loves people and really cares about one another. Then we can help one another to plant other churches from a base of operations and develop a network of churches planting churches as a Catalyst family. Together in collaboration with the Gospel of Grace we will change the spiritual landscape and the culture. This takes sacrifice and a life that does not belong to you anymore. It honestly takes a poured our life that is sent out by God. We are not looking for the religious. We are looking for a few Good men and women who are really ordinary people who do not think much of themselves, however think much about our extraordinary God who builds churches through the ordinary. This is the march of the unqualified.
Over the past year God has given us a burden for lost people in the Southeast and a passion to reach them with the message of Jesus Christ by planting a network of healthy churches. Our goal is to be used by God to impact the Southeast for His kingdom by changing the spiritual landscape of this entire area from one that worships and idolizes nature, leisure, and individualism to a community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ that worship the one true God. We believe this is only possible through movement formation and development of Catalyst Family of church planters, launch team members, and various missionaries who through collaboration with the Gospel of Grace cross the culture and cause response, development, and lasting change.
American Missionaries Wanted
At the time of this writing there are approximately 300 million people in North America. It is estimated that at least 200 million of them are lost without Christ as their personal Savior. The easiest solution to this lostness problem is to train and require the 100 million saved people to lead two people to Christ this year. Then all of North America will be saved. Sounds too good to be true, but the math works. God desires the church to be salt and light among the nations. We all pretty much agree that healthy church plants are the most effective method of evangelism and discovery. So how do we start enough churches to reach 200 million people? Using the most common method available today, it will not be done. Training people for three years in seminary and sending them out will not be sufficient because of people, resources, and time. This method only allows us to begin a certain number of churches each year determined by the amount of resources to fund a pastor and the number of pastors available, which is limited to graduates from seminary.
Are You Living A Life Of Significance? Most of us, at some point in our lives will ask ourselves “What is my Purpose?” or “How can I make an Impact?” I want to invite you on an exciting journey. One that will not only transform your life as you encounter the life-changing message of the Gospel of Grace, but also one that will transform a city. As you walk this journey know that you are not alone! There are others that have similar passion. Individuals share the vision of Grace Compass Church. This strategy will encourage you to ask the following questions………..
How Can I Be Equipped And Resourced To Live A Life Of Significance?
Compass will offer you individual mentorship, church launch team involvement, and available internship opportunities with our Converge Southeast in the Tampa Bay area. This will provide a realistic experience that provides face-to-face opportunities to communicate and interact with others. It will take you to exceptional places full of intrigue and growth as you consider God’s purposes for your life. Through a series of Launch team learning activities and individual mentorship, your ability to add value to your own life and make a significant impact in the lives of others will be enhanced. With each step you take, you will encounter opportunities to attend, get involved, and to mentor others in their new found faith.
How Can I Become Involved In Transforming My City?
First hand experiences at making a positive difference by connecting you with real opportunities to make an impact. Your journey never ends! To live a life of significance, the journey is continuous. A process whereby the more you become involved, the more you discover who you are, and the more you personally will grow. We will develop several key initiatives that will demonstrate the person and values of Jesus Christ while meeting the unique needs of our city together. This vision will only become possible if you and others come together and get involved. Under each initiative there are various ideas and opportunities that fall into three simple levels of involvement. These levels of involvement will help you apply what you have learned through individualized coaching, mentoring, and development of leadership abilities to enhance the overall city strategy. Intentionally being the hands of God providing moments for you to start spiritual conversations and personal development.
