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.
Please Watch Our YouTube Video:
What to expect if I Visit Grace Compass Church?
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. New churches grow faster than established churches because new churches are formed around impacting entire communities and reaching the un-churched versus an emphasis of taking care of existing members in established churches. To accomplish our vision we have joined with Converge Southeast.
The focus of Converge Southeast is starting new and healthy churches throughout the region.
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.
· In North America 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.
Grace Compass Church will be a seeker-targeted, church “with an edge” targeting young Gen X families (“20-30 somethings”) and post-moderns who live in the Greater Tampa Bay. It will probably be located in a school, Business Park, or community center and then eventually a building that will have a worship and recreation center containing numerous classrooms for the Bible institute, skate-park, performing arts center that bands can rent, dance groups and other artists can use in the Community. The church will reproduce by year five, and have as its goal the potential to start other churches.
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.
Mission:
Grace Compass Church will be used by God to design, launch, and grow numerous high impact churches over a five year period through collaboration. These churches will in turn reproduce within this five year period, and 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. Church Planting, never before has the climate for evangelism and church planting been riper for America! People are searching for hope, meaning, security, and significance. Now is the time to plant more and better churches! Historically, church planting is proven to be the most effective form of evangelism.
Core Values:
Our Values influences and guides how we live together at Grace Compass Church as a central part of our life together. Our Values shape our Character which is directly linked to what we believe.
G race-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.
R elevance:
We will 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 lost people all around us. We will be part of a global network that makes a kingdom impact.
A uthentic 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
C ompassion:
We will love all people like Jesus did and minister to them daily
regardless of their social status or spiritual condition. We will grow together in Incarnate Living which is the out of the life of Jesus by the power of the Spirit.
E ternal 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.
Strategy:
The strategy of “Compass” 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.
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 Launch 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. 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 Sunday 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. 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. At 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 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.
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 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.
Blueprint plan of Vision and Mission Implementation:
This is a flexible blueprint of we will reach out to people, connect with them, and lead them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Blueprint of the Implementation of our vision and mission of “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
Core Beliefs:
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.
Statement of Faith
God is the creator and the ruler of the universe. He has eternally existed in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Those three are co-equal with God and are one God.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is co-equal with the Father. He was born of a virgin and lived a perfect, sinless human life. He offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on a cross. He arose from the dead after three days, ascended into heaven, and will return again someday to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The Holy Spirit is co-equal with the Father and Son. 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 believer with power for living, understanding spiritual truth, wisdom, and guidance.
The Bible is God’s Word to us. It was written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of truth for all Christian beliefs and living. Because it is inspired by God, it is the truth without any mixture of error.
Salvation is God’s free gift to us, but we must accept it. We can never make up for our sins by self-improvement or good works. Only by trusting Jesus Christ as God’s offer for forgiveness can anyone 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.
Eternity – The soul of every human being was created to live forever. We will either exist eternally separated from God by sin, or eternally with God through salvation and forgiveness. Hell is eternal separation from God. Heaven is eternal union with God. Heaven and Hell are real places of eternal existence.
More detailed Statement of faith can be provided.
Sunday Nights @ 5PM
7868 Causeway Blvd South, St. Petersburg, FL 33707
Come as you are, NO Perfect People Allowed!
Casual and comfortable dress
(All Ages Welcome)
For more information Please call us at:
Website: http://www.gracecompasschurch.org/
Email: info@gracecompasschurch.org
727-399-7159
1-877-702-2GOD
Music…Snacks…Fun…Interaction
Please Watch Our YouTube Video:
What to expect if I Visit Grace Compass Church?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbFwu3TBA2w
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