21ST ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND

Acts 2:42–47

We celebrate what God has done, but we cooperate with what God does next. Take away the buildings, the programs, and the budget — what’s left is what the church actually is: people God builds with.

“Upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” — Matthew 16:18 NLT

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.” — Acts 2:42 NLT

“They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” — Acts 2:46–47 NLT

Drive through almost any New England town and you’ll find an old church building near the center — white steeple, black shutters, a plaque that says 1740 or 1790. Some are still churches. Plenty are condos, restaurants, breweries, or community centers. Most didn’t close because of a crisis. They closed because, slowly and quietly, they stopped passing their faith on to the next generation. The building survived, but the church didn’t.

This weekend Grace Church turns 21. It started with six people in a living room — no building, no budget. Today it’s more than 3,000 people across four locations and 16 services every weekend, with 13 churches planted (the 14th launches February 28, 2027), 15 “grandbaby” churches, 1,894 people baptized, and $3.5 million given to missions. Every one of us is here because somebody before us prayed, gave, served, and invited.

So the question is: We don’t have to guess. Almost 2,000 years ago, Luke described the first church in one paragraph. It had no building, no budget, and no brand — just people and a mission. Three thousand strangers from more than a dozen places, speaking different languages, most of whom had never met, were sharing meals, homes, and money by the end of the chapter. The Holy Spirit turns strangers into a family — and that’s our story too. Notice the last line: The Lord did the adding; the people did the living.

Five ways we cooperate with what God does next — Grace Church’s five core values, straight out of the first church:

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching… A deep sense of awe came over them all.” — Acts 2:42–43 NLT

Before the meals, before the money, before the crowds, the first church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. “Devoted” means hold fast, stick close, keep on doing it. They had no printed Bibles, apps, or podcasts — just eyewitnesses of Jesus passing on everything He taught. Today we carry the Bible in our pockets; our problem isn’t access, it’s that we rarely open it.

shows why this matters for a church that’s building. The walls of Jerusalem are finished, and the first thing the people do is ask Ezra to bring out the Book of the Law. He reads from morning until noon, the Levites explain it so everyone understands, and the people weep — until Nehemiah says celebrate, because the joy of the Lord is your strength. The walls gave them protection, but the Word gave them life.

We’re in a season of building too. But if Grace Church ever gathers without the Scriptures at the center, we stop being the church. According to the American Bible Society, nearly half of weekly churchgoers don’t read the Bible regularly on their own — most often because they don’t have time or don’t know where to start.

“They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity.” — Acts 2:46 NLT

Two rhythms: the Temple (the big room) and homes (the small room) — a weekend service and a life group. In those homes meals were made, burdens were shared, and when needs came up, people stepped up (see Acts 6:1–4). Strangers start to feel like family in living rooms. We have people from 30+ countries eating in each other’s homes, meeting for coffee, watching each other’s kids, and even vacationing together.

Grace stays healthy as we get larger to the degree that we serve and connect with each other outside the weekend. We were never meant to do faith alone, and we’re living in a lonely age: the U.S. Surgeon General reports that about half of American adults experience loneliness, and that lack of connection is as harmful as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. God’s answer isn’t a program. It’s a family. Church isn’t a service we attend — it’s a family we’re part of. Attending once or twice a month without serving or doing life together during the week would have been shocking to first-century Christians.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” — Acts 1:8 NLT

Why does a church look outside itself? Because the people who need Jesus most aren’t in the room yet. Notice where Jesus says it starts: Jerusalem — home, the people closest to them. Outreach isn’t a program. It’s what happens naturally when people love God’s Word and love each other.

New England is a tough place to reach — skeptical, busy, highly educated. Most of your neighbors will never walk into a church cold, but they will walk in with a friend. And after 21 years, there’s a real risk: we can’t become so comfortable with who’s here that we forget who’s missing. That’s how a church becomes condos and breweries — not all at once, just one comfortable year at a time. In the second century, Tertullian recorded what pagan neighbors said about Christians: “Look how they love one another.” That’s the reputation we want in every town.

“You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.” — 2 Timothy 2:2 NLT

Picture the face of the person who first taught you how to follow Jesus. You follow Jesus today because somebody invested in you — and the Holy Spirit takes what’s poured into us and reproduces it in the people we pour into. Count the generations in this verse: Paul, Timothy, trustworthy people, others. Four generations in one sentence.

Multiplication has been in Grace’s DNA since 2005. Three times a year a member preaches in each service — about 48 new preachers a year, many of whom become church planters and leave Grace. Why give our best people away? Because the Lord adds people, and then we raise them up to reach others. New England has roughly 4 percent of the country’s population but only about 1 percent of its churches. As William Carey, the father of modern missions, said: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

“All the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.” — Acts 2:44–45 NLT

Nobody puts this on a brochure, but reaching people, teaching people, starting churches, and making disciples all cost something. The first church understood that God owns it all — they weren’t giving up what was theirs, they were passing along what had been given to them. Their giving was voluntary, Spirit-prompted, and joyful: “God loves a person who gives cheerfully” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

God tells Moses to build the Tabernacle, with no budget. Moses invites everyone whose heart is stirred to bring an offering, and gold, silver, bronze, linen, and gems pour in. Within days the craftsmen report the people are bringing more than enough, and Moses has to send word through the camp to stop giving. It’s the only capital campaign that ended early because people gave too much — and these are the same people who earlier gave their gold to make a golden calf. Same people, same gold; the difference was that their hearts had changed.

Everything we have today was paid for by people who loved Jesus and gave for people they hadn’t met yet. We are sitting in seats that someone else’s generosity made possible. Generosity is how we pay for being the church the first four values describe — which is what the Every One initiative is about, a two-year effort launched Christmas 2025 (Norton’s entrance is remodeled with parking next, Avon is in final review with the architect, and we’re looking for space in West Bridgewater and Braintree). About 21% of Christians give a tithe or more to their church; about 25% give nothing. The invitation is to move toward the 21%. As Randy Alcorn puts it, God’s stated purpose in increasing our income is to increase our standard of giving, not just our standard of living.

None of this is a program. It’s what the Holy Spirit produces in a people who cooperate with what He’s doing.

The first 21 years of Grace Church were built on the faithfulness of the people who came before us. The next 21 will require faithfulness from us.

What is one thing God is asking me to surrender, change, or step into right now?

You’re not being asked to do five things — just one next step. Pick the one that made your stomach tighten; that’s usually the Holy Spirit.

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” — Ephesians 3:20–21 NLT

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