We confess that we are the surprised sinners God has called to comprise His Church in this nook of the planet! We constitute a grace-space, which is sort of a divine ecosystem where people can recover and thrive under the Savior's care. Ours is a climate where the wind of freedom blows, where the rain of compassion falls, where the sun of love warms.

We also bear witness to ethnic diversity. The Gospel we embrace compels us to revel in the simple fact that all peoples share the heights of God's esteem. We concur with his estimation and therefore enjoy any accent on any tongue, any curl in any hair, and any timbre in any voice.

Yet we do not seek to overstate our pride in this community of grace. Behind our smiles lurks the pain of failed relationships, regimens of chemotherapy and last good-byes. Of course we too suffer the unsavory vicissitudes of life, but we do not do so alone.

The Power to Help or to Hurt

Lewis Carroll in his popular book, Alice in Wonderland, has Alice at a crossroads asking the Cheshire Cat, "Where do I go from here?" To which the feline replies, "Well that all depends on where you are trying to get! Do you know where you want to go?" Alice answers, "I guess I don't really care." The cat then replies, "Well, if you don't really care, it doesn't really matter which way you go."

The members at the Vallejo Drive Church care deeply about the direction our church takes. We are sobered by the awesome realization that a church has an incredible capacity to help or to harm the individuals who commit to it. This fact is demonstrated both by the argument the New Testament makes against toxic congregations (see Galatians for example) and from our real life observations.

Driven by self-interest, a church can end up abusing its own members. The sorry truth is that in the name of Jesus beautiful people have been deprived of their liberty in Christ, imbued with a chronic sense of spiritual failure, and pushed over the edge into unbelief. Sometimes the appropriate response to an offer of "help" from the church may be "Thanks, but no thanks!"

How is it that a church mutates from a redemptive community in to a destructive community? Simply speaking, by a distorted self-definition. "So who do you think you are?" is a crucial question for a church to ask of itself.

An Obsession with Grace

At Vallejo, we define ourselves as a theatre, a stage, if you will, where the astounding grace of God is enacted and displayed. Grace is "our thing." Our newsletter is called The GracePlace. Our e-mail addresses end with @GraceUnconditional.com. And our hearts thrill at the thought of it.

What is grace? It's a bright smile of approval from God directed our way, a yearning on His part for us, a divine high-five given to sinners.

So what does our obsession with grace translate to in practical terms?

Well, it means we don't control the thinking of our members. Nor do we control their behavior. Nor do we pretend to be the way of anyone's salvation. Instead, we seek to provide an environment where worship is lofty, where people are empowered, where salvation happens, and above all, where Jesus meets with us.

Won't you try us out? See if we are "the same old thing." It will really be terrific. And what would we gain if you should join us? The beautiful answer is, "You!"