About Mountain Grace
Sometimes in the life of an individual, a family, a business or a church, a shaking comes. Whether from God or elsewhere, a shaking is never easy. It disturbs our preconceived ideas of what the future holds, it disrupts the rhythm of everyday life and it changes reality as we perceive it.
Shakings are hard, but not always bad in the long run. Shakings cause us to reevaluate our priorities, and sometimes push us toward our future, where otherwise, we may have remained happily stagnant where we were.
A shaking happened to Mountain Grace in 2016.
It was hard. We were separated from friends and were devastated, confused and hurt. But as a family, some of us sat down to discuss what were our priorities for the church going forward. We determined our first priority was a strong pastor.
We wanted a man who would submit to and preach the authority of God’s Word without apology (2 Tim. 4:2); move us to lift high the name of Jesus in worship (John 4:24); and believe in the power of prayer (Eph. 6:18). We also wanted a man who would equip us to share the good news of Christ with boldness (Eph. 6:19-20). We wanted a man whose words would not be persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power (1 Cor. 2:4). A man through expository preaching, could weave Jesus into every sermon, from both Old and New Testaments.
As we prayed for the right man, each one prayed for something different. One wanted a strong leader & administrator; another, a prayer warrior; and someone else wanted a dynamic preacher. A more mature man with a family was the request of another. A permanent pastor and a true shepherd. As former Elder Tom Lupella said in his farewell on September 2, 2018, “God answered all those prayers in one man, but we weren’t ready for Pastor Rudy.”
Since Pastor Rudy Sanchez came in November of 2017, rather than remodel, Mountain Grace has been stripped away to a clean firm foundation of the Word of God and the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Going forward, pillars will be added to the foundation. The first pillar was prayer. As written in Isaiah 56:7, “for My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” Fall 2018, second pillar, Missions & Evangelism, was added.
Looking over the past year, we have grown in so many ways: organization, biblical structure, discipline, prayer, study, how to honor others and forgiveness.
Our congregation is growing as well. As a member of the Wyoming Southern Baptist Mission Network and the Southern Baptist Convention, we of course have Baptists. But we also have people from many religious backgrounds: Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Charismatic, non-denominational, Calvinist, and Catholic.
We invite you to come grow with us. There is a place for you.