Spring Creek Fellowship Pastor Stands Firm In Beliefs

Words can be powerful, but their message holds the most authority.

Pastor Rick Grace said the message of God’s word was being skewed by the leadership of his denomination, the Disciples of Christ. He eventually left the denomination, twice.

Grace, pastor of Spring Creek Fellowship in Springdale, grew up in a conservative Christian home where both parents were active in the conservative congregation at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Princeton, Ill.

“That’s where I learnedwhat church was all about,” he said. “I loved it.”

When Grace began pastoring his own Disciples of Christ congregation in the mid-1970s, he got more involved in what was going on with the denomination atthe state and national levels.

“I started listening and reading and raising a lot of questions,” he said. “The answers I got were not answers I could find in Scripture.”

The denomination’s leadership was moving toward the“theological left,” Grace said. One of the disagreements he had with the denomination was its failure to aff rm Jesus as the only savior.

“Jesus has a very particular statement: ‘I am the way, thetruth and the life,’” said Grace, quoting John 14:6.

Jesus is the only way - not just a way - to salvation, he said.

“They would say Jesus was the only savior for Christians, but there may be other saviors outside the Christian tradition,” Grace said. “They were changing the way they were looking at the Bible. It was no longer viewed as the authoritative infallible word of God.”

He took his fi ndings back to his father and his former pastor.

“My dad was thoroughly confused,” Grace said. “‘He said, ‘Nobody in our church teaches that.’”

Grace’s former pastor shielded the congregation from the direction the denomination was heading, Grace said.

Grace didn’t leave the Disciples of Christ right away. In 1985, he joined the new Disciple Heritage Fellowship, a grassroots movement within the denomination, to try to bring about change in the Disciples of Christ.

“When it became clear that wasn’t gonna happen, we shifted focus,” he said of the fellowship.

The organization now is a resource pool of about 400 like-minded churches, many of which have left the denomination, he said.

Grace’s first departure from the Disciples of Christ came when he was pastoring a church in Beloit, Kan. He was pastor there from 1990 to 2005.

“It was an agonizing decision,” Grace said of resigning his credentials and sending back his ordination certificate to the Disciples of Christ. “This was my church of origin.”

Telling his parents also was diff cult, he said.

Even though his decision was painful for his father, Grace said both of his parents supported him.“They said, ‘Son, you gotta do what you gotta do and be obedient to what God’s calling on your life.’”

His parents both died in 2009.

Grace’s obedience to the Lord also is how he reentered the denomination and found his way to Springdale.

Grace said he was approached by the Disciples of Christ about writing a series of articles for the denomination’s magazine. The leadership wanted one conservative and one mainstream author - both with academic credibility - to write introductions to Bible books over a yearlong period. He said he was told the denomination couldn’t find anyone with a doctoral degree within the denomination to write the conservative viewpoint.

Grace earned his doctoral degree in 1991 from the University of Dubuque (Iowa).

“Would you consider, for the purpose of the articles, asking to be recognized again as a Disciples pastor?” Grace was asked.

He said he prayed about it for a week before he gave his answer.

“My commitment to the Lord, years ago, was, ‘Lord, if I get any venue to speak your truth, I’ll do it,’” Grace said.

Grace agreed to ask for reinstatement and to write the articles “with the understanding that I still disagree with the trajectory of the denomination,” he said.

Unbeknownst to Grace, when his standing with the denomination was reactivated, his resume was circulated within the denomination. It ended up in the hands of the pastor who was filling in at Springdale First Christian Church - someone Grace knew from his church in Kansas, he said. The conservative congregation was looking for a conservative pastor.

“I wrestled with God for about six months,” Grace said on the move to Arkansas. “In the end, God spoke very clearly to my heart. He said ‘Who said it’s always about you anyways?’”

Grace became lead pastor at Springdale First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 2005, and three years later he left the denomination a second time.

The local church became nondenominational and changed its name to Spring Creek Fellowship.

“We spent over a year really researching where the denomination was going,” Grace said. “We looked at it in Sunday school classes. We looked at it in small groups. By the time we fi nally voted and said we’re gonna withdraw, there were no questions.”

Grace said the congregation juxtaposed their understanding of Scripture with the approved statements of the Disciples of Christ leadership.

“It’s oil and water. It did not match up.”

Ralph Hudson, an elder with the church since 1997, said, “It means everything to me to know that, on a local level, we’ve got a pastor who will fight the good fi ght and not compromise his principles.”

He added, “Rick is the perfect fit” for the church.

Ron Ross of Johnson, a member of Spring Creek Fellowship, wasn’t a part of the church when it left the denomination, but he admired Grace for going against the fl ow.

“Being principled is one of the most important things for any faith. If your principles fall, you’re not much for the kingdom,” Ross said.

Grace said the congregation’s split with the denomination was amiable, and the regional representative was helpful to them.

“We didn’t represent them anymore than they represented us,” he said.

Leaving the denomination did not aftect the congregation numerically, Grace said. One thing that did hurt the church’s numbers, though, was Grace’s contemporary style.

“I was 52 when I came here,” Grace said. “I think there was some understanding, from more traditional members of the church, that I was going to be a very traditional-style pastor. When that became clear that wasn’t on my heart, we had some people who said they were going to go elsewhere.”

Grace said his contemporary style includes upbeat music, dramas and using testimonies or video clips during the message.

“If someone has had an experience of the point I’m trying to teach, then I let them tell their story. It doesn’t always have to come through me,” he said. “My leadership style is more distributive. I want to be the equipper.”

Grace said he wants the people of the church to be hands-on and let their gifts of ministry rise to the surface.

With this style of leadership, it’s no surprise Grace is a certified teacher. His undergraduate degree is in history education.

Ross said Grace has taught him and many others to look at the Bible as a whole document.

“It’s a dangerous thing to look at one scripture and make a doctrine out of it,” Ross said. “(Grace) is a teacher. He’s very good in our class to show me how to look at Scripture that puts it all in context.”

Hudson said, “One thing Rick has always done is point the congregation to the Bible and allow the congregation and the elders to sort through things. He’s helped point us in the right direction and provided the leadership so we could accomplish it.”

Lately church attendance is on an upswing, Grace said. Average Sunday attendance is about 140 to 150 people. Recent Sundays have seen about 180 to 190, though, he said.

The church building might look old - the sanctuary was built about 1970, the fellowship area was built in the early 1980s and remodeled last year - but the congregation is made of mostly young people, Grace said.

At 60, Grace said he could name only about a dozen people who are older than he is.

“I’m wondering, ‘How did I get to where I’m one of the older members?’” he said with laugh.

Hudson said the congregation is a family and that excites him to continue to serve there. “I know it excites people who attend there. Rick is largely responsible for fostering that kind of fl ock.”

The church membership is sincere, Ross said. “People don’t go there to be seen.”

Religion, Pages 10 on 09/21/2013

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