Grace Covenant Church in Gilbert, Arizona
Last month, my wife and I and our four youngest children had the privilege of making a road trip to Arizona to serve at a family camp in beautiful Sedona, Arizona. The 3-day camp was the 29th family camp for Grace Covenant Church in a suburb of Phoenix. This was the second time I’ve had the opportunity to spend several days with this congregation, the first being at a biblical counseling training conference in September 2013. The fellowship that I’ve experienced on both visits was so encouraging and sweet that I want to take a moment to draw your attention to this local church that is faithfully upholding the sufficiency of Christ and His word (perhaps you know someone in the Phoenix area who may be helped by this church’s ministry). Here are a few bits of information about GCC.
Reformed Baptist
Grace Covenant Church is a member of the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America (ARBCA), which holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Charles Spurgeon called this document “the most excellent epitome of the things most surely believed among us [Baptists churches in London].”
Regulative Principle of Worship
Grace Covenant Church follows the practice of the Reformers known as the regulative principle of worship, which states that the corporate worship of God is to be founded upon specific directions of Scripture, not man’s inventions (see and explanation from Derek Thomas published by Ligonier).
Biblical Counseling Training
In 1996, Grace Covenant Church established its biblical counseling ministry under the direction of associate pastor Darrell Gustafson. This later developed into the Biblical Counseling Training Center of Arizona, which is an ACBC certified training center. Since the center opened, over 225 men and women have gone through its training program. Their annual conference is coming up in October.
There is much more I could say about the ministry of Grace Covenant Church, which has been a blessing to my family and me. Find out more about this church at their website.
