The Grace Project Ecclesia's

What we do?

Our objective:

The Grace Project Ecclesia's primary concern is provide a bridge for people to cross over from the world of religion, where:

what you do defines who you are
you struggle to be someone else
where people help others in order to gain approval and acceptance
you are continually guilty, condemned by rules and laws
... into a world of grace, where:

who you already are naturally defines what you naturally do
you are free to be yourself
where people help others because they are already accepted
where there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ

The primary focus of The Grace Project Ecclesia is to encourage the 'Saved but Sorry', by introducing them to what we call the 'Gospel to the Saved'. The essence of this message can be found in Galatians 2:20, that "it is no longer I who lives, but Christ that lives in me, and that life that I live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave His life to me."

We minister to the 'hungry ones' who have experienced burnout at the hands of the world or the religious system - we bring to them the message of hope, namely that burnout is prerequisite to discovering God. This is the message that we share with both those who are new to Christ, and those who have lived under the burdensome yoke of religion [and have finally become disillusioned enough to look for real answers to real issues].

Our tagline is "discover who YOU really are". Our understanding of the Apostle Paul's writings is that when he writes 'you', he means 'us'. So the reason we meet is really to "discover who WE really are".

You should know that what we have arrived at is not a perfect model! On the contrary, it is highly probable that we never fully express the common life that is ours together in Christ. We may never reach our potential in the life hidden with God, in Christ. However, that in no way makes our great pursuit futile or romantically idealistic; rather, it is vital and dynamic! We now know that we can only experience and express Christ in corporate form to the extent that we are able to turn away from self and discover our life in Him.

Where and when do we meet?

The Grace Project Ecclesia meets each Sunday at 3pm, at:

The Grace Project
Studio 20/21
Europa Studios [The Custard Pie Factory]
Victoria Road London NW10 6 ND
In addition, each month the Grace Project publishes a diary that includes details of the all the main activities of the ecclesia. These include:

Marriage Matters - a forum for couples, and
Guiding Lights - a programme for the development of spiritual directors
It also includes any other events and meetings that are taking place throughout the month.

How do we meet?

The Grace Project began as a teaching ministry and consequently has a very strong tradition for clear presentations of the New Covenant.

There will generally be an element of inductive teaching, where (through guided discussion) the ecclesia considers various texts that help deepen its understanding of union life. Our goal is to try and respond on a meeting-by-meeting basis to whatever God initiates at that time.

We are trying to discover what we call 'body life', and our meetings reflect this ambition where the ecclesia is encouraged to function as a priesthood of believers each exercising their own unique spiritual gifts. We provide freedom to edify one another through deliberately 'unstructured', flexible meetings.

Do we have members?

Our answer is emphatically, "NO!"
We are already members of the body of Christ: i.e., the church universal. Membership is more divisive that unifying.

Our principle has always been that if you're not free to leave, you're not free to stay. We are not attempting to build up a membership list; we are seeking to build up the members of the body!

For those people who identify with us and who want to support the work financially we have something called The Grace Partnership.

Do we have any planted churches?

The Grace Project has no church planting strategy as such - we don't even do 'evangelism' per-se!

When we started the work, the standing instructions that Hayley & I received were simple: "You grow good grass and I will bring some sheep." Over the last four or five years, the Lord has indeed brought together quite a little flock of us 'speckled ones'. We have seen our local work as a kind of Antioch - we felt that it was crucial to have a functioning model here in London ever before we gave away what we had. However, in recent days The Lord has expressed an interest in our growing good grass further afield.

What has emerged is not a deliberate, planned church-planting programme, but rather a Spirit-led 'Christ-planting'. Our policy has been to seek to respond only to what The Lord initiates, and we sense that The Lord is leading us in new directions. He has begun to identify men and women who are ready to hear our message, as they themselves have become established in the message of freedom from the law, allowing what God has put into them to flow to others.

We have already seen this happen to stunning effect in South America for instance, where there is now a thriving ecclesia in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While this and other Christ planting initiatives are fully autonomous, The Grace Project in London is committed to facilitating their 'Christ-in-them'.

One thing that we have discovered is that there is a tremendous hunger for the 'real thing' - there is such a gnawing sense of disillusionment and dissatisfaction with 'church'. It is a hunger that building programmes, evangelism programmes, prayer & fasting, conventions, healing crusades, days of purpose etc. will never dislodge... it is a deep inner hunger, a spiritual hunger for Jesus.

Our friends across the waters include:

St Albans, Hertfordshire - The Grace Forum
Sao Paulo, Brazil ~ Grace Project Ecclesia SP, Br.
Turku, Finland ~ Grace@Home Finland

Could you be next? Get in touch and let's talk...

the ecclesia (chruch) © the grace project