Gracepoint and 30-Hour Famine

community service, home-baked goods sales, yard sales, convalescent home visits

30-Hour Famine – 600 participants. Over $115,000 raised.
Let us consider how we can spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ~Hebrews 10:24

Korean tables

Submitted by Editha S.

At the homes of many of our leaders, you can find ‘ Korean folding tables’ tucked away in a closet or behind a couch.  The tables themselves aren’t that special – they are small and rectangular, sitting low above the ground on collapsible legs.  I remember during my freshman year, my leaders inviting me over to their homes to enjoy a home-cooked meal on these tables and take a break from homework and dorm food.  It was during these times I met some of the sisters that would later on gather around a similar table for sophomore small group at Dana House.  Over this table, we shared prayer requests, played games like Blockus and Speed Scrabble, and assembled cards for the elderly and homeless on Valentine’s Day of Compassion.  The summer before my junior year, our small group would cram three or four of these tables into a living room and we would eat together family-style, taste-testing our peer’s concoctions and sharing stories of summer mission trips before doing Bible Study.  To me, the image of a Korean table always conjures up memories of breaking bread and living life together.

Gracepoint Berkeley: Church Outside the Walls – Midweek Dinners

Submitted by Cheng C.

My snapshot would be a picture of us, the students, sitting around the table while laughing with food at our leaders’ home.  All of us are just very happy to be around each other, and we can just be ourselves.

Refrigerator Rights

Submitted by Paul I.

This is a snapshot of the Dana house refrigerator.  This picture falls in line with the whole ‘refrigerator rights’ idea.  There’s the refrigerator whose contents are free for all to use, not just the residents.  This is a good picture of the community we share at Gracepoint Berkeley.

Gracepoint Berkeley Inaugural

Gracepoint Fellowship Church Inaugural

Submitted by Derrick C.

A picture of the church that I will remember is from Gracepoint Berkeley’s Inaugural service, when pastor Ed Kang and his wife, Kelly Kang, along with the directors went up on stage to sing “Be the One”.  The image of all of them up on stage somehow expressed their passion for taking care of this church.  On an even deeper level, however, it was the lyrics to the song that added to the impactful impression of this snapshot.  Here, singing “Will you be the one to answer to His call?” were people who have indeed answered God’s call, giving their lives for His holy purpose and inviting us to join them.  In my mind, this captures the church:  people being raised up in God, caring and fostering for others in the body, and encouraging each other to take up their cross and follow God with their whole lives.

Carried on the mat by Four Friends

Strong.  Able.  Independent.

These are what we try so hard to be, but often times in the thick of life, we find ourselves weak, unable, helplessly dependent on others to carry us through, lift us up in prayer, show us the way to Jesus.

Mark 2:1-5 tells us about four friends who carried their paralytic friend on the mat to Jesus.  Not only did they carry their friend to Him, they dug through the roof, lowered the man into the house where He was at, in order that the paralytic man would see Jesus.

This seems, to me, the picture which epitomizes the community shared between good friends.  Friends who are unstoppable in spurring you on in your pursuit of Jesus.  Friends who point you to the truth.  Friends who lend you faith when you are struggling, strength when you are facing difficulties, grace when you are downtrodden with the burdens of life.  Friends who are unafraid to go to any lengths so that Jesus’ words may heal and restore.

In times of joy or sadness, in celebrations or mourning, through laughter or tears, because of my friends and leaders at Gracepoint Fellowship Church, I have experienced this picture of community again and again.  My life has become:

Strengthened.  Enabled.  Carried.

LIFE Group

Submitted by Tommy C.

During small group meetings, we have the chance to really slow down and share our lives with one another – whether it’s problems we’re struggling with, prayer requests, or a message that really impacted us.  I feel that this really captures the church at Gracepoint Fellowship because this is really the core unit of what the church is built around.  Also, it captures the fellowship and closeness of every member to one another.  We feel comfortable opening up, knowing that there are people who will pray for us and share life’s burdens with us.  However at the same time, we are not just confined to just the small groups.  We care for and function as one body with all the other members of the church.

Gracepoint Berkeley: Church Outside the Walls – Home Worship

Welcome to our home worship

For the past month, Gracepoint Berkeley has been meeting in various homes for Sunday Worship.  As we meet in smaller groups, we have missed Pastor Ed Kang’s messages, Kelly Kang’s welcoming smile, the band’s rocking praise… some among us have even missed doing the chair setup and takedown.

At the same time, we have enjoyed going through the Truth Project DVDs by Focus on the Family – gaining an understanding about how to live out a biblical worldview in our culture and time.  It’s fitting that we study this DVD in a setting outside the walls of our regular church services at Willard Junior High.

What have you enjoyed about home worship?  How has the DVD influenced you?

Living a life of no regrets

This past week, I was visiting my brother in Cincinnati and was able to attend a traditional Baptist church service there.  The congregation was made up of mostly middle aged and elderly couples, but I was struck by one elderly woman in particular.  Though she used a walker to help her stand upright, as we sang the hymn “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee”, she lifted up her wrinkled, frail hands.  I was moved by this grandmother’s hands lifted up to God in commitment and dedication, even as she was nearing the end of her life.

I thought about what is a life well lived, a life with no regrets at the end?  For me and many of my friends here at Gracepoint Berkeley, it’s one where we’re able to pray those same words at every stage of our lives:  “Take my life and let it be consecrated.”

Right now, we are young; asking God with still youthful hands.  In a few short decades, I pray that God will allow us the privilege of looking back on our lives, without regrets at having lived lives consecrated for Him alone.

home sweet home with a pile of shoes

Hmmm... I forgot what I wore this evening.

Submitted by Kathy S.

This snapshot captures something that I encounter almost every week.  Whenever I go over to my leader’s homes, I’m always shocked to see a massive pile of shoes in front of their house.  The shoes are always a prequel to a warm, brightly lit living room, the sweet aroma of good food, and laughter.  I always associate this feeling and sense of home-sweet-home with piles of shoes, because wherever our church members are, there is always fellowship, love, and most importantly, Christ.  The thought of each and every person from different paths and backgrounds being bonded together for the sake of the Gospel thrills me every time.