The President's Letter-March 2012

By -
Greetings FGA Members and Friends,


The Free Grace Alliance is truly an alliance of a variety of people. Although we have many views in common regarding our theology, we have a variety of ministry venues and spiritual gifts that are utilized within the Free Grace Alliance. Let me give you a partial list of how some of you are mightily involved in proclaiming the message of God's grace. (I know that it is always dangerous when you give a list of names because you can never be complete or comprehensive, so please remember, this is only a representative list.)

Many of our members are involved in a variety of mission trips with a number of agencies. We are grateful for The Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association that has taken many Free Grace Alliance members to the Philippines and seen much fruit from a purely grace gospel in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people. Also, Grace Life, led by Dr. Charlie Bing, routinely travels to Africa to set up pastoral training programs. Their goal is to train indigenous pastors to carry on the work of ministry with a clear and gracious message. Many of you have gone on these trips and come back reporting a tremendous sense of God's moving. Finally, many local churches also regularly take mission trips to foreign countries to serve and share the Free Grace message.

There are many others who are engaged in the academic world. They seek to proclaim the gospel of grace within an academic institution and impact the next generation of pastors and ministry leaders. Institutions like, Grace School of Theology led by president Dr. Dave Anderson, Chafer Theological Seminary, led by president Dr. George Meisinger, Baptist Bible Seminary under the leadership of Dr. Mike Stallard, Academic Dean, and Free Grace Seminary with Dr. Mike Halsey as President, all have a distinctively Free Grace Theology. Many members of FGA teach at schools that are somewhat friendly to the Free Grace message, although not fully endorsing all of our theology. This would include schools such as Corban University, Moody Bible Institute, Arizona Christian University, Southern California Seminary, Dallas Seminary, Carolina Bible College, and Phoenix Seminary.

There are also many others who are providing both academic and popular resources to help the Free Grace Movement answer the important questions of the day. Dr. Ed De Zago, in Ohio, is working on a four volume, scholarly systematic theology from a totally Free Grace perspective. This will be a very helpful tool that will service the Free Grace Movement for decades. Pastor/Professor John Correia is working on a book helping to define, defend and show the deficiencies within both Calvinism and Arminianism, as well as presenting a Free Grace theological perspective. Pastor/Professor Sam Sacco is in the process of not only planting a new Free Grace church, but also is working on a book based on the Seven Churches seen in the Book of Revelation. Dr. Dave Anderson is working on a publication on Romans 5-8 and perhaps a second edition of his notes on a Free Grace Soteriology. Dr. J.B. Hixson also has provided his recent book, The Gospel Unplugged. Marty Cauley is continuing a massive research project on "The Outer Darkness" which will be coming out soon - we hope. Dr. Ken Wilson has submitted his dissertation at Oxford University in England for final approval. It is a massive work on the evaluation of St Augustine's theology. We hope it will be published soon. Finally, Dr. Jody Dillow is continuing the rewrite of Reign of the Servant Kings, a book that has been very helpful to the Free Grace Movement. We hope it will be out soon. I'm sure there are many others who are working on books, booklets and tracks, and I do not mean to convey a lack of appreciation for publications I do not know about. I simply wanted to give you an idea of what I do know about, and that I am very happy to see us all moving forward toward making the Free Grace Theology more visible and accessible. 

There are also those who are spearheading the work of evangelism training: Good Seed Ministries in Canada under the leadership of John Cross; EvanTell, led by Founder and President Dr. Larry Moyer is training up hundreds and thousands of people in not only the message of the gospel, but also a method to present it.

There are also those who are working on the technological side. John Correia is the FGA blogmaster and is helping us get into the 21st century with both blogging and tweeting. Jody Dillow and others continue to develop BEE International. Todd Mathis is in the research phase of a new technology that will provide both biblical and theological resources that will be readily accessible worldwide on the web.

I know all of us in FGA have a story, a ministry, and perhaps projects we are working on. For some, it is church planting, for others it is being a faithful pastor-teacher or elder. Some of you are mentoring while others are writing resources, teaching courses, or sharing your faith at home, at work, or on the mission field. All of this combined illustrates why "The Alliance of Free Grace Leaders", FGA, is an alliance of men and women committed to the gospel of grace and committed to encouraging, educating and connecting others so we can get the Free Grace message out to the world. 

 One of the ways we demonstrate that we are in alliance is by being a part of FGA. This involves membership. I know many of you have recently become members and many of you also have renewed your membership. If you have not reaffirmed your membership for 2012, may I invite you to do so. You can simply go to our website and apply for membership or renew your membership. You can also pay your dues at that time, whether you are a previous member or a new member.

Since we are a non-profit ministry, membership dues (and gifts) are our sole means of paying for administrative costs. Even our annual National Conference, which will be in Dallas this year October 8-10, is a non-income producing event. Our conference committee is already finalizing plans for this year's conference. We do hope you will put this on your calendar and plan to participate in this great time of fellowship and instruction with other FGA members and friends. 

In closing, please know the leadership of FGA is praying and working to grow FGA and improve its ministry effectiveness each year, for the benefit of the body of Christ to His glory. 

Serving Him with you
Until He comes for us,
Fred Chay, Ph.D.
President, FGA

Popular posts from this blog

A Change of Mind about Repentance: Do you Dare?

By -
By Dr. Fred Lybrand   Repentance has been a sticky issue and has been around as a major conversation piece since the Reformation. I know, because ‘my view’ (which I found out I share with Dr. Elliot Johnson of Dallas Theological Seminary) has been labeled an error by those involved in the Marrow of Divinity Controversy way back in the 1600s! Of course, no need to get excited, every view on the planet and throughout history is an error to someone or some group.   So, the issue of concern here --- is repentance necessary to get saved (as in from-hell-to-heaven)? If it is necessary, then is it a part of saving faith? These are the essential questions. There are many views, often being represented as repentance meaning the necessary turning from all known sin (and interest in future sin, usually) to ‘believe’ in Christ. In this regard, some purveyors of salvation make repentance as much of a part of faith as they do works (see http://www.backtofaith.com ).   I have a b...
Read more

Antinomianism and Free Grace Theology

By -
By Dr. Roger Fankhauser, FGA Executive Council member and the pastor of Burleson Bible Church in Burleson, Texas.  Dr. Fankhauser can be reached at rsfankhauser at bellsouth dot net.   Antinomianism.   A fancy word meaning “lawless”.   Many who don’t get the free grace message accuse us of practicing and teaching antinomianism. They think – wrongly – that the free grace message is light on sin and light on obedience. The author of a recent best-selling book describes the message that he alleges some present this way: “We have been told all that is required is a one-time decision, maybe even mere intellectual assent to Jesus, but after that we need not worry about his commands, his standards, or his glory. We have a ticket to heaven, and we can live however we want on earth. Our sin will be tolerated along the way….” Another well-known author put it this way: “What is no-Lordship theology (the author’s name for free grace theology) but the teaching that those w...
Read more

Understanding Hebrews 10:26: Is Christ’s Sacrifice Sufficient for Me?

By -
Image
(Originally posted at thegracelings.org) Bible wasn’t given to us as a bunch of unconnected verses that all make perfect sense on their own. Sometimes, without the context, verses can sound like they mean the opposite of what the authors meant by what they wrote. It’s a terrible thing, but many times people take advantage of this fact and use isolated verses in a way that hurts people and devastates their walk with Christ. (Sometimes it’s out of ignorance. Sometimes it’s malicious. It’s always tragic.) It’s especially common for people to cite Scripture out of context in order to cause believers to doubt Christ’s love for them or the security of their salvation. This article is about one verse that is often used this way. It’s Hebrews 10:26, which reads, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” (NKJV, same throughout the article). Often, people throw this verse out there on social media like a grenade wi...
Read more