President's Update July 2014

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After having great intentions of writing something each month, I find I am behind a month or two. Please forgive my tardiness! I have lots of excuses that I won't bore you with, but some of them are legitimate!

I want to briefly address four ideas this month.

First, how is the Free Grace message getting spread? I am leaving for Ghana two days after writing this and I know others of you travel to other countries. We'd like to know where you are going! Our mission is to "connect, encourage, and equip," and hearing about what God is doing through your work is a great way to encourage and be encouraged.  I know of trips either "on the books" or recently completed to Ghana, Finland, Burundi, Ukraine, Nepal, Philippines, India, Honduras, and Papua New Guinea. I'm sure there are others. Drop a note on Facebook and/or send a short write-up to our blog master, John Correia (pastorjohn@westgreenway.com), and we'll post it on the blog! Let us know, too, if you are involved in a church plant or other work. We need more Free Grace churches on our own soil! A couple in my church is being transferred to another city in which no Free Grace churches exist (well, to be honest, no Free Grace churches I that I can find). And if you have published something promoting Free Grace, let us know about that as well. In other words, let us know anything you are doing to promote Free Grace!

Second, mark out Oct 13th - 15th for our annual National Conference. This year's theme - "What's God Got to Do With It? - The Divine Side of Salvation" promises to provide fascinating sessions and discussion after the sessions. Dr. Norm Geisler will be our special guest this year. Come if you can! And if you cannot, think about attending a regional conference - or even better, hosting one. Contact us and we'll send you the information you need to set up a conference.

Third, we have had a lot of "behind the scenes" activities going on. We recently sent out a first draft of our directory to everyone who is an active member. If you did not receive the information, has your membership lapsed? Join (or rejoin!) us (http://www.freegracealliance.com/join.htm). In the months ahead, we hope to improve our ability to connect with one another. We have some other activities in the works but which we can't yet comment on. Pray for us as we move ahead on these.

Fourth, even though our overall goal is to positively promote the Free Grace message, sometimes we have to get involved in "fire fights." Some of these we choose not to participate in; others we choose to. Recently, as many of you know, a well-known reformed theologian chose to point out publicly the errors he perceives in the Free Grace message and in the FGA in particular. Some of what he said is based on a misunderstanding of Free Grace theology. We are crafting a response for him to help point out those misunderstandings, without attacking him or his theology. We know many disagree with the Free Grace message we promote, but we want to help them understand our position.  We tentatively plan to send this response to all FGA members for their awareness and for them to use as they see fit.

The more work I do related to promoting the simple message of Free Grace, the more I am in awe of the God of grace and the incredible message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Thanks for all you do to promote this incredible message. Keep on connecting, encouraging, and equipping!
In His grace,

Roger Fankhauser, President

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