Grace Distributed Church
is a simple church that makes disciples who make disciples. We are Jesus centered and believe that He will birth simple churches and ministries in Placer County as well as a network to help birth networks of Jesus-centered churches and ministries around the country and around the world. We honor the five-fold ministry and believe the fundamental role of the five-fold ministry is found in Ephesians 4.
Our Vision
Grace Distributed Church is a regional church that births simple churches and ministries that make disciples who make disciples. We honor the five fold ministry and believe the fundamental role of these office holders is to equip the saints for ministry as described in Ephesians 4. Grace Distributed partners with existing churches and ministries to train up leaders so that millions of people will walk in salvation, freedom, healing, maturity, and ministry through the power of the Holy Spirit.
“The reformers also said that they believed in the priesthood of all believers with direct access to God, to Scripture, and to ministry. While glorious ministry has come these past 500 years mingled with tragedy and pain, the Protestant church has also demonstrated by our behavior that we do not fundamentally believe in the priesthood of all believers as we have declared. Rather, we have demonstrated that we still practice a big view of grace received but a very small view of grace distributed. What we have fundamentally practiced in the church is the idea that heaven came to earth in Jesus, but we have not really lived on earth as though heaven was present here.
The effect of our lived and demonstrated belief is a disengaged mass of people who have tasted of Jesus in religious settings but have not been discipled towards spiritual maturity, reproduction, and heavenly ambassadorship. To be frank, most spiritual leaders would have to admit that generally speaking we have produced babies and sons and daughters, but alarmingly few fathers and mothers in the faith (see 1 John 2:12-14). Our world stands in need of a revival and reformation. I believe that as we learn to bring heaven to earth and see the grace of God distributed in everyday life, we will experience the return of New Testament Christianity. This is how we will see the Second Reformation birthed in our time.
Grace distributed is the mandate of this hour for the people of God.”
– Dr. John Jackson
Identity is our core
We who belong to Christ are always beloved sons and daughters of God. We do nothing for identity. We do everything because of our identity. Everything flows from our relationship with and to Him. (Galatians 2:19-21, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17)
Intimacy is everything
We guard our intimacy with God because our relationship with Him comes before everything else. And everything else – all our fruitfulness – flows from Abiding intimately with Him. (John 15:1-5, John 17:24)
We build upon the foundation of the Word of God
All we do proceeds from our relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and we receive His written word as our infallible guide to faith and practice. (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4, 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
We walk in the power of the Holy Spirit
Everything we do is naturally supernatural as the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us. We are filled with His grace and goodness as we live out His callings in our personal and corporate lives. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5, Acts 1:7-8, Mark 16:14-20)
We are called to reproduce disciples who make disciples
Living in the overflow of His love, we fulfill His command to love God and love others by making disciples who grow from babes to sons and daughters and then become fathers and mothers. Healthy spiritual life is reproduced naturally in supernatural relationships. (Matthew 28:18-20, John 17:19-21)
Love defines us,
because it defines those who are Christ’s. It is first and last about His great love for us, and from that, it is about our love for our world. Love looks like actions that meet the needs of others, that compassionately labor to make a difference in the lives of individuals. Jesus’ love for us and for them is the compelling power behind our efforts. And this is the labor God has called us all to. (John 13:34-35, John 3:16-17)
Trustful risk-taking
Stepping courageously across the chicken line to reach someone with Jesus’ presence, love, and power will always be a marker for our love for our world, for reverent obedience to the Holy Spirit, and for a passion to become all that He wants us to become. We have a passion to be ambassadors of reconciliation to bring lost sons and daughters home to the Father. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21, Matthew 25:31-40)
Generosity
Love is measured in giving of ourselves, our time, our prayers, our gifts, our resources. We will pour ourselves into the initiatives the Lord Jesus directs us to. The extravagance of our love for Him will be seen in this way. (Acts 20:34-36, 2 Corinthians 8:1-4)
Rest is our natural state in Christ
We relax in the perfection of what He finished in His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection from the dead. We rest in Who He is, in His complete victory over darkness, in His boundless love and grace for us, in His presence within us, and in His love and power flowing through us to others. All we do we do from this place of rest. This is how His Kingdom operates. (Matthew 11:28-30, Hebrews 4:1-11)
Childlikeness
The unfailing love of God invites us to approach Him as young children would approach a loving parent: dependent, joyful, trusting in His love, playful, sincere, humble, authentic. This is how everyone enters into and functions effectively in His Kingdom – through childlikeness. (Matthew 19:14, Luke 12:29-32)
Relational depth
We are created to live in community with one another, and we will cultivate environments in which healthy relationships can flourish and multiply. Trust emerges in these gardens of mutual love and respect. From that trust, we help one another grow, follow Christ, become more like Him, and multiply the process of more and more people meeting, following, and becoming like Christ. We have a culture of honor for those inside and outside our community and we work diligently to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-4, Acts 2:41-42, Galatians 6:1-2)
Freedom is worth contending for
Christ has made us free through His death, burial, and resurrection. A central part of our Kingdom mandate is to propagate that freedom everywhere it will be entered into. Therefore we oppose bondage, oppression, sickness, disease, and injustice in all its forms. We are determined to get Jesus what He paid for – life, love, joy, peace, freedom, and wholeness in the spirits, souls, and bodies of everyone who will let Jesus love them. (Galatians 5:13-14, Luke 4:17-21, 1 John 3:8)
We must have the Presence of Jesus
He is the Desire of the nations. He upholds everything in existence by His own power. Whenever His presence is experienced, nothing is safe from being impacted and radically changed by His love and power. Everything we do proceeds from the love of the Father to the Son and we magnify Jesus in all we do. Jesus is our ultimate treasure and reward! (Luke 10:38-42, John 1:29, Revelation 1:10-18)
Our Pastor: Dr. John Jackson
Pastor
Dr. John Jackson is the sixth President of William Jessup University. Since becoming President in 2011, John has led the University to triple in size, add Math, Sciences, Arts, Graduate Programs, and Online Programs and become regionally and nationally ranked. John has demonstrated strong communication, strategic and organizational leadership skills in his work with national and global organizations and ministries. Dr. Jackson has also written and co-authored ten books on leadership and spiritual formation and is a sought after speaker and consultant.
Prior to joining William Jessup University, John served as the Executive Director of Thriving Churches International and as a Lead Pastor of Bayside Church in Granite Bay, California. He was the founding pastor of LifePoint Church in Minden, Nevada, and previously was the Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest (now Transformation Ministries) where he was responsible to serve more than 270 churches in four western states and served on nine corporate boards. John also served as the Senior Pastor and in several staff roles at First Baptist Church of Oxnard and as the Youth Pastor at First Baptist Church of Buena Park. Dr. Jackson earned both his Ph.D. and M.A. in Educational Administration and Organizational Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara; M.A. in Theology (Christian Formation and Discipleship) at Fuller Theological Seminary; and a B.A. in Religion (Christian History and Thought) from Chapman University. Dr. Jackson is married to Pamela Harrison Jackson and they make their home in Northern California; they have 5 children, and 5 grandchildren.