About

Is Grace Memorial affiliated with any denomination?

Yes. Grace is part of the Southern Baptist denomination.

What is a Southern Baptist Church?

In 1845 a group of Baptist churches met in Augusta, Georgia, and agreed to begin cooperating together to do missions work around the world. From there the denomination began and grew. Today there are over 16 million Southern Baptists and some 42,000 churches. The denomination exists so that churches can cooperate together to do missions work on a local, state, national and international level. The main way that Southern Baptists work cooperatively is by giving money to the Cooperative Program (CP). The Cooperative Program funds the following:

• The six Southern Baptist seminaries for theological training of church leaders
• The North American Mission Board (NAMB) for mission work in the United States and Canada
• The International Mission Board (IMB) for mission work around the world
• The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) which is the public policy arm of the SBC and is dedicated to addressing social, moral, and ethical concerns with particular attention on their impact on American families and their faith.
• The Annuity Board which allows workers in Southern Baptist entities and churches to invest in a retirement program
• The Southern Baptist Foundation which was established to provide a wide range of investment and estate planning services for Southern Baptist Convention agencies, institutions and individuals. Its objective is to support the Convention in its goal of spreading the gospel.

Grace also cooperates with churches on a local level to do work through the Northshore Baptist Association and we cooperate with other Louisiana churches through the Louisiana Baptist Convention to do work in our state.

Is Grace an independent church or does the denomination tell them what to do?

No one, other than the Lord Jesus, tells a Southern Baptist church what to do. All Southern Baptist churches are independent but choose to work together or cooperate to train and send out workers to spread the Gospel around the world.
How is Grace organized?

Grace is Pastor led, deacon served, team organized, and church approved.

1. The Pastor: The Pastor leads the church. He sets the vision for the church and leads the staff in having a focused plan for direction of the ministry of the church. Certain financial and personnel decisions must be made in consultation with various teams, the deacons and with the approval of the church body.
2. The Deacons: The deacons serve the church body in many ways. Their various roles include serving as a sounding board to the pastor, approving certain financial and personnel decisions, serving on both permanent and special teams, ministering to the widows of the church,  being on call for emergencies, and providing extra security during worship services.
3. The Teams: There are two types of teams. Standing or permanent teams and special teams. Standing teams come along side the pastor and staff to help with the ministry of the church. There is advisory and approval functions of certain issues or processes within their scope.