GBC
This is the page description.
Our Congregation
Grace Baptist Church is an ethnically diverse congregation with a focus on sound biblical teaching and discipleship. If you are not sure about God, and are looking for a comfortable, supportive atmosphere in which to explore Christianity, come explore with us. If you are new in the area, and looking for a place to meet people and belong, come meet with us. If you are a young family, wanting Christian examples to help your children grow up into moral, responsible adults, come grow with us. If you are a strong Christian, looking for a place to get involved and make a difference in people’s lives for eternity, come serve with us.
Our Pastor
W. Scott Plavnick, the son of a Church Planter in Connecticut, became the Pastor of Grace Baptist in 1992. He has a BS in Interpersonal Communications from Iowa State University, and a MDiv from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Fort Worth, Texas. He has led groups on topics ranging from Introduction to the Bible, to training future pastors in locations ranging from Connecticut to Kenya. Since 2000, he has led Bible Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and now UTM students are a vibrant part of our church family.
Students
Our Pastor serves as a Chaplain at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and serves as Advisor to the Baptist Student Ministries club.
BSM currently meets on campus on Wednesdays 12:00-1:00 and 2:00-3:00. Hopefully one will fit your schedule. Check us out on Facebook.
We pick up students on campus for church Sunday mornings. Please contact us for a ride.
Grace has always had a big heart for college and university students. This is such a crucial time to impact people’s lives. We’ve seen many come to Christ, and many more take this opportunity to integrate their faith in their lives, be equipped and develop in service and leadership. Over the years, we’ve seen students from our group go all over the world.
In keeping with Grace’s emphasis on family, we want students, especially international students, to have the experience of a loving church family.
Mission Statement
To make multiplying disciples of Jesus by helping people:
Make Christ Lord
Live in the Word
Pray in Faith
Fellowship with Believers
Witness to the World
Give themselves in Service
Our Denomination
Though autonomous, Grace Baptist Church is part of the largest Protestant denomination in North America. We cooperate with the Canadian National Baptist Convention, which works closely with the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States. Through this cooperation, Grace helps support over 5,000 missionaries in North America, and more than 5,000 career missionaries in over 130 countries around the world. Canadian National Baptist Convention
Music
We believe that Christian worship should uplifting, spiritually motivating and scriptural. We sing great songs, both old and new that help to edify the congregation and exalt Our Lord.
Gerry and Allison Asmus lead the music on Sundays with vocals, guitar and piano. Other members of the congregation contribute with ensembles and solos, and our worshipers are encouraged to "sing it out" for The Lord! Gerry is a Christian song writer and recording artist. His songs can be downloaded for free from this website: www.gerryasmus.com
Families
God created the family before he created church. Families are the primary building blocks of any society. They shape our view of life, the world around us, and our image of God whether for good or bad. Through our families, God wants to bless us, and make us a blessing to others. So it is essential to follow the blueprint for the family, which God has given us in the Bible. We can't relate properly to God whom we cannot see, if we aren’t relating properly to our brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, parents, children, etc., whom we can see. (1 John 4:20-21 and Matthew 6:14-15)
Nothing any of us do as individuals or as a congregation is more important than raising the next generation of Christ-followers.
Multi-generational worship
Instead of segregating our children to separate classes during our Worship Services, we have all children attend with their parents for the singing, and dismiss our preschool children to a class only during the sermon. How better for children to learn to be part of the whole Body of Christ than to sit with their parents and watch them interact with God and others in corporate worship? Children need to have their parents take them to church and show them what it means to be a man or woman, worshiping God in the congregation! If they're old enough to sit in school, they're old enough to sit for a 30-40 minute sermon. And of course, they are allowed to doodle quietly. But it’s amazing how much they take in, even when we think they're not listening! Then parents are encouraged to ask their children about the sermon on the way home, reinforcing what they just heard.
Our Pastor often uses PowerPoint presentations to accompany the sermon, to help the young, visual learners to connect and remember truths from God's Word. And children are encouraged to participate in corporate worship in any way they can: singing, collecting the offering, reading Scripture, or asking for prayer during our Prayer and Sharing Time.
Many people today are asking, "How do we get our young adults to come back to church?" The unfortunate answer is often, "When were they ever part of the church, if they were segregated as children and youth?" Multi-generational worship helps teach children to relate to people of all ages, respect elders, and help bring along those younger than themselves.
(There is a Mother’s Room with windows and speakers for mothers and their babies who are crying or nursing. This is really for the convenience of the mothers: Crying babies don't bother us!)
