This page attempts to give some real-world examples of Gracepoint’s inner workings, with primary sources from which you may draw your own conclusions.

  1. How Gracepoint Discipleship Begins
  2. How Gracepoint Discipleship Continues
  3. How Gracepoint Views Itself
  4. How Gracepoint Views Others

How Gracepoint Discipleship Begins

Gracepoint has a structured approach to discipleship. From freshman to senior, college students follow a fairly set “track” of spiritual growth. This allows entire classes of young men and women to be discipled together, which is remarkably efficient.

Primary Source: College Ministry Growth Goals

What are the courses?

  • Every new member takes the following courses, in-order: Course 101 –> Survival Kit 1 (SK1) –> Church 101 –> Survival Kit 2 (SK2)
  • Each course takes about a semester and involves readings and homework.
  • Course 101 is a basic introduction to Christianity, drawing a lot of material from books like Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis) and Basic Christianity (John Stott).
  • Survival Kit 1, Church 101, and Survival Kit 2 are more application-focused and go into detail about what healthy church life & (non-romantic) relationships should look like

Why are the courses important?

  • Passing each of the courses requires you to not only learn Gracepoint’s worldview, but also *affirm it as your own.”
  • The final question of Course 101 asks whether you are ready to publicly accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. After answering ‘yes,’ you are celebrated with praise, flowers, and gifts.
  • Some church meetings & retreats require you to have passed all of the courses to attend
  • Disagreeing with the material is typically seen as being held back by fears or worldly desires, and is something to be prayed through

How Gracepoint Discipleship Continues

Discipleship continues as long as you continue to be part of the church. In addition to daily ~1 hour devotionals, weekly prayer meetings, and ~quarterly retreats, there are several members-only disciplines.

Members Bible Study (MBS)

Every Sunday, there is a mandatory extra church service for members-only, MBS, led by Pastor Ed. The idea is that the public church service is geared towards seekers, while MBS preaches more advanced topics for members that might be misunderstood by the general public.

During this time, Pastor Ed is often looser with his words, sometimes letting offensive jokes or “un-PC” opinions slip through. For example, when explaining an illustration involving an electric circuit, he made a comment, “I’m explaining this because there are sisters in the room,” to which the audience chuckled.

Weekly Reflections (WR)

Every Sunday, you are also required to write weekly reflections (WR’s). There are typically three sections:

  • How did the Word of God speak to you? (the sermon)
  • What are you thankful for?
  • What are you struggling with? (confess your sins in writing)

It is mandatory to email your reflections to your designated leader, who helps keep you accountable for your sins. Your leader, out of an abundance of love, may also share the content of your reflections with their friends, your friends, or anyone else in the church who might be affected by your sins.

How Gracepoint Views Itself

Gracepoint is well-aware about the types of questions asked about its practices. In fact, it has extensive documentation on its responses to these questions.

Primary Source: Gracepoint’s Answers to Commonly Asked Questions

Please read the document for yourself. We’ll try to summarize a few of our personal takeaways:

Takeaway #1: Strawman arguments dodge actual questions

Here’s an example:

  • Question (quoted): Why do leaders meddle in people’s lives, and have so much authority and say here?
  • Answer (summarized): Without leadership structures, an organization is aimless and nothing gets done. We don’t want our church to be aimless. Plus, there’s precedent - look at all these other organizations (police, schools, etc) with leadership structures. Finally, it’s biblical - here are bible verses about obeying and submitting.

Somehow, a logical jump is made that because having a leadership structure is better than none, having any leadership structure is justified.

Never addressed: what keeps Gracepoint’s top leadership in check? The closest answer from the document is “fear that something can be abused is not adequate grounds for invalidating it altogether.” The assumption seems to be that the top leadership is made out of special incorruptible stuff, and there is no reason to fear them.

Takeaway #2: Misleading language shifts agency away from the church

Example: “We discourage dating.”

  • Is it a simple “discouragement” if, among ~1,000 singles across churches, aged 18-21, there are zero dating couples?
  • Is it a simple “discouragement” if dating means you are disallowed from attending retreats, prayer meetings, and other events with your friends?
  • Is it a simple “discouragement” if you are only permitted to date someone when your leader decides both of you are “mature enough?”
  • Using words like “discouraged” instead of “prohibited,” the church is able to maintain an appearance that thousands of individuals just happen to arrive at the same conclusion.

In an interview with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Gracepoint founder & lead pastor, Ed Kang, describes his ministry as “very organic” and “there’s no formula.” This appears at odds with the strong structure outlined above, but we will leave it to the reader to decide if those descriptions are accurate.

Primary Source: Gracepoint Under The Hood

Takeaway #3: Things aren’t as opt-in as they seem

“Everything is permissible– but not everything is beneficial”

This verse is often used alongside Gracepoint’s stances against various activities, behaviors, or choices. At Gracepoint, you are free to do as you please - nothing is prohibited. However, for your own protection, if you take part in “non-beneficial” behaviors, you may lose privileges to do things like participate in ministry, go on dates, or attend certain events with friends.

Examples of non-beneficial things include:

  • listening to non-Christian music
  • owning a TV
  • playing video games
  • owning a pet (don’t)
  • the way your house is organized
  • the way you dress and the length of your hair
  • the brand of car you drive (generally must be Toyota, Honda or Ford)
  • being roommates with anyone who isn’t a member of Gracepoint (even just a buddy of yours)
  • not having roommates
  • dating anyone who isn’t a member of Gracepoint

Ironically, Gracepoint leadership, as much as it prides itself in its strong stances and boundaries, isn’t above breaking a rule or two itself. During the start of COVID-19 when testing was scarce, Gracepoint handed out test request forms to its members, which would allow them to get tested before the general public. Interestingly, they were signed by an orthopedist, and the email was linked to Steve Suh (one of the top Gracepoint ministry leaders, not a doctor), and the “primary practice” address was 1275 Harbor Bay Parkway, which is Gracepoint’s HQ.

Primary Source: COVID-19 test requisition forms

How Gracepoint Views Others

Gracepoint’s view of others is something that many have reported as being peculiar. The church’s view of others is influenced by its tight focus on college ministry as well as its emphasis on its unique church culture.

How new attendees are seen

People looking to join Gracepoint typically fall into two groups:

  • A) Students (usually college freshmen, but also new grad students)
  • B) Everyone else

If you fall into group A, everyone is astonishingly friendly and accommodating to your every need. It’s like people see you for who you are. However, behind the scenes, you are seen as immature, lost and in need of a strong guiding hand. In Gracepoint’s own words, “we are dealing with an emotionally fragile generation who have hardly ever been corrected by their parents.”

If you fall into group B, you are gently separated from everyone else and recommended to find a different church. Gracepoint is, by design, very focused on the college demographic - specifically from freshman year, as outlined in the College Ministry Goals document. By specializing, the church avoids spreading itself too thin. The result is a highly efficient church. We leave it up to the reader to decide if it is a healthy model.

How other churches are seen

Gracepoint leadership often gives off an air of being “better” than other churches. As seen in one of Kelly Kang’s emails, mentions of the “American church” are always in the context of its failings, juxtaposed with Gracepoint’s successes.

While the leadership doesn’t go as far as speaking bad about specific churches, the air of superiority is strong in other ways. If you want to go to a grad school, you are strongly, strongly encouraged to only apply to places with Gracepoint church plants, with the implication that a non-Gracepoint church wouldn’t be as good. If you were to date someone from another church, you can bet that Gracepoint members will try to persuade that person to leave their church and join Gracepoint. The implication again, is that a person is categorically better off in Gracepoint than elsewhere.

Where does this come from? Perhaps it is simply pride, or perhaps it is envy that other Christians’ lives seem to be easier or more comfortable, and so they must be doing worse spiritually because they aren’t sacrificing as much as I am.

Whatever the reasons may be, it’s undeniable that the feeling of being “better” than other churches exists quite tangibly.

👉 Continue to next article: Gracepoint Churches

Further Reading