Written by Tina S.

On January 2nd of 2013, almost 500 students across our church plants in Minnesota, San Diego, Riverside, Davis, and of course, Austin came together at our Berkeley church to be part of our first ever Gracepoint Winter Institute. With eager anticipation to be trained, we started off with our senior Pastor, Pastor Ed’s message on Ephesians 2, encouraging us that we are to use the gift of salvation that God has given us to do the good work and to be equipped with our hearts in the right place for God and His people.

The main speaker, Cliff Knechtle opened up his session with ten reasons why he believed in God and answered any questions that students had about God, the Bible, and Christian life. Also, we took classes like Church history where we learned about how our modern day Christian church came about and classes like Kings in which we learned about first three Kings of Israel-Saul, David, and Solomon and how God mightily worked through them despite of their flaws.

Not only we had a great training time but we also had a lot of fun. We had a chance to get a tour of the Berkeley campus, which is where many of those who planted our Austin church studied and visited San Francisco and enjoy some delicious ice cream and amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge. And after two days of intense learning some of us had a chance to go to our church in Davis as well as Sierra Lodge near Lake Tahoe and Yosemite House for time of fellowship, hosted by our Davis church.

Once again, we were amazed how we can work as one body to do something like our Gracepoint Winter Institute with many classes, cooking, and people helping out in various areas. Through it, we were able to be equipped and were challenged to become better ministers of the Gospel. As we look forward for this new year, we are excited to use what God has entrusted us, to proclaim the greatest news with deeper conviction and understanding.