Our Story
Church planting has had a funny way of following me around since I have come to know Jesus. At a Fellowship of Christian Athletes retreat in my freshman year of college, I heard the Gospel and recognized the depth of my sin and my need for a savior. I was struck
by the reality that I was trying to find joy in all of the wrong places. That was the moment I got off the throne of my heart and gave my life to Jesus.
I started volunteering my time at a local church shortly thereafter. One Sunday, the pastor pulled two young men up onto the stage and announced that they would be starting a church plant. It blew me away the way that he sent them, encouraging the people in his own congregation to join them if they felt led. The next week, God be- gan a new work in my heart and the hearts of 11 other faithful saints in a coffee shop.
For the next two years, I felt my affections deepen for church planting and started talking to my pastors about how to fulfill the calling that was growing in me. I was accepted into New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and served at another church plant in the area while I attended school. Looking back, my time in seminary and the church community I was a part of for that time was when Christ completely changed the trajectory of my life.
I got married to my wife Katie halfway through seminary, and we moved to Dallas to follow where God was leading us in our journey with Him. I completed seminary and took an Associate Pastor position in Corpus Christi. During my first week, the District Superintendent of our denomination approached me and asked if I would ever consider planting a church. I expressed to him that I was brand new to vocational ministry, but we kept an open dialogue and continued conversations with him eventually led me to Vintage Grace.
Two kids later, in the summer of 2021, Drew Sodestrom and I began talking about what it would be like to come join the team at Vintage Grace as a Church Plant Resident. I was immediately drawn to Vintage Grace because of its heart to be a sending station and a church that plants churches. In the last year and a half I have seen God confirm and reaffirm this calling in my life (and bless me with a healthy baby boy), and I cannot wait to step into what He is inviting me into next.
I am incredibly grateful for the journey God has brought me on and the ways He has placed a deep passion in my heart for Church planting. I’m blown away by what God is doing now and full of anticipation for how He is going to continue to work through church planting for His kingdom.
– Will Watson
Mission, Vision, Values
Mission
Enjoy God Together
Vision
We are passionate about building joy-filled communities of faith whose very existence inspires individuals to live an abundant Christian Life, made up of three key relationships: a deepening relationship with God (R1), A life-changing relationship with other believers (R2), and an engaging relationship with those yet to believe (R3).
Values
1. More Joy in Jesus
It’s easy to settle for less with our tempting world, but we believe there is more joy in Jesus than anything else. Simultaneously, our Joy cannot be dictated by difficult circumstances but rather the fact that if we live it’s for Christ, and if we die it’s our gain. We believe that true happiness is found in a lasting relationship with Jesus.
2. Biblically Saturated
Everything we do as a church is informed by God’s Word. We care about the author’s intent, the logic and flow, and proper application. Our heart is that as the church is saturated in Scripture you become Self-feeders who form your life around His Word.
3. Communitas
More than simply belonging to a group, we are a community formed around a common mission. Each Sunday we are SENT as everyday missionaries to be the living proof of a loving God.
4. Living Proof
We are culturally embedded everyday missionaries: God did not create us to isolate ourselves, but rather to live in the world (not of it), so others might see the hope we have in Christ!
5. Embrace Inevitable Tensions
The fallen world and sometimes the text itself bring up tensions. We are NOT God, so we can do our best but won’t fully understand all of His ways until Heaven.
Statement of Faith
God
We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.
The Bible
We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
The Human Condition
We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
The Work of Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of its guilt, regenerates sinners, and indwells and empowers believers for Christ-living service.
Christian Living
We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
Christ’s Return
We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.
Response and Eternal Destiny
We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.
*We are members of the Evangelical Free Church of America and an extension of the mission of Vintage Grace in El Dorado Hills and beyond.