Grace D-N-A
We often refer to more grace, more depth, and more community as Grace's DNA. What we mean is that the deep fabric of this spiritual community is made up of these longings. They capture a sense of what we are leaving behind, and what we are reaching toward. If you long for these things, too, then at Grace you will find home.
More Grace
We don;’t need more religion, we need more grace.
Sin is the problem, but moralism is not the solution. Trying to be a good person masks the symptoms rather than treating the disease. Finding grace means learning to rely on God for salvation and sanctification. It means admitting our faults and turning to Christ for forgiveness.
More Depth
We don’t need more easy answers, we need more depth.
We face difficult questions. The last thing we need are easy answers. Superficiality and sentimentality only make matters worse. They don’t help us, and they give the impression to others that our faith isn’t up to the challenge. But the Bible offers deep truths, if we are willing to pursue them.
More Community
We don’t need more celebrity, we need more community.
The church should be a community, not a cult of personality. Imitating the trappings of celebrity culture exacerbates our self-absorption rather than challenging it. The Bible’s prescription for community is different than our culture’s. It involves worship, authority, and service.
What do we believe at Grace?
At Grace, we hope to see every aspect of our faith and practice shaped by Scripture. The Bible is our highest standard. What do we believe the Scriptures teach? You will find that answer in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the accompanying Shorter and Larger Catechisms. Together these give a foundational grasp of the system of doctrine taught in Scripture
Orthodox
The Ancient Faith Handed Down By the Apostles
Grace affirms and confesses the great ecumenical creeds of the ancient church which defined the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ. We often use the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Chalcedonian Definition as confessions of faith in our worship. The word orthodox means 'right belief,' and emphasizes our connection to the broader church of Jesus Christ throughout the ages.
Reformational
Grace Alone by Faith Alone
We believe in justification by faith and the sovereignty of God in all things, including salvation. The Westminster Standards are our doctrinal statement, and we frequently use the Scots’ Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and other Reformation-era confessions in our worship. Reformational thought sees all of life as lived before the face of God. Thus, we seek to glorify God not only in our worship on Sundays but in every aspect of life: in our vocations, our relationships, our civic and social spheres.
Liturgical
Ancient Worship for Today
The elements of Christian worship are given to us by God in Scripture. The way in which those elements are handled -- the circumstances, so to speak -- are left to the wisdom of the church. Grace worships in a self-consciously historical way, using liturgical forms from the Reformation and before, both as a way of connecting our own practice to the larger church and as a means of forming our hearts and minds. You do not passively observe worship at Grace. Rather, you are a participant.
Presbyterian
A Community Led by Elders
Like the synagogues before them, the first Christian churches were led not by a single officer but by a group of elders. The Greek word for these men was presbyter. This form of church government, recovered during the Reformation, is characteristic of Reformed and Presbyterian churches like ours. Our ordained ministers are called teaching elders, and they are joined by ruling elders from the congregation. All of our elders serve a pastoral role, giving oversight to the life of the church.
Rev. J. Mark Bertrand
PASTOR
Mark has an unusual resume for a pastor. He writes crime novels. "A major crime fiction talent" (The Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Jo Nesbø, Mark has written three books about Houston homicide detective Roland March, including Back on Murder (2010), Pattern of Wounds (2011), and Nothing to Hide (2012). Mark has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston.
For Mark's reflections on the theological ramifications of the crime genre, read "Writing About Reprobation" in the PCA's denominational magazine ByFaith. Mark has taught on the faculty of Worldview Academy for more than fifteen years, and is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), which has been used in church and seminary classrooms as a winsome introduction to worldview thinking.
His writing has appeared in print or online at Comment, Books & Culture, and First Things, but he is perhaps best known as the author of Bible Design Blog, an influential blog on "the physical form of the Good Book," where he has advocated for more than a decade on behalf of better, more reader-friendly Bibles.
Mark is from Louisiana, but his wife Laurie is a Sioux Falls native. They will soon celebrate their twenty-fourth wedding anniversary. After serving as a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, Mark was called as Grace's pastor and ordained as a minister in February 2017.
You can contact Pastor Mark at mark@graceforsiouxfalls.org.
Rev. Dan Reed
ASSOCIATE PASTOR
Dan grew up as a pastor’s kid in Tea, SD, where from an early age, he sensed a call to ministry. After graduating from Tea Area High School in 2007, he enrolled in South Dakota State University. In college, Dan took on leadership roles in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, International Student Fellowship, and Equip Campus Ministries. His passion for God’s Kingdom and the transformative power of the Gospel grew exponentially — and he also met and married the woman of his dreams, Christine.
Dan graduated in 2011 with an undergraduate degree in History Education. Because he and Christine were expecting their first child and felt the need for more experience before launching into ministry, they relocated to Hugoton, KS where Dan served as a Middle School Education Teacher and coach. Meanwhile, he enrolled at Fort Hays State University and graduated with a masters degree in special education in 2016.
Still feeling the call to pastoral ministry, the Reeds and their three children moved to Brandon, SD in 2016. While Dan taught and coached in the Brandon Valley Middle School, the family joined Grace Presbyterian Church as members. Dan also enrolled in the M.Div. program at Heidelberg Theological Seminary. In 2021, Dan joined the staff at Grace as our Director of Discipleship and Education. As he neared the completion of his seminary studies, the congregation called him to serve as our associate pastor. He passed his ordination exams at presbytery in April 2023, graduated with his M.Div. degree on May 20, and was ordained as a PCA teaching elder and installed as Grace’s associate pastor on Sunday, May 21, 2023.
Dan, Christine, and their children Lydia, Timothy, and Amelia continue to live in Brandon, staying busy with church life and kids’ activities.
You can contact Pastor Dan at dan@graceforsiouxfalls.org.