Highway to Grace
In 2011 our pastor, Steve Wheeler, published an honest account of the journey this church has been on — and of his own journey out of religious performance into the freedom of grace.
It is not a manual. It is a first-person record: a leader admitting he had been a legalist, a congregation taking a long time to catch up, and what it cost both of them to change. That candour is why it still speaks to people who have never heard of Highway.
What the book is about
Steve had spent years mixing law and grace together — teaching, in his own words, that “the 5% that was not so good had permeated and diluted the 95% that was good.” He had lost his joy long before he noticed what had caused it. When it finally broke through, he did something most leaders never do: he told his own leadership, in detail, exactly where he had gone wrong.
What follows is not the story of a church arriving somewhere. It is the story of a family arguing, disagreeing, taking years, and slowly learning that grace is not a licence to sin but the very thing that makes change possible.
How it is put together
Part One
A revelation of the good news of grace — the encounter that changed everything, and the church’s first tentative steps afterwards.
Part Two
Correctly dividing the Word — re-teaching the basics of the gospel, and why rightly defined words matter.
Part Three
Joys, challenges and honest questions — how a congregation actually responded, including the parts that went wrong.
Part Four
A church still under grace construction — detours, potholes, and starting again with the end in mind.
The book closes with a glossary of roughly thirty words the author felt had been skewed by religious language — terms like righteousness, flesh, rest and bless. Several of those definitions are reproduced on our Kingdom Language page.
What readers say
Highway to Grace is a story about ordinary people growing in their understanding of an extraordinary God and His extravagant Grace. Church leaders will find it enlightening because it is written by one of us, working out these lessons in the trenches of church life.
Steve has a gift of communicating simply with humour and clarity… He deals with one of the oldest tensions faced by the church throughout its history, the relationship between Law and Grace. Steve has discovered that Grace wins.
In this book you will get an exciting ride into God’s Grace… uncompromisingly preaching it the way it is supposed to be preached! Even when it makes them unpopular.
A word about the book
Published in 2011, Highway to Grace reflects a particular season in our church’s life. Thirty years on, the church has continued to change — there are new elders, new families, and a fresh generation being discipled. What has not changed is the conviction the book was written to defend: that we are saved by grace, and that grace is worth fighting for.
- Highway to Grace: Transitioning a Church from Legalism into Grace
- Steve Wheeler, first edition 2011
- Published by New Nature Publications, Hong Kong, in association with King’s Domain Publishing, Durban
- 191 pages
The book remains in print and is available from the publisher. If you would like a copy, or would like Steve or Janet to speak at your church, please get in touch and we will point you in the right direction.