Happy Anniversary Grace Church
Posted on Thursday 12 March 2009 by Greg @ 6:39 pm
Filed under: Rants
Twenty years ago today my lifelong friend, Rick Long, and myself started Grace Church. We were two little twirps in their early twenties who couldn’t find their theological rears with both of their theoretical hands if they tried. But God used us anyway. Neither of us were seminary trained. Rick was a manager at a tire store and I was an ex-roofer who was crashing at Rick’s house. I guess you could say that I was technically homeless and definitely clueless! I had no idea what we were getting into…the ride of our lives!
Starting with 23 people in a friend’s living room (our good friend Brad Holder may he rest in peace) we launched our first service. Twenty years later the church is well over 2,500 people and, most exciting for us, has seen 65% of the congregation come to Christ through the ministries of the church. That is an amazing percentage of new conversion growth! How did this happen? By giving the gospel in every service, every week and inviting our congregation to relentlessly invite their friends, neighbors, family and co-workers out to the church!
Although I resigned almost a decade ago from being the preaching pastor I will always hold this wonderful church close to my heart. Since then, Rick and the elders at Grace have done an amazing job at leading this body of believers into God’s purposes for the church.
Everywhere I go I hold Grace up as an example of how to do church. In spite of an ugly building and a nominal budget this church is rocking the community with the good news and they are unleashing the body of Christ who call themselves Grace Church members to lead the way.
To read more about our crazy beginnings and see the first places that we met in our early years click here.
To Jim, Rick, Bob and the other leaders at Grace I am very proud of you and count it an honor to have been a part of this church for so many years. May your next twenty years be even more blessed!
Greg Stier Reply:
March 14th, 2009 at 6:29 am
That’s cool Daniel. It’s hard to believe it’s been so long. Hey, I trusted in Christ when I was eight. Grandma Faye wrote it down in my little red Bible. Fortunately, I still have it!
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sharmer Reply:
March 16th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Greg…off topic, but a Blog request nonetheless…
At D2S Denver, you did a prayer routine that I believe you called “Calling Down The Rain” based on the model prayer/Lord’s prayer…could you blog the step-by-step “how-to” of that at some point?
We’ve tried it at our church a few times and seemed to have very good results with it…but sometimes memory gets hazy so a reminder would be appreciated!
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Greg Reply:
March 16th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Praise…Our Father in heaven…
Request…Give us this day our daily bread
Admit…Forgive us our…
Yield…Lead us not into temptation…
sharmer Reply:
March 16th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Thanks…by the way…this does work for congregations of all ages…though you have to be a little lenient for some of the “seasoned citizens” for whom getting down on their knees just might be permanent…