Our Story
When Pastor Barry Flanders and his wife Suzanne came to Mt. Pleasant in the fall of 1992, they had no idea what God was preparing them to do five years later. Read on to see part of the journey of Barry and a Young Church that was changed by Grace.
A Clear Need
Shortly after I arrived, my father passed away suddenly (massive heart attack) and my mother was diagnosed with esophogeal cancer (given 2-3 months to live). Somehow, as devastating as these events were to me personally, they resulted in galvanizing my focus to reach out in relevant ways to the youth and families of the Mt. Pleasant community. You see, my father and mother did not believe in God until very late in life. Though they are ultimately responsible for their indifference to the Gospel, part of their low view of church and the message of Jesus Christ had to do with what seemed to be the powerlessness of the churches in their generation to live out the Gospel in meaningful, creative and compelling ways. I knew my parents held this view, and I was beginning to see that my own youth ministry was powerless to pierce the darkness of the up and coming generations.
The tragic news of my father's death and my mother's cancer, brought about a renewed sense that time was of the essence and that we had nothing to lose and everything to gain by creating a biblically-based ministry infrastructure that fostered authentic discipleship. This produced student-driven ministry teams that were very effective at reaching out to their peers. It seems much of the next generation feels the same way as my parents did about the priority Jesus Christ and His church should play in their lives. Therefore, we began doing biblically-themed services which were both creatively-demanding and scripturally accurate. And guess what? God started sending students our way. At our first large scale service in 1994, 22 people chose to give God their lives in the Mt. Pleasant High School gym! During the next 4 years, hundreds of students and adults made a similar choice.
The Challenge
The main challenge with these new believers was getting them integrated into churches that they could relate to in terms of both surface and non-surface issues. The surface issues include clothing styles, musical styles, and the use of creative arts. Some of the deeper issues new believers from the next generation were struggling with included what I call "realness" (authenticity), a lack of creative flexibility, and a desire of church leadership to provide forms of worship and non-traditional forms of ministry which foster the building of close relationships and biblical community.
These realizations led
Suzanne and I to go to our board at First Baptist Church and ask them to release us to start a new
ministry here in Mt. Pleasant that was stylistically geared toward the next generation, though
appealing and open to people of all generations. Although we have a different ministry focus than
First Baptist Church, we have maintained a healthy relationship and over the years. I have preached there from time to time and have been able
serve them in ways that will further their ministry. I thank God for the ministries of First Baptist Church.
A New Church is Born
The official birthing of the new church happened on April 4th, 1998.
Beginning a new church is a difficult task and one that requires much study, prayer, and fasting. As is typical of most church plants, we had no money, no equipment, no meeting space, no people to speak of...you see, we had strongly encouraged most of the kids and adults we had been reaching and teaching to stay in churches they were affiliated with or, in the case of the kids, where their parents attended. Several months prior to our first public meeting at The Ward Theatre, an individual generously gave us the use of an airplane hangar at the Mt. Pleasant Municipal Airport. This provided for both office space and public meeting space. Once again, people began coming. Offerings were used solely for equipment and other expenses as staff for the new church worked secular jobs for a few years. Though the Ward Theatre is now owned by the church, we rented it for almost three years. Then, for the whopping price of $100, John Loeks, the owner of the theatre, sold the historic building to the church. John was touched by the fact that our "young church" had already been reaching and changing so many lives, both young and old. He was particularly impressed by our seasonal musicals and multimedia presentations.
The Name Change
A common theme began running through the ministry of our church as we approached our 8-year Anniversary...Grace. We did a series of messages entitled, "Grace Changes Everything." In our case, that meant grace would even change our church name. So, at our 11:00am Sunday morning service on April 30th, 2006 we prayerfully and worshipfully changed our name to Grace Church. While there are many reasons for this change, the gist of it came down to this: our young church was growing up spiritually and we were being humbly captivated by both the concept and the implications of being a grace-based ministry. God's grace, which we define as "God's empowering favor," has humbled our people, changed our path, and given clarity to our purpose. Grace is renewed in its committment to preaching God's Word, BEING disciples of Jesus Christ and MAKING disciples of Jesus Christ. While it is relatively easy to change your name, it is quite another endeavor to become all that your new name implies. Perhaps you would commit to praying just that: that Grace would be a place where God's empowering favor would be evident to all, and especially compelling to those who have not yet experienced God's saving grace in their lives.
Barry Flanders
