Our History

​Grace Baptist Church was formally organized on March 4, 1956, but its roots go back to the late 1940’s.  Seymour Johnson War Housing Project permitted a group of people to use its community building in which to hold their church services.  This group later became known as Johnson Homes Community Church.  P.D. Buck, founder of this church, worked on a mail train during the week, and served as their pastor.  As the attendance grew, they were also given permission to use vacant apartments nearby as Sunday school rooms.

In 1955, they began meeting at Seymour Funeral home, and later rented a store building on Wayne Memorial Drive for their services.  At this time the church was organized and chartered as “Grace Missionary Baptist Church” and called Mr. Buck as their Pastor. Several years later, Mr. Buck felt a full-time pastor was needed and the church called Hyman Vann as their pastor. Mr. Buck continued to teach Sunday School classes for some time.

Later, the church purchased land on Royall Avenue and soon started work on a building. The women worked during the day, getting things ready, and the men worked in the evening after their regular jobs, and soon the church was finished. Over the years several additions were added to that first building, not the least of which is our present auditorium, which was constructed over 45 years ago. The original auditorium now serves as our fellowship hall. A Sunday School/administration wing was later added.

The Lord has used several men to lead and guide the ministries of Grace Baptist Church over the past many years.  Most recently, Mr. James Frasher served as Pastor of Grace Baptist.  Upon his retirement in 2015, Pastor Jason Stoeber was called to be the new Pastor.  Pastor Stoeber along with these other Godly men have spent a total of 60 years being used by God to mold Grace into what it is today. Should the Lord tarry, the prayer and desire of our present assembly is that we, along with our Pastor and all those that may follow him, continue to be as faithful and unfaltering in His service as those who preceded us.

Meet Our Pastor

Jason Stoeber
​Welcome to Grace Baptist Church!  As the Pastor of this wonderful church, please allow me to introduce myself and share my personal testimony with you.

I was born into a Christian home in Monte Vista, Colorado.  My parents were passionate about teaching me from a young age about the love of God and His special plan for my life.  At the age of seven, through the prayer and careful help of my parents, I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.

As a senior in high school, the Lord burdened my heart to be a preacher of the Gospel.  I soon enrolled in Bible college where I received a great education along with practical and hands-on training for the ministry.  Upon graduation from college, it has been my joy to be involved in full time ministry!

My enthusiasm for casting vision and developing leaders in the local church encourages Christians to be passionate about serving God.  I have a heart to inspire, motivate, and communicate the Word of God to all age groups.  Whether it is praying, studying, knocking on doors, preaching, or maintaining the church property, I genuinely enjoy the “work of the ministry” and am optimistic about what God will do with a group of people who are hungry to do His work—His way!  There is nothing dull about serving the King of Kings! God has placed the local church here “for such a time as this”.  America is ripe for revival!

What a joy and blessing it is to serve the Lord with a supportive and engaged family—and God has certainly blessed me with a wonderful family!  My wife, Sally, enjoys serving alongside me in ministry.  Whether it is teaching a Bible lesson to children, discipling ladies, or being involved in the church music, she loves serving the Lord.  Our daughter, Sadie, was born in 2012.  As a family, we enjoy serving the Lord together…both inside and outside the church walls!  Our home is a place where we love to share a meal while connecting and enjoying sweet fellowship with church folks.  One of our priorities as a family is to ensure our home maintains a welcoming presence that we pray will encourage all those who enter!

Thank you for this opportunity to share with you a glimpse of how my family and I enjoy serving the Lord in the ministry.  We look forward to many fruitful years ahead as we continue to follow God’s plan for our lives here at Grace Baptist Church.
Jason Stoeber
Pastor

  • Our Purpose

    ​The purpose of our church is summed up in the commission Christ gave His disciples just before He ascended to Heaven: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:18–20).
    ​
    This last command of Christ should be our highest priority; every facet of church activity should in some way relate to this, the purpose of the church. Acts 5:42 records that the Jerusalem church was indeed fulfilling this purpose: “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” This young church was constantly engaged in making the Gospel known to the world.

    At Grace Baptist Church, we have emphasized this purpose in our three-point mission statement:

    Love God
    Loving God begins in the heart, with a personal relationship with Him. As we gather and participate in Christ-honoring worship services and respond to the preaching of God’s Word, this love flourishes. Mark 12:30 says, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

    Linked Together
    We are linked together, in Christ, through the study and implementation of God’s Word. This occurs in our weekly services, in our Sunday School classes, in fellowship times (both at and away from the church building), and in one-on-one discipleship.

    Labor Selflessly
    We labor selflessly as we find a place of ministry in the local body. We also labor by sharing the Gospel with those who need the Lord—through witnessing to friends, coworkers, neighbors, and loved ones, as well as in participating in church outreach and giving to missions.

    As a church, our mission is to reach the world with the Gospel of Christ. We want to utilize every available Biblical means, and we want to disciple and train every member to participate in accomplishing our church’s purpose!

  • Our Plan

    ​Our mission as a church to LOVE God – be LINKED Together – and LABOR Selflessly is accomplished through the plan that Jesus Christ Himself set up for us while here on this earth!

    It is simple….yet profound!

    Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20, “19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

    Evangelize
    Our heartbeat is to see people how God sees people! He came to seek and save the lost. We endeavor to tell as many people as possible about the life-changing message that Jesus brought to us!

    Baptize
    The first step of obedience for a Christian is to identify with the Lord and the local church. Baptism is the way we identify ourselves with Jesus!

    Mobilize
    Once a person is saved and baptized, it is vital to become incorporated into the local church body. We endeavor to find what the Lord has gifted you with and allow you to serve in such a way that brings honor and glory to Him!

  • Our Beliefs

    ​The following paragraphs simply summarize what we believe as a church family. We believe the Bible and teach it to be perfectly true. Every belief and teaching of Grace Baptist flows from God’s Word. For a more detailed account and description of our doctrine, feel free to request a doctrinal statement from the church office.

    The Bible
    We believe the Bible to be the revealed Word of God, fully and verbally inspired of God. We believe the Scriptures to be the inerrant, infallible Word of God, as found within the 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. We believe God not only inspired every word, but has preserved them through the ages. All the teaching and preaching at Grace Baptist is done from the King James Bible. (Psalm 12:6-7; II Timothy 3:15-17; I Peter 1:23-25; II Peter 1:19-21).

    God 
    We believe in one God, who is eternal, self-existent, infinite, and immutable. We believe He has one nature, one essence, and one substance, yet manifests Himself to man in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; I Timothy 1:17; James 1:17; I John 4:4).

    Son
    We believe Jesus Christ to be the one and only Saviour of mankind. We believe Jesus Christ to be eternally God and to possess all the attributes of Deity. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born, that He was God incarnate, and that the purposes of the incarnation were to reveal God, to redeem men, and to rule over God’s kingdom. We believe Jesus Christ never relinquished any attributes of His Deity, but merely veiled them. We believe He lived a perfect, sinless life, at the end of which He was offered for all mankind as a substitutionary sacrifice for man’s sin. This sacrifice was a just payment to God for the forgiveness of sin. It was activated by His death through the shedding of His blood on the Cross and was accepted by God upon His resurrection. We believe He ascended into Heaven after His resurrection to be seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting for the time of receiving His church at the Rapture, and returning seven years later to earth to rule and reign as King for 1,000 years (Psalm 2:7-9; Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, 43:11; Micah 5:2; Matthew 1:25; Luke 1:26-35; John 1:1, 1:3, 14, 18, 29; Romans 3:19-25; Romans 5:6-15; Philippians 2:5-11; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Timothy 2:5; I Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:10-15; Hebrews 7:26, 9:24-28; I Peter 1:19, 2:2; I John 1:3; Revelation 20:1-6).

    The Holy Spirit
    We believe the Holy Spirit of God is a person who has personality and all the attributes of Deity. We believe the Holy Spirit has always been involved in the affairs of mankind. However, we believe He has a special ministry which began at Pentecost and will continue until the Rapture. This ministry includes convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit was also sent to regenerate, sanctify, seal, and fill all who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:5-6; John 14:16; Acts 1:5; Acts 11:15; I Corinthians 3:16; I Corinthians 6:19-20; I Corinthians 12:13).

    Sin and Salvation
    We believe all men were born with an inherited sin nature received from our common ancestor, Adam. We believe that because of his nature, man is a sinner by choice, and he is totally incapable of reforming himself or ceasing from his sin by his own power. We believe the only hope of deliverance for man is a total change of mind concerning his sinful condition and inability to change it, and a turning to Jesus Christ as the only Saviour. We believe that only through the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the Cross can a man be delivered from his sin. We believe that all those who reject Jesus Christ as their Saviour are already condemned to an eternity in the Lake of Fire (Genesis 5:1-5; Acts 4:19; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:10-23; Romans 5:6-12; Romans 6:23; Romans 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-6; Revelation 20:11-14).

    The New Testament Church
    We believe the church began with the calling out of the twelve apostles by Jesus Christ and was empowered on the day of Pentecost. We believe the local church is God’s only institution to carry out His work today. We believe the local church is composed of members who have been saved and baptized according to the command of Christ, and have voluntarily united together for the purposes of worship, fellowship, service, and the Lord’s Table. We believe all true believers will be taken up at the Rapture, just prior to the Tribulation (Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 1:15; Acts 2:41-43; Acts 11:15; Acts 20:28; I Corinthians 15: 51-58; Ephesians 1:12-14; Ephesians 5:25-30; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Timothy 3:4-15).

    The Last Days
    We believe in the literal interpretation of the Scriptures in their grammatical and historical context. We believe in the pre-tribulational Rapture of the church saints, followed by the seven-year Tribulation. We believe in the pre-millennial return of Christ to the earth and His literal rule of one thousand years. Following this one thousand years is the Great White Throne judgment and then the new Heaven and new earth (I Corinthians 15:51-58; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Thessalonians 5:1-9; Revelation 19-22).