History
Beginnings: Grace Community Chapel inSt. Peters,Missouri(St. CharlesCounty) is an independent, evangelical church established in1983. It is the daughterchurchofHope Congregational Church(also independent) onBrown Rd.inSt. LouisCountynearLambertAirport. The first “official” meeting of the church was on a Sunday evening on November 6, 1983 in the home of Gary andJuliePointer. The meeting was attended by 38 people, most of whom had recently moved toSt. CharlesCountybut were still members of Hope Church.
Land Purchase: On February 27, 1983, Hope Church agreed to purchase 22.7 acres of land onMexico RoadinSt. Petersfor $148,000 dollars ($671,000 in 2009 dollars). On April 8, 1983, the contract was signed and the land became property of Hope Church.
New Meeting Location, Pastor: On February 12, 1984, the people meeting in the Pointer home began to meet inFairmountElementary School(FrancisHowellSchool District). During this period, Donald B. Miller (the son of Donald A. Miller, Senior Pastor of Hope Church), began to preach at the Sunday evening meetings at Fairmount. By summer, attendance had grown to “about 80″ and offerings to about $700 per week.
Groundbreaking for Chapel: On July 22, 1984, the Groundbreaking Service for “Grace Community Chapel” was held. Construction began and attendance at Fairmount continued to climb, reaching about 130 later in the fall.
Chapel Dedication: In January 1985, the new Chapel was dedicated, and Sunday morning worship finally began inSt. CharlesCountyfor the members of Hope Church who had been attending Fairmount on Sunday evenings. The first service was standing room only, including many from Hope Church who came to celebrate God’s workings and goodness to Grace. Attendance continued to climb in the following months to about 250+. The people of Hope, in addition to purchasing the land, continued their strong and generous support, making contributions totaling at least $125,000 in cash ($610,000 in 2009 dollars).
Continued Strong Growth: In a matter of a few months, the new chapel found it necessary to go to two Sunday morning services as the strong growth continued. Two Sunday morning services helped greatly to provide space for worship, but at the same time, two services revealed a serious lack of Sunday School space for all grade levels. One lady who lived on nearbyHope Ct.even opened her home for adult classes both hours. Another problem was a serious lack of parking space. If unbelievers drove onto the parking lot on Sunday morning and found no place to park, we would probably never see them again. At one point, it actually became necessary to discretely ask “nonessential” members to attend for only a one-hour period (either for worship or Sunday School) and then to please go home!
Phase II Expansion: These conditions begged for a seemingly inescapable question – a question that might have been unthinkable when the chapel was dedicated: “Do we need to expand already?” The answer was an obvious, Yes! One factor that added even more momentum was that an unnamed benefactor offered to provide a dollar-for-dollar matching fund to pay off the $200,000 (rounded) loan for the existing chapel. The members responded positively and the new chapel loan was paid up in less than 3 years. Thus, if Grace Community Chapel expanded, it would not start with a $200,000 mortgage hanging around its neck.
Groundbreaking for New Sanctuary: On December 2, 1986, Pastor Don Miller’s No. 1 item in his report to the Board of Deacons (now Elders) was building plans! He proposed that they be presented to the members for approval by the middle of the month. The members approved a new sanctuary that was to cost no more than 1.2 million dollars. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 12, 1987. One year later, in July 1988, the congregation worshiped in the new sanctuary for the first time. It could seat about 300 adults comfortably and with two services, attendance normally reached to around 400 – 500 adults on Sunday mornings and to around 250 – 300 total for Sunday School.
Shock Treatment: In the Fall of 1990, Pastor Donald B. Miller announced that he was resigning after 7 years at Grace Community Chapel to take the pulpit of a large church inGreensboro,NorthCarolina. It was a brutal shock to the core membership. Everyone knew that most of the 30 or 40 core couples at Grace Chapel were originally from Hope Church and had joined Grace Chapel specifically because favorite son Don B. was the Senior Pastor. Furthermore, with the new sanctuary, church finances were very tight. Many of the members were living in new homes, so mortgage payments were burdensome. At Grace, simply paying the bills week to week involved a balancing act that drove the bookkeepers nuts. If anyone wanted to switch churches for any reason, this would be a made-to-order opportunity! But we called upon the Lord, and He faithfully walked with us – week to week.
Subsequent Senior Pastors: Pastor Miller was replaced by Dr. Cliff Morris fromGeorgia. Pastor Cliff served faithfully for seven years, after which he returned to take another church inGeorgia. Pastor Cliff was replaced by the present Pastor,DairHileman fromMcCook,Nebraska. Pastor Hileman has served faithfully for 13 years to date and is thus the longest-serving Senior Pastor in the history of Grace Community Chapel.
Launching of StoneBridge: In 2006 about 30 Grace Chapel members began meeting in a rented church on Sunday evenings, and in 2007, Grace purchased land and buildings to formally launch a daughter church named “StoneBridge” in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri.MikeWarman was selected as the Senior Pastor. StoneBridge was an immediate success, soon reaching a Sunday morning attendance in the 60′s and then occasionally reaching and exceeding 100. It continues to grow.
Phase III Expansion?: The main objective with regard to a possible Phase III site expansion for Grace Chapel was “to (finally) maximize our potential at our present site.” One of the major considerations was the City of St. Peter’s planned southward extension ofSunnyhill Blvd.(just to the east of the church property). While this planned action appeared detrimental to Grace Chapel because the church would lose property needed for a Phase III expansion, it also would provide (when completed) a very beneficial aspect: A new traffic artery would flow right past Grace Chapel to and from a major new residential development site. The pending action by the City ofSt. Peterswas also beneficial in that the City ofSt. Petersultimately agreed to buy a portion of Grace’s property on the adjacent flood plain, which was of little or no use to Grace Chapel in other respects.
There was also another major consideration: Grace Chapel always seemed to be short of space for Awana. Not only has this deprived children of Biblical knowledge, the parents of Awana children are often unbelievers and they sometimes become believers and even end up members of Grace Community Chapel. Then, there was also the on-going lack of Sunday School, adult meeting room, and office space that was not solved by the Phase II expansion. In addition, constantly setting up, stacking, and setting up again the heavy chairs in the Phase II Sanctuary (for banquets and similar functions) was very, very wearing – on the chairs AND on the custodians and helpers.
Building Plans for Phase III Proceed: Consequently, in view of these needs, several major events followed: In January 2007, a Site Planning Committee was commissioned to develop a Master Plan to fully utilize our remaining acreage. Various options were developed and reviewed by the Site Planning Committee and the Congregation. On March 30, 2008, a Prayer and Praise Meeting was held. There were new changes as a result of this meeting. A Time Line was proposed with Fundraising starting in June 2008 and construction starting in March 2009. On May 4, 2008, a Business Meeting was held. At this meeting, the Congregation voted to go forward with the Building construction and use an outside consultant for fund raising. On June 7, 2008, the architect (Vessel) was selected. On May 27, 2008, TLC was selected as the fundraising consultant.
PhaseIIIBuildingComplete: In early March, 2011, the building was complete. On March 6, the congregation attended the first Sunday morning service in the new “WorshipCenter.” With about 450 chairs set up, the total morning attendance for both services was 628, far above average. The combined worship and Sunday School total was 977, just under 1,000. The Congregation was already beginning to see the possibilities of future growth. There was a genuine spirit of exhilaration. Grace Community Chapel had grown up. In a physical sense, it had finally become the Building Complex it was meant to be. But the spiritual growth that will continue within its walls is up to the saints who worship there in the years to come.
LIFE VERSE FOR GRACE COMMUNITY CHAPEL: “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29:11 (NAS)
