1988: A group of 80 people, sensing the Lord’s direction to start a new church, began meeting at Chicago Christian High School in Palos Heights, IL. Church government was established consisting of elders and deacons, and the congregation met every Sunday for morning and evening services and on Wednesday night for Prayer Meeting.

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1990: The church broke ground on 5 acres of Oak Forest property for a multi-purpose building. The new building provided the space needed to host sports outreaches, the growing AWANA programs, youth ministries, women’s ministries, and fellowships.

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1993: On November 7, the congregation of Grace Fellowship Church held its first worship service in the newly completed Worship Center.

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1997: Robert Crain became pastor-teacher. Later that spring, the church broke ground on an educational wing that was attached to the west side of the existing gymnasium.

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2001: We welcomed Greg Coutts to our staff as Music Pastor. Shortly after Greg’s arrival, we expanded our morning services to two services to accommodate our continuing growth.

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2004-2005: We called a new youth pastor, Joshua Williams and completed our latest building project, a 6,000 square foot educational building.

2008: 20th Anniversary

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2011: Len Hardt joined the team as Associate Pastor.

Over these past 25 years, our church family can clearly trace God’s gracious hand of blessing. Many have heard the gospel and come to faith in Christ. Many have given testimony to their faith through baptism and have grown in their faith through the consistent preaching and teaching of God’s Word.

 One of our great joys as a church has been participating in the presentation of the gospel both in our community and throughout the world. Over the years we have partnered with numerous missions and missionaries in taking the good news to Brazil, China, Ecuador, England, Guam, Hungary, Ireland, Kenya, Latvia, Mexico, Moldavia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Tanzania, Togo, Turkey, Venezuela, the Inner City, college campuses, outreach to people in the Kentucky hill country, and disaster relief to those in the Gulf Coast devastated by the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.

As we reflect on our past, we pause to celebrate the faithfulness of God and pray that God will continue to receive all the glory for what has been accomplished in His church. We also look to the future with great anticipation to the ministry that He has for us in our community and around the world.

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