HISTORY & BELIEFS OF GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

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VISION FOR GBC

While serving with Susan in a church in Bicester, England, Pastor Sligh was encouraged by his mission sponsoring organization to consider starting a Baptist church in Grafenwoehr, Germany to minister to the Grafenwoehr-Vilseck military communities. This was prompted by news of a dramatic increase in the overall number of troops to be stationed in the Grafenwoehr military community in the near future. After a survey trip to Grafenwoehr and prayer for God’s will, they felt God’s leading to move back to Germany and start a church in Grafenwoehr that would preach God’s Word clearly and practically with balance and relevancy, reach out to win soldiers and their families to Christ, and help those who have found Christ to grow in grace.

HISTORICAL LANDMARKS AT GBC:

  • 2003 – Grace Baptist Church started as a mid-week Bible study in September.

  • 2004 – First Sunday services held on May 2 at the Grafenwoehr Stadthalle (town hall). The church was formally organized on July 18, 2004 and Chuck Sligh was called to be the pastor.

  • 2005 – New ministries launched: K.I.D.S. Church, missions program, teen ministry, ladies ministries, monthly men’s prayer breakfast, Sunday evening children’s program. First deacon, Larry Johnson, elected.

  • 2006 – Purchase and initial remodeling of our present building. Dedication Service for new building: December 3, 2006.

  • 2007 – Year of building and construction, partially with the help of a missions team from the U.S.

  • 2008 – Major reconstruction projects finished by mid-February. Assistant missionaries Steve and Debbie Kissling joined our staff.

  • 2009 – Three important new ministries started: Sunday School, homegroups (small group studies in homes throughout the Grafenwoehr-Vilseck military communities) and our Downrange Soldiers and Families ministry to minister to families of soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • 2010 – Four deacons elected. Record attendance on Easter Sunday.

  • 2012 – Year of change with deactivation of 172nd Infantry Brigade and new units arriving through the end of 2013.

  • 2013-2018 – Incremental complete remodeling and renovating of various parts of our church building.

  • 2014 – German Women's Bible Study begun

  • 2015 – Korean Women's Bible Study begun

  • 2016 – Building mortgage paid off in full!

  • 2019 – Significant influx of soldiers into Grafenwoehr military community of soldiers, their families and additional support personnel.

  • 2023 - Pastor Chuck and Susan retire from Grace Baptist Church, Grafenwoehr, Germany while continuing in the ministry through A.R.M.

  • 2023 - Pastor Chuck and Susan take a 10 month furlough while they update and report to the ones who have partnered with them for the past 40 years. They were approved with A.R.M. through their mission board to fill pulpits in English speaking churches globally.

  • 2023 - Grace Baptist Church joins the IBC, International Baptist Convention, an association of English-language international churches.

    We welcome you to come and grow with us!

STATEMENT OF FAITH

The purpose of Grace Baptist Church shall be:

To worship, honor and lift up the Lord.

To evangelize the lost through personal soul-winning, preaching, and an energetic missionary program.

To edify believers through the preaching and teaching of the Bible.

To fellowship with one another within the church body and with other churches of like faith and practice.

To minister to one another in the church body, following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 Articles of Faith

          Grace Baptist Church holds the following Articles of Faith as being a summary of Christian doctrine whose authority consists solely in its agreement with the Word of God.

  • We believe in the verbal inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. We believe that the Bible reveals God, the fall of man, the way of salvation, and God’s plan and purpose in the ages.

  • We believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

  • We believe in the deity, virgin birth, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

  • We believe that salvation is “by grace,” plus nothing and minus nothing. The conditions to salvation are repentance and faith.

  • We believe that men are justified by faith alone and are accounted righteous before God only through the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Justification establishes an eternal relationship that can never be broken or lost.

  • We believe in the visible, personal, and pre-millennial return of Jesus Christ.

  • We believe in the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved and the everlasting  conscious punishment of the lost.