Our Story
Grace Bible Church officially began March 8, 2020. The church was started by our two families-Brent and Amanda Stewart and Lee and Sandra English. Our families met in 2016 at Barberville Baptist Church in Haywood County. Both of our families were led to Barberville Baptist Church while seeking like-minded Christian fellowship. Although Barberville Baptist is a solid, Gospel Centered Church, we became discouraged by the fact that both our families live and work in areas that are 40+ minutes from where were attending church. This reality was not conducive to personal evangelism and severely limited our ability to invite our friends and neighbors into the fellowship of a Gospel Centered church, due to the long drive.
The long commute, plus our combined histories of 184 years of attending a wide variety of churches in Jackson and Swain County, led us to realize that we needed to pray for God’s direction in church planting. By God’s grace and through the teaching of His Word, we had come to realize the following truths:
Revivalism is not biblical Christianity
American fundamentalism is not biblical Christianity
The Seeker Driven movement is not biblical Christianity
The Church Growth movement is not biblical Christianity
Protestant Liberalism is not biblical Christianity
The Word/Faith movement is not biblical Christianity
Hyper-Calvinism is not biblical Christianity
Jackson and Swain Counties contain many churches that have fallen into one or more of the erroneous belief systems in the list above. We do not say that to be judgmental. We say that because it is true. Both our families have been blessed to be members of biblically healthy churches and we have a deep burden for our friends and neighbors to experience this as well, because it is only by means of the local church that believers grow to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever and that unbelievers are saved. Thus, with the blessing and encouragement of our sending church, Grace Bible Church was founded to the glory of God and for the good of His people.
The immediate goals of Grace Bible Church are as follows:
To spread the good news of the gospel.
To magnify the infinite glory of a Holy God through the expository preaching of the whole counsel of the Bible.
To rely in humble dependence on God through prayer.
To practice the “one anothers” (exhort one another, love one another, pray for one another,fellowship with one another, confess your sins to one another, etc.).
To encourage personal discipleship.
To practice accountability with the goal of restoration and when necessary, through church discipline.
Long term goals for Grace Bible Church are as follows:
To give 51% of our receipts to foreign and domestic missions.
To send missionaries to hard places
To plant like-minded churches
To start a biblical counseling center for the people of our area
To prioritize foster care and adoption as a church body
To begin a biblical recovery ministry for people in bondage to addictions
Thank you for taking time to read our story. We encourage you to find out more about us by contacting us with any questions you might have. Better yet, we would count it as a privilege if you would come and join us as we exalt the Lord together.