HISTORY OF OUR CHURCH

Even though Glory of Christ is a brand new church, we do have a bit of history under our belts. It all started in November of 2000 when Mike Perry began to dream of starting a God-centered church in this area, and also began to pray for his neighbors on a weekly basis. But as the months and years rolled by, it seemed that he was the only one who had this vision.

Then, in the summer of 2004, Mike joined a small group from Bethlehem Baptist Church that was meeting in the area and asked the leader of the group, Greg Chaffin, if he had ever thought about making a church out of the small group. Greg replied that he had, and together they began to dream of what the church might look like.

In the spring of 2005 they submitted a vision document to Bethlehem, and in June of 2005 they met with Bethlehem’s Church Planting Committee. Within a few months, Bethlehem decided to partner with them in planting the church and suggested that Charlie Handren be hired to lead the church. The small group agreed, and thus Bethlehem hired Pastor Charlie as their Church Planting Resident for one year, giving him the task of developing this new church.

Under Pastor Charlie’s leadership, the group began to formulate their vision and strategy and such in the summer and fall of 2006. Within a few months, Kevin Feder joined the staff as the Pastor for Family Discipleship, and later Aaron O’Harra joined the staff as the Interim Minister of Worship.

For a few months the church met in a pole-barn, which they lovingly referred to as “the barn.” This facility was offered to them free of charge by the Howse family of Elk River, and while there the church grew from a handful of people to a little over sixty. We have recently moved our services over the Handke Family Center, the place we will likely call home for the foreseeable future.

One more thing: Glory of Christ is part of a movement of new church plants, through Bethlehem Baptist Church, called “Treasuring Christ Together” (TCT). The TCT churches are united in their commitment to biblical teaching, reformed theology, and local and global outreach.