Grace Point Church
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[edit] Grace Point's History
Grace Point Church, formerly known as Castle Hills Church Northwest, was started as a satellite campus of Castle Hills First Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, in November 1992.
After months of negotiations with the Resolution Trust Corporation, an agreement was reached to purchase an abandoned 45,000 square foot church facility, complete with education classrooms and situated on nearly 25 acres. One hundred families from the main campus were asked to make a one-year commitment to begin the satellite campus.
Since November of 1992, Grace Point Church has experienced steady growth and significant influence in the city of San Antonio. Dr. George Harris, Sr. Pastor of Castle Hills First Baptist Church from 1975 to 2003, passed the Castle Hills Church Northwest leadership mantle to his son Jeff Harris([1]) in December 1994. Jeff continues to lead this congregation today, setting a clear vision. In February 1998, Castle Hills First Baptist Church initiated the constitution process for Castle Hills Church Northwest to become an autonomous church. The process received overwhelming approval.
Under Pastor Jeff’s leadership Castle Hills Church Northwest voted in early 2002 to change the church name to Grace Point Church in order to better reflect her identity and the purpose of her existence: To lead unsaved people to a relationship of full devotion to Jesus Christ. In March 2002, Grace Point Church dedicated the addition of a 22,000 educational facility.
[edit] Grace Point Today
Grace Point is a Southern Baptist Church and supports the cooperative program but because of her mission, downplays denominational involvement in order to maximize her reach. Grace Point in her short history has had many notable guests such as Kirk Whalum, Mike Huckabee, David Robinson, Alvin Gentry, and Josh Davis.
Grace Point Church is a missional church and has over 75% of its membership serving on a weekly basis according to their Spiritual Gifts. Grace Point also sends over 200 of her members on global missions annually. Grace Point consistently baptizes over 100 people each year and her innovative practices have been noted in several books: Shaped by God’s Heart by Milfred Minatrea, Spiritual CPR by Todd Phillips, and Building Leaders by Aubrey Malphurs and Will Mancini. In 2005 Grace Point undertook a bold vision to plant 100 churches in a 10 year period. This missional church movement seeks to partner and plant reproducing churches.
Grace Point Church also hosts the Willow Creek Leadership Summit led by Bill Hybels and continues to influence San Antonio and the world.
Grace Point’s Children’s Ministry is well-known for its Rotation Model Sunday School for 1st-5th Grades. This Workshop Rotation Model, called Crosswalk for Kids, allows children to learn and retain Biblical concepts through a variety of learning styles by rotating through various experience stations over a five week period. The Biblical concept and story are the same for five weeks, but taught in different, relevant and exciting ways by teachers gifted and passionate about their particular workshop. The non-traditional classrooms include a Movie Theater, Computer Lab, and Kitchen, along with other classroom environments that allow the children to learn through video, computers, cooking, nature, drama, dance, puppets, music, art, and games.
[edit] Life Groups
Grace Point has several small community groups called Life Groups. Below are links to some of their Blogs.