Our Story

From 1992–2008, Grace Baptist Church was known as Old Mount Vernon Baptist Church, and we were originally located on Durant Road. In 2008, the Lord graciously provided us our current facilities through a sister church, and in the process of relocating, we changed our name to Grace Baptist Church. After lengthy renovations to bring the building up to fire code, we held our first public worship gathering in the building in 2010.

From 2010–2022, GBC ministered to one another in the community like many churches, especially serving as a training grounds and spiritual home for students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), with a commitment from our leaders and members to facilitate their being trained up and sent out for pastoral ministry, missionary work, and whatever other work the Lord had in store for them.

For the majority of those years (starting in 2008), we were led by Kyle Smith, along with other elders according to what the Lord had supplied and our church’s needs. 

Starting in 2019, however, our church went through a period of intense difficulty that r required a change in leadership structure. Through those difficulties, our membership had declined, and so had our budget. We could no longer pay Kyle adequately for his work and sent him to another church with our full blessing. At this point, we moved to a plurality of bi-vocational pastors, completing the transition in January of 2023. Providentially, we did not have to look outside our walls for healthy church leadership, and the congregation recognized and elected Caleb Flores, Hayden Fleming, and Tyler Callahan to be elders.

Under the current pastors, we have sought to clearly define our mission, vision, and values as a springboard for fruitful ministry in our community in the years to come. We pray that the Lord will continue to show his faithfulness to Grace Baptist Church as he always has, and that our body would display God’s glory as a pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Tim 3:15) as his glorious grace transforms our lives individually and corporately, and as we proclaim his gospel in our community and throughout the world.