HISTORY OF GRACE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
In 1999, several families began meeting for Bible study on Sunday evenings with the hope of establishing a PCA church. After the group had increased to a regular attendance of more than fifty, they contacted the North Georgia Presbytery to call a full-time pastor. Interviews commenced in March 2000. The Rev. Dick Cain, with his wife Scottie and their four children, came to Grace the following fall. On November 6, 2000, Rev. Cain accepted the call as the organizing pastor of Grace Church.
In February 2001, with nearly 75 in attendance, the mission could no longer be accommodated in homes. The First United Methodist Church generously offered its fellowship hall for a weekly Sunday evening service. Four months later (June 2001), the church moved into 4000 sq. ft. of space, sharing a building with the New Life Christian bookstore on Highway 5. In the spring of 2002, the bookstore relocated, and Grace Church began leasing the entire building (12,000 sq. ft.).
During the summer of 2002, Rev. Cain took several potential leaders through officer training, and soon Grace Presbyterian Church had five men ready to be ordained and installed as ruling elders. The church was particularized (made an official PCA church through a commission of the North Georgia Presbytery) on September 15, 2002 with 65 members, and about 80-90 in regular attendance. In the weeks following, Rev. Cain announced accepted a call to Trinity Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
A search committee for a new pastor was formed; and in March 2003, a call was extended to Rev. Dr. Jon D. Payne. In March of 2007 Grace Presbyterian Church commenced a building program and completed it in October of that same year. In April of 2013 Dr. Jon Payne left GPC to plant a church in Charleston, SC. One year later, Rev. David Gilbert, a native of Douglasville, was called to be the new Senior Minister. Six months following, Rev. Clif Daniell was called to be the Associate Pastor.
Today, Grace Church is a growing congregation with an average Lord's Day attendance of 220 in the morning and 120 in the evening.