Few people arrive at church having it all together. Most are coming from some deficit. As the Lord meets them where they are, they begin to grow.
Bishop Derek Grier, founding pastor of Grace Church in Dumfries, Virginia, has seen a lot of folks come into the church who are dealing with porn addiction, substance addiction, isolation, broken relationships, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. He’s also witnessed transformation.
“At first they come with dull eyes, but when they greet me at the end of the service, I see a spark of enthusiasm,” says Grier. “Then as months pass, those dull eyes turn bright with hope as they attach themselves to the Lord.”
In the fall of 2011, Tina Smith and her husband were on the verge of divorcing when her husband decided to attend a Saturday men’s fellowship at Grace Church. The morning of the event, the couple had an argument and Smith’s husband feared it was all over. When he arrived at the church, his eyes were red from crying. Bishop Grier noticed his pain so he stopped and talked. Upon hearing about Smith’s marital difficulties, Grier assigned someone to the Smiths to act as a friend, mentor, and mediator of sorts; it made a world of difference. The man took time to have dinner with Smiths, allowing them each to air their grievances while in a neutral space.
“He’s been in our lives from that moment on,” says Smith. In fact, that same gentleman performed the couple’s 20-year vow renewal this past April.
“The love, care, and concern that comes from the leadership at Grace Church is phenomenal,” says Smith. “I know for a fact that had it not been for Grace Church, my family would be a statistic.”
When Grier first started preaching, his goal was to build a healthy church.
“If a church is healthy, nine times out of ten it will grow,” he says.
Grace Church started in 1998 in a high school auditorium. In 2007, the church moved into a condominium unit. Within five years, they had outgrown that so they relocated across the street to an old mailing facility that they outfitted to seat 750. The area once saw a great deal of prostitution and drug deals so the church impacted the neighborhood in a positive way.
“When we moved into that facility, I thought we’d be there for life,” says Grier. But there were a number of problems, not the least of which was that they had to stretch parking across five different lots, one that was a mile down the road!
“People would drive 40 minutes and then still have to get on a bus from the parking lot to the church. Then after the service, there was a line to get back to their cars,” says Grier. “We became one of the most difficult churches to attend.”
During COVID, they built a new facility on 12 acres, five minutes from their old location. That turned out to be an incredible challenge to build during a pandemic because they didn’t want to turn their virtual Sunday services into a fundraising campaign.
“We made sure to keep Jesus and the scriptures first so we barely mentioned finances and just relied on faith,” says Grier.
They finally moved into the building in the fall of 2022. Now, two years later, they have already outgrown their sanctuary, which seats 1,600.
When Grier first started ministry, he was told he would never be successful teaching the bible line by line. He was encouraged to get people to fall in love with him via storytelling and then they would eventually fall in love with Jesus. He didn’t like that advice.
“Who cares if people know the pastor’s story if they don’t know God’s word?” asks Grier. “My goal is to help folks understand the value of the scriptures.”
His philosophy is certainly resonating with his members as church attendance has taken off. While there is no magic bullet sermon that resolves everyone’s issues, people draw strength from the Word.
“The key is to grow people. If you do that, the folks in their lives will see the difference and come see what has changed their friend, daughter, sister, brother,” says Grier. “Be about changing lives and let the Lord do the rest.”