Church History
In September 1976, Rev. Charles E. Smith met in the home of some friends, Mr. And Mrs. Bob Smith and, along with a few other interested people, discussed the prospect of starting a new
Southern Baptist Church on the south side of Indianapolis. Rev. Smith already had some
experience in starting new churches, having served for 10 years as Director of Missions for
Central Baptist Association in the Indianapolis area.
Sunday services began the rst Sunday in October 1976. The small group met at the Carefree Subdivision Clubhouse where permission was granted to the group to meet for one year.
The National Bank of Greenwood loaned money to the group which was used to purchase 10 acres of land and begin building a church facility on 740 W. County Line Rd, Indianapolis. Rev. Smith served as the general contractor and most of the work was done by volunteer labor by men of the church and friends. Volunteer work groups from other churches in Georgia and South Carolina also came and helped out for several weeks of the construction time.
Dedication of the new church building was October 2, 1977, one year from the rst Sunday service that had been held at the subdivision clubhouse. At that time, Grace Baptist was the fi rst Southern Baptist church to accomplish this in a one-year period.
On October 4, 1981, the Memorial Annex was dedicated which added new Sunday School rooms to the growing church. Again, all of the work was done by volunteers from the church and work groups from Alabama and South Carolina.
In February of 1989, Rev. Smith retired from full-time preaching, making Grace Baptist Church the last church he would plant. The members of Grace Baptist then called Rev. Skip Beal to lead the congregation.
Under the leadership of Rev. Beal, the church began work on a new Family Life Center in the early part of 1998. Through more volunteer labor from both inside and outside of the congregation, and under the leadership of Elvin Yoder as contractor, the Grace Baptist Family Life Center was dedicated in the fall of 1998. The new building added classrooms, a kitchen, a nursery area, and a gymnasium.
In 2007, Grace called Alan Davidson to be its rst full-time youth pastor. In March 2009, Rev. Beal retired. He had pastored Grace for 20 years. Jamie Murphy was called to be Grace's new senior pastor that same month Rev. Beal retired.