About Grace
Community Church
Helping people find and fulfill God’s purpose for their lives.
A Portrait of Grace
At Grace Community Church, that doesn’t surprise us. We have known for a long time that the deep thirst of man is to know the most fundamental question: “Why am I here?” Since 1998, we as a local church have devoted our time, talent, and treasure toward this goal: helping Roswell find and fulfill God’s purpose for their lives. We need to know it; we deserve to know it. The Lord Jesus Christ gave this stunning promise: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39) Truly, as Dallas Willard wrote, "The ruined life is not to be enhanced but replaced. We must simply lose our life— that ruined life about which most people complain so much anyway." That’s why we’re so committed to helping people find that new life!
This was the burden of our founding pastor, Rick Hale and his wife, Mary. This is why they intentionally planted an interdenominational community church focusing on God’s purpose-driven principles. It may seem strange, that here, in the middle of the high desert of southeast New Mexico, God wanted to build a different kind of church: a church based not on the old traditions of religious polity or denominational framework but based on God’s clear purposes that match the deep need of man.
Was it a surprise, then, that 90 people crammed into a house in March of 1998 to hear Rick’s initial vision of a church built to help people find and fulfill God’s purpose in their lives? Was it a surprise that a few months later, 412 people signed the official charter to launch Grace Community Church? Not to those people. They prayed, searched the will of God, sacrificed, saved, gave, and served. As the church family continued to grow, the need for a permanent home became increasingly obvious.
In 2002, we moved into our current facility on 22 acres and quickly had to add a temporary Student Building to accommodate the rapid growth. In 2008, we added a Children's Building that serves around 200 children each Sunday and throughout the month in various ministries.
In 2013, the church paid off all remaining debt and began raising funds for the next phase of growth - a future Student Building. To date we have raised over three-quarters of a million for this future building which will provide dedicated space for:
- High School and Middle School Student Ministries
- Expanding Children’s Ministry
- Student and Children’s Ministry Offices
- Large Group Adult Ministry
- New Kitchen Facilities with a Terrace Café
- Repurposing of the current Student Ministry Building for our growing Young Adult Ministry (18-25 year olds) until the construction of our Future Worship Center that would require the building be moved.
The G.R.A.C.E. Vision
Why is Grace purpose-driven? Because a common denominator in our church was that people came from churches that seemed more eager to protect a historic religious paradigm (denominationalism) than cut to the chase and give God what he wants: a Forever Family that loves each other. Rick Warren wrote “Love cannot be learned in isolation. You have to be around people - irritating, imperfect, frustrating people. Through fellowship we learn three important truths: (1) Life without love is really worthless, (2) Love will last forever, (3) We will be evaluated on our love.”
read more Meet Our Team
Wondering how to connect with our Pastors? Just go to this page and get their info.