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ABOUT GFC

Grace Fellowship Church is a Bible-based, grace-based, multisite church, located in Northern Kentucky, and is a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America.

OUR STORY

The story of Grace Fellowship is filled with God’s loving, providential hand, guiding, meeting needs, and growing a unified community of faith. As with any story, details can be lost, but here are some highlights to provide insight into our journey thus far.

1994

Grace Fellowship Church began with five families as a church plant – a new work in Northern Kentucky out of an Evangelical Free Church from Milford, Ohio. These families met early on in homes, praying for God to move and bless this new work.

1996

Brad Bigney became the first full-time pastor, moving his family from South Carolina to Northern Kentucky.  Early on, Brad and the leaders establish a focus to not be a program-driven church, but to give primary attention to four core values:

  • God-Focused Worship. The congregation is the choir and we celebrate God’s greatness, holiness, and the good news of Jesus.

 

  • Orthodox Bible Preaching and Teaching. God’s Word is treated as absolutely sufficient and authoritative for faith and practice.

 

  • Community Groups are central to how people grow best in their walk with God as they build community and do life up close to one other.

 

  • Biblical Counseling as intensively focused discipleship, believing the Bible has real answers for life’s most difficult struggles.

 

These four core values gave birth to what is referred to as the “Big Rocks” that guide the church to this day.

1997-2004

Grace Fellowship Church met on Sundays, worshipping in a variety of locations… mostly in schools. New people continue to come in spite of not having a building. The church grew deeper in fellowship and broader in numbers. In 1997, a piece of property on Gunpowder Road, then a rural road on the edge of Florence, was purchased to build a building.

2004

Grace Fellowship Church moved into our own building and within two weeks had to transition to two services because of the growing attendance – from 500+ to more than 800 people.

2004-2011

Grace Fellowship Church expanded educational space and moves to three services to accommodate the new believers God adds to the church. In this time, the biblical counseling ministry expands to become an ACBC Certified Training Center, student ministry gains momentum, and small groups increase, spreading out in locations across the region. Grace sends our first missionary overseas and the Elders begin to ask, “what would God have for us next?”

2013

Grace Fellowship Church became a multi-site church, launching a second campus in Newport, KY. Pastor Peter LaRuffa is sent from Florence to be the Campus Pastor and more than 150 of GFC’s attendees went to establish this new work.

2015

Grace Fellowship Church moved the Newport Campus to a new location in Fort Thomas, KY, creating a centralized office for this Campus.

2015

Grace Fellowship Church moved the Newport Campus to a new location in Fort Thomas, KY, creating a centralized office for this Campus.

2015-2017

Attendance at both campuses increased. Fort Thomas Campus adds a second service to meet the attendance needs.

2018

With weekly attendance approaching 2000, and support for substantial missional work both locally and internationally, GFC began planning for a third campus.

2020

After much prayer and preparation, in January of 2020, GFC launched the third campus in Independence, KY.

The story of Grace Fellowship Church continues to be written as we witness what only Christ can do as He uses a variety of people with various gifts who depend on Him to build His church.

As a church, we want to give all glory to God. As Psalm 115:1 says, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”

Summer Camp Scholarship Fund

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By giving to this fund, you’ll help students who may need financial aid as well as keep the overall cost of camp down for all students.

Questions?

Join a Serve Team!

Select your campus and let us know what Serve Team you are interested in!