Our History
1988: A group of 80 people began sensing the Lord’s direction to start a new church. Robert Lowe was called as the pastor-teacher, and the church began meeting at Chicago Christian High School in Palos Heights, IL. Church government was established consisting of elders and deacons, and the congregation met every Sunday for morning and evening services and on Wednesday night for Prayer Meeting.
1990: The church broke ground on 5 acres of Oak Forest property for a multi-purpose building. The new building provided the space needed to host sports outreaches, the growing AWANA programs, youth ministries, women’s ministries, and fellowships. In June, Mark Ester was hired as the church’s first youth pastor.
1992: The church secured an architect and proceeded with plans for Phase II, a Worship and Education Center. In August of that year Robert Hilgenberg became the church’s second pastor-teacher. On November 7, 1993 the congregation of Grace Fellowship Church held its first worship service in the newly completed Worship Center.
1994: The ministries of the church continued to grow with the addition of an annual Vacation Bible School. The physical plant continued to grow as well: the parking lot was extended, landscaping was planted, and the final land payment was made.
1995: Scott Christmas joined the pastoral staff.
1996: The church hired its first Music Pastor, Edward Willis, who expanded both the Worship and Children’s choirs. In the same year, Tim Yetter began serving as youth pastor while completing his education at Moody Bible Institute. Following Tim’s graduation from Moody, he remained in a full-time capacity.
1997: Robert Crain became pastor-teacher. Later that spring, the church broke ground on an educational wing that was attached to the west side of the existing gymnasium.
1999: We continued our building expansion, constructing an office complex on the south side of our existing facilities.
2000: Tim Yetter went home to be with Lord after an extended battle with a rare liver disease. J.D. Bowman was hired as our new youth pastor.
2001: We welcomed Greg Coutts to our staff as Music Pastor. Shortly after Greg’s arrival, we expanded our morning services to two services to accommodate our continuing growth.
2002: In an ongoing effort to keep up with our growth, we remodeled the sanctuary and narthex in the summer of 2002, allowing for the additional seating for 100 people.
2004: Larry Miller joined the staff as our first Associate Pastor and we called a new youth pastor, Joshua Williams.
2005: We completed our latest building project, a 6,000 square foot educational building.
As we reflect over these past 20 years our church family can clearly trace God’s gracious hand of blessing. Many have heard the gospel and come to faith in Christ. Many have given testimony to their faith through baptism and have grown in their faith through the consistent preaching and teaching of God’s Word.
One of our great joys as a church has been participating in the presentation of the gospel both in our community and throughout the world. Over the years we have partnered with numerous missions and missionaries in taking the good news to Brazil, China, Ecuador, England, Guam, Hungary, Ireland, Kenya, Latvia, Mexico, Moldavia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Tanzania, Togo, Turkey, Venezuela, the Inner City, college campuses, outreach to people in the Kentucky hill country, and disaster relief to those in the Gulf Coast devastated by the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.
As we reflect on our past, we pause to celebrate the faithfulness of God and pray that God will continue to receive all the glory for what has been accomplished in His church. We also look to the future with great anticipation to the ministry that He has for us in our community and around the world.