Grace Point Fellowship, Franklin, is Living a “God Story”

By Stephanie Heading, managing editor

Grace Point Fellowship, Franklin, is in the middle of a “God story.” 

The church plant recently closed on the purchase of a second location which will become home to two new church plants, Grace Point Fellowship Hunter, and Grace Point Espanol, as well as a new preschool, Grace Point Preschool. 

Lead Pastor Reagan Wagoner says closing on the location in late April was surreal. “We had the opportunity because of anonymous givers, partnerships, and people who have supported us, to just walk into the signing and didn’t have to sign anything or bring one dollar.

Just an amazing God story that kind of started with one breakfast at Thanksgiving

“Just an amazing God story that kind of started with one breakfast at Thanksgiving,” he recounted. “Some men that have a company said, ‘Hey, we want to walk through this with you.’ They created an LLC and helped us buy the building.” The church will make interest only payments. 

This provision enables Grace Point to take the funds it raised to purchase the building and use them instead to renovate the new space. “I’m not in the building business,” Wagoner said. “I’m in the people business, so I don’t care if we ever own it. They basically said as long as we’re doing ministry, they’re going to help us take care of it.”

Questions about Grace Point’s future sent the church down the path of seeking to expand its footprint in southwest Ohio, according to Wagoner. “We began to ask the question a couple of years ago, ‘What are we going to do next?’ because we were wrestling with space. We’re already in three services, but our 9:45 am and 11:15 am services are pretty full.”

The need for more room led leaders to begin looking at land and seeking the Lord’s provision to build a larger facility. “Then we began to just look at prices go up and up and up,” Wagoner said. “We started realizing to build anything bigger than where we’re at could be as much as eight to ten million dollars with the land.”

Grace Point is less than ten years old, and leaders felt it didn’t make sense to go that far into debt. “Even though we believe that God could do anything, we weren’t sure if that was the best way for us to be good stewards with the money that God was giving us.”

However, a call from an elder’s wife pointed Wagoner and Grace Point in a new direction. She learned that a Church of Christ six miles away was going to be selling its building and property. 

“So, the day it got listed, we got all of our elders over there,” he said. “It was an exit further south than what we were thinking, but we thought we could potentially do two locations. Instead of being all together, we could send out 150 to 200 people, and that would give us more space to continue to reach people where we are. And then we could have another place that could grow and thrive.”

After seeing the facility, Wagoner says he and the elders discussed the possibility of relocating Grace Point to the 27,000 square foot building that also features 17 acres of property. However, during discussions it became clear that two locations would better meet the needs of the congregation. 

This needs to be two locations, not just one bigger church

“This needs to be two locations, not just one bigger church,” Wagoner said. “I have been really thankful for our people in how they have walked through that process with us.” 

He notes that his church could have been hesitant to launch another location. “I think because of our heart for multiplication, our heart for church planting, and just being focused on the kingdom, I’ve not had any push back.

“You can split, or you can multiply,” he said. “It’s always better to find ways to multiply where we’re doing it together.”

It’s always better to find ways to multiply where we’re doing it together

Multiplication is important at Grace Point. In the past seven years, Wagoner and Pastor Spencer Walters, pastor of leadership development and men’s ministry, have trained 42 different pastors through Send Network Training.

“We are all about church planting, planting autonomous churches. We’re continuing to do that,” he noted. “But we also feel like in this case, it’s time to plant another Grace Point.”

Preparation for launching Grace Point Hunter and Grace Point Espanol has already started. Pastor Spencer Walters will be one of the campus pastors for Hunter and Pastor Adrian Cespedes from Bolivia will lead the Espanol congregation. 

Renovations will get underway in the new building and both Grace Point locations will be working toward the launch of the new churches on Easter Sunday 2025.

In addition to two churches, the new site will also house Grace Point Preschool, which will open in September, according to Wagoner. “We’ve never had a preschool during the week,” he said. The preschool will be open Monday-Thursday with approximately 60 children enrolled. 

Grace Point has big plans for its current location and its new one as well. “At the closing their pastor opened in prayer and then I got to close, even though we weren’t even signing, and they gave me a key,” Wagoner noted. “God put in my head, ‘Upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom.”