Grace Baptist Church meets at 432 W 300 North on the north side of Anderson, Indiana, a familiar landmark in Madison County and the home of the largest ministry of the church, Indiana Christian Academy, a preschool-through-twelfth-grade Christian school that has been on the same grounds since the 1970s. The church was planted in the late 1950s by a church-planting pastor from Detroit and has grown into a multi-generational congregation that worships in English on Sunday mornings and evenings and in Spanish through its own Iglesia Bautista de la Gracia. Its senior pastor, Dr. Daniel Stevens, also reaches beyond the church walls through a radio teaching program called God's Turn, broadcast on three stations in central Indiana.
Twelve People in the Anderson YWCA
Grace Baptist Church traces its beginning to a small group gathered on October 30, 1957, in the Anderson YWCA. Pastor Paul Vincent, who had previously served Baptist churches in Detroit, Lansing and Flint, Michigan, and had planted churches in Washington State, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Marion, came to Anderson with a vision for a new work. Twelve people attended that first service, and the Clark family became known as the founding family of the church.
The congregation quickly outgrew borrowed space. On January 12, 1958, regular services began in the north half of a building at 1417 Brown Street, the second half of which was a beauty shop. The church purchased two acres of its own land at 52 West Hartman Road and held its charter service on April 30, 1958. A dedication service on November 30, 1958, drew twenty people who braved bitter cold and snow to walk the property with Pastor Vincent.
Within months, the church called its second pastor, James Puz of Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, who began on July 12, 1959. Under his leadership, the first permanent building was constructed, financed by a $15,000 bond issue, with the first service in the new chapel held on September 4, 1960.
Five Senior Pastors and the Same Mission
Dr. Don Camp became the third pastor on November 12, 1961, and during his twenty-two-year tenure the church's membership grew, four additional churches were planted in Indiana (including in Muncie, Angola and Elwood), and the physical campus expanded. A 1964 addition added ten rooms to the main structure; in the late 1970s a modern $2 million school complex was built to serve Indiana Christian Academy, which had begun in the fall of 1973 with twenty-seven pupils and three grades and was by then straining double-wide trailers used as classrooms.
Dr. Leigh Crockett was called in April 1984, leaving itinerant evangelism to become the fourth senior pastor. He introduced many of the traditions that continue at Grace today, including Family Reunion Sunday, gym nights, Civil Leaders Sunday, couples retreats, small-group Sunday School classes and praise services. A major renovation completed by the men of the church in September 1996 added new carpet, pews and oak paneling. The old auditorium was remodeled into a music hall in 2004, and the adjacent property to the north, with its pond, was purchased in 2005. On September 25, 2013, after eight years of fighting cancer, Pastor Leigh Crockett went home to be with the Lord.
His son, Josh Crockett, had returned to Grace as associate pastor on December 26, 2004, and stepped into the pulpit through those difficult years. He and his family left in July 2015 to pastor Morningside Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, leaving associate pastor Doug Stein as interim.
After eighteen months of searching, the church unanimously elected Dr. Daniel Stevens as the fifth senior pastor on February 12, 2017. A 2019 remodel expanded the lobby for more fellowship space, replaced every window and door with new high-efficiency units, installed new chairs in the auditorium to allow for expandable seating, added cry rooms and classrooms behind the auditorium and refinished the floors and walls throughout.
Today the campus includes more than 20,000 square feet with a sanctuary, fellowship hall, classrooms, nurseries, office wing and an auditorium that seats four hundred people. The Crockett family and the Vincent family both remain a part of the story, and the mission has not changed: preach the Word, fulfill the Great Commission and help believers grow in grace.
Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening, Wednesday Night
Grace runs three weekly English-language services plus a full Wednesday-night program. Sunday begins with LifeGroups and Sunday School at 9:30 AM for every age, followed by Morning Worship at 10:30 AM. The church gathers again at 6:00 PM for Evening Worship, while children from age two up to sixth grade head to AWANA clubs during the school year. At 7:00 PM on Wednesdays, adults gather for prayer and electives in Equip Class, fourth- through sixth-grade children head to their own program and students in seventh through twelfth grade gather for Ignite Youth.
The Hispanic ministry, Iglesia Bautista de la Gracia, meets on the same rhythm. Sunday features a light breakfast and Bible study at 9:30 AM, a worship and preaching service at 10:30 AM in the Chapel, and an evening service at 6:00 PM, with a Spanish Bible study on Wednesday at 7:00 PM. Both English and Spanish services are livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook Live, and archived for later viewing.
Tuesday mornings belong to the seniors. Keenagers meets at 10:00 AM in the Fellowship Hall, with a short message, singing, lunch and frequent outings to Ivanhoes in Upland, Pizza House in Tipton, the Madison County Historical Society and The Wilds in North Carolina.
What to Expect as a Visitor
Greeters meet visitors at the doors and direct them where they need to go. First-time guests are invited to fill out a Connections Card and to introduce themselves to a pastor in the foyer after the service; Grace marks a first visit with a small gift bag.
There is no dress code. A typical Sunday brings a mix of suits and ties alongside jeans and polos, and the church is clear that clothing is not a measure of spirituality, even as the congregation seeks to honor God in how it presents itself.
Nursery care is available during every service. Children from birth through age three are checked into the nursery, where staff are screened and trained; older children are invited into the auditorium for the main service or signed in for Children's Church at ages four and five. On Sunday evenings during the school year, the nursery is reserved for infants through one-year-olds while older children head to AWANA. On Wednesdays, nursery is offered for ages zero to three and KidsTown for ages four through sixth grade.
Visitors are not pressured to give. The offering is collected during the services, and online giving is available through Breeze for those who prefer it. A free English-as-a-second-language class is also offered to anyone in the community who wants to improve their English.
Hymns and Modern Songs, Side by Side
Grace worships with what it calls a God-centered blend of time-honored hymns and modern songs. The music ministry, led by David Luttrull, welcomes choir, orchestra, handbell groups and individuals who want to offer special music. The aim is to turn the focus of the room toward God, and the songs chosen are meant to reflect who God is, what He has done in creation and redemption, and what He promises to do at His return.
Worship services include congregational singing, congregational and choral music, expository preaching, the ordinances of baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, and space for members to speak about what God is doing in their lives. Communion is observed regularly, and baptism is open to any believer who has trusted Christ.
AWANA, KidsTown, and a Week of VBS
Children's ministry at Grace reaches well beyond Sunday School. AWANA clubs meet Sunday evenings from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, August through May, for every child from two years old through sixth grade. The free club features age-appropriate curriculum, games, Bible-verse memorization, small-group time and trained leaders. Free transportation is available within the church's pick-up area.
On Wednesday nights, KidsTown gathers four-year-olds through sixth-graders for competition, puppets, special music, Bible drills, missionary stories and Bible preaching. The theme verse is Hebrews 11:10.
Vacation Bible School is a highlight of the summer, four evenings of dinner, Bible lessons, skits, games, crafts and songs. Each year carries a fresh theme (past themes have included International Spy Academy, Incrediworld Amazement Park and Amazon Expedition). VBS is free, staffed by screened and trained workers, and open to children starting at age four through those entering sixth grade in the fall. Free buses pick up and drop off children who need a ride.
Kinder Kids Christian Preschool, a division of Indiana Christian Academy, has been serving greater Madison County for more than forty years with a loving, nurturing atmosphere for the preschool set.
Ignite Youth and Generation 4:12
Ignite Youth is the ministry for students in grades seven through twelve. Students meet for group Bible studies every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM and gather again for a special youth service every Wednesday at 7:00 PM. The group also travels to camps and conferences and takes part in service opportunities throughout the year. Free transportation is provided from school to the Wednesday-night program for any middle-school or high-school student who needs a ride. Matt Sands serves as Youth Director.
Generation 4:12 is the college and career group that meets Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM for friendship and Bible study, with additional meals and activities throughout the year. The group takes its name and theme from 1 Timothy 4:12: "Let no man despise your youth; but be an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
LifeStage Groups, Keenagers, and Precept
Adults at Grace connect through LifeStage Groups, the Sunday-morning Bible-study classes divided by life stage and gender. Each small class has a teacher, a ministry leader and a care-group leader, designed for one-on-one training in God's Word and the building of genuine community. A traditional adult Sunday School class also meets in the main auditorium for those who prefer a broader setting.
Keenagers, the ministry for adults fifty and older, gathers every Tuesday at 10:00 AM in the Fellowship Hall. The dedicated Hearts of Gold staff provide free transportation to and from meetings, and the group visits Ivanhoes in Upland, Pizza House in Tipton and the Madison County Historical Society each year, plus a longer trip to The Wilds in North Carolina.
Women's Bible study meets around Precept Ministries curriculum, taking a new book of the Bible each quarter. Groups meet mornings and evenings to fit around busy schedules, and a Zoom option is available for those who cannot attend in person.
Men's ministry includes a Monday Bible study and a Saturday prayer breakfast. The Harvest Family Night, an annual fall alternative to trick-or-treating, fills the church with free food, candy, a bounce house, carnival games, apple cider and s'mores for the whole family.
Greeters, ushers, security, media and work teams round out the lay ministry of the church. The work-team ministry, called BRICK (Building Riches In Christ's Kingdom), has sent volunteers to help after Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, to a Navajo settlement in Arizona, to tornado-devastated Henryville, Indiana, and to help renovate an apartment housing Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
Iglesia Bautista de la Gracia
The Hispanic ministry at Grace has its own name, Iglesia Bautista de la Gracia, and offers the same rhythm of Bible study, worship and preaching in Spanish. The 10:30 AM Spanish service meets in the Chapel while the English worship service fills the auditorium.
The ministry offers free transportation, family counseling, Bible study for every age and an English-language class for anyone who wants to improve their English. Joshua Cisire leads the Hispanic work along with his wife, Hanna, a missionary kid who grew up speaking English and Portuguese in Brazil. Both Josh and Hanna learned Spanish in their college years and began serving together in the Hispanic ministry at Grace in July 2019. Secundino Bautista serves as Hispanic Ministry Assistant and came to Christ through Grace's Spanish ministry in 2000. He and his family moved to South Carolina for him to attend Faith Bible College, returning to Anderson in 2013 to serve.
Indiana Christian Academy Since 1973
Indiana Christian Academy is the largest ministry of Grace Baptist Church. The school began in the fall of 1973 with twenty-seven students and grew to two hundred students across eight grades in its second year. To meet the demand, the church undertook a $2 million building campaign and dedicated a modern school complex in 1977.
Today ICA serves preschool through twelfth grade with a college-preparatory high school program, an energetic elementary division and a nationally accredited preschool. Kinder Kids Christian Preschool has been serving greater Madison County for over forty years.
Kevin Plew, an ICA graduate himself, serves as school administrator. He began as a student in the 1970s, won a basketball championship as a high-schooler in the 1980s, taught and coached a volleyball championship in the 1990s and served as elementary principal in the 2000s before becoming the first ICA alumnus to lead the school. His vision is that "while maintaining high academic standards, our desire at ICA is to show respect and love to each parent and student who enters the school doors."
Robert Tucker, an assistant principal since 2018, transitioned in 2024 to the role of Ministry Administrator on the church side, overseeing administrative and financial work across the church and school.
Students play sports, perform in music and compete against other Christian schools in the region; the events calendar regularly lists soccer and volleyball matches against other area Christian academies.
Thirty-Six Missionaries Across the Globe
Grace partners with thirty-six missionaries and ministries in countries on five continents. The church lists the Agamalians in Ukraine, the Alexanders in Brazil, the Bartons in Mozambique, the Childs in Australia, the Dions in Papua New Guinea, the Domstads in Thailand, the Fraustos in South Africa, the Georges in India, the Griffins in the Philippines, the Halsteads in Kenya, the Herbsters in Hong Kong, the Justisons in Togo, the Lenartzes in Japan, the McKenzies in Germany, the Otts in Malaysia, the Padillas in Mexico, the Pierres in Haiti, the Prices in France, the Rains in Kenya, the Silveiras in Brazil, the Steins in Peru, the Tanises in Malta, the Taylors in Chile, the Thompsons in Japan, the Trzcionkowskis in Poland, the Vergiels in Brazil, the Wrights in Africa and the Zimmers in Yap.
Grace also supports First Choice for Women, Operation Love Ministries, Life Factors Fatherless Ministry, the Timothy Program at Bob Jones University, Inside the Lines and Shepherd's Bethel. Several additional gospel partners serve in limited-access countries around the world.
Locally, the church partners with Turn Away No Longer Ministries as a Drop Zone for Swag Packs, the bags and backpacks filled with new items given to children entering foster care in Madison County.
God's Turn on the Airwaves
God's Turn is Grace's radio outreach to the wider Indiana community. Broadcast on WMUN 92.5 FM and 1340 AM at 10:30 Sunday mornings, on WHBU 101.1 FM and 1240 AM at 9:00 Sunday mornings and on WERK 104.9 FM at 7:45 Sunday mornings, the program features practical biblical teaching from Dr. Daniel Stevens. Listeners can support the ministry with a designated gift through the church's online giving page.
All Sunday services are also livestreamed on Facebook Live and YouTube, archived on YouTube, and distributed as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere podcasts are found.
What Grace Believes
The doctrinal statement of Grace Baptist Church is grounded in a high view of Scripture. The church believes the Bible, as originally written, was verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit and is without error. It confesses one God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It accepts the Genesis account of creation, the fall of man into sin, the virgin birth of Christ, the sacrificial atonement of Christ on the cross for sinners, the necessity of the new birth by the Holy Spirit and the believer's baptism by immersion.
Salvation, in Grace's teaching, is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by works. The church practices two ordinances: baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper. It believes in the bodily resurrection and ascension of Christ, His personal and imminent pre-millennial return, the bodily resurrection of the saints, the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, the final judgment at the Great White Throne and the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost alongside the eternal glory of the saved.
Grace believes the local church is a self-governing congregation of immersed believers, accountable to Christ as its only head, free from outside hierarchy. Its officers are pastors and deacons. On marriage, Grace teaches that marriage is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and that any form of sexual activity outside of marriage, including adultery, fornication, incest, polygamy, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, pedophilia, abortion and pornography, is sinful. It also teaches that attempts to alter one's gender by surgery or appearance are forbidden by God.
The church teaches that civil government is of divine appointment, that magistrates are to be prayed for and obeyed except where obedience would oppose the will of Christ.
Getting Connected at Grace
Anyone interested in joining the Grace family can fill out a membership interest form on the church's Breeze database; after the form is completed, a deacon meets with the prospective member to walk through the process and answer questions. Visitors can also pick up a Connections Card on a Sunday morning. The church runs a prayer meeting at the alcove outside the Anderson Police Station every Monday at 8:00 AM, open to anyone who wants to pray for law enforcement, first responders and government officials.
For those who want to learn more about the gospel itself, Grace offers a four-week Exchange class that walks through the basics of the Christian faith with a personal teacher, free of charge and with a free book to keep. Contact the church office at (765) 643-7853 or at grace@gracetoanderson.com to sign up or to ask about transportation, the nursery, AWANA, Vacation Bible School or any of the ministries described here.
For those ready to join the church's communication network, a free Breeze account gives access to the online church directory, the church calendar, the online giving feature and the option to update family contact information. Online giving is processed securely through Breeze and Stripe, with no fees passed on to the giver; offerings can also be mailed to the church office or placed in the collection during Sunday morning and evening services and the Wednesday evening prayer service.
Grace Baptist Church continues to preach the Word, to grow disciples from cradle to college and to take the gospel from Anderson to the ends of the earth, one Sunday, one Wednesday and one mission field at a time.