On a quiet stretch of Dorr Street just west of the University of Toledo campus, a diverse congregation from across Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan gathers every Sunday morning at ten. Grace Church has held its place in this neighborhood for half a century, and the rhythms that have carried it through five decades remain easy to see: expository preaching of God's Word, weeknight small groups that meet in homes across the metro, an unusually deep investment in two public schools on either side of the building, and a steady stream of mission support sent to gospel workers a continent or an ocean away.
The motto that ties it all together is short and direct: "We exist to glorify God as His faithful people through building a community to reach a community." The church is refreshingly modest about that calling: "There's no pretense at Grace Church. You come as you are and we come as we are. We're not here to put on a show or provide entertainment. We gather together to worship the living God who loves us, who wants to speak to us, and who wants to be glorified through us." Whether you have never sensed the love and grace of God or have walked away from it for a long time, the invitation is the same: come as you are, and find that you belong.
Sundays at Ten: Heartfelt Worship and Expository Preaching
On Sundays the doors open at 3700 Dorr St for a 10:00 AM gathering shaped around two simple things: heartfelt worship and Christ-centered preaching. The music ministry, co-led by Emily Hickman and Rachel Spiegel, leads the singing with a clear and stated aim: not performance, but helping people into the presence of God. After the opening set, children from age three through eighth grade are released to their Sunday School teachers, and the adults stay for the preaching.
The preaching team's stated approach is to work their way through entire books or large sections of Scripture, week after week. They have worked through Matthew 5 through 7 verse by verse over twenty weeks, teaching through each Beatitude one at a time, walking alongside related texts in Romans and Colossians and Philippians, and pressing each week's passage into the lives of the congregation through weekly reflection questions that can be used personally or in a Life Group. The recurring prompts that hang over the whole series are simple: "What is the Holy Spirit saying to me? Where is He calling me to obedience?"
The 10 AM service is also livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, where recent and past sermons sit alongside a podcast feed called Grace Church Toledo on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. A short welcome verse anchors everything: 1 Peter 2:9-10, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
What We Believe
Grace Church's statement of faith begins where the Bible begins, with the one God who exists in three equally divine persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, executing distinct but harmonious offices in creation, providence, and salvation. The Father is an infinite, personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love, who concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of human beings, hears and answers prayer, and saves from sin all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. The Son is God's only begotten Son, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, performed miracles, died in our place, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven, where He now represents us before the Father and from where He will visibly return to earth. The Holy Spirit came forth from the Father and Son to convict humanity of sin and judgment, to draw people to Christ, to give new life, to sanctify believers, and to distribute spiritual gifts for the strengthening of the body.
Human beings are created by God in His image, the statement goes on, but all are born with a sinful nature and are under condemnation as sinners by choice. Those who repent of sin and follow Jesus Christ are born again spiritually, delivered from condemnation, and given new and eternal life. The church is both universal and local: a living body of which Christ is the head and all believers are members, with every believer called to be part of a local body of baptized believers committed to worship, work, and fellowship together. The Bible is held to be the very Word of God, "breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16), without error and the final authority in all that the church believes and does. All human life is regarded as sacred, created by God in His image, and worth defending from conception through natural death. And the Lord Jesus Christ will visibly return to earth to establish His Kingdom, when bodies will be resurrected, all will be judged, the righteous will enjoy eternal happiness, and the wicked will suffer endlessly.
Underneath the formal statement sit six stated values: worship God as the highest purpose, deepest joy, and most loyal response; devote themselves to a distinct way of life together led by the Holy Spirit; give themselves away for His kingdom under the authority of Jesus, their supreme King; reveal Christ's incarnational presence in the world; listen for His voice, look for His activity, and respond in prompt, joyful obedience; and recognize and receive His grace in humility, experiencing the transformation of heart that flows from it.
Life Groups: The Heart of the Week
If Sunday morning is the visible center of Grace, the Life Groups are its quiet engine. The groups are described as gatherings where people "encounter God in authentic Christ-centered community," growing in relationship with Christ, with one another, and reaching out to others with Christ's love. Most groups meet in someone's home for sixty to ninety minutes during the week, and the conversation almost always picks up the Sunday morning sermon and presses it deeper into everyday life. Newcomers are welcomed to try as many groups as they like without pressure; if the first one isn't a fit, another will be.
There are seven current Life Groups spread across the metro. Nate and Gabrielle Hubbard host the Young Adult group on Monday evenings at 6:30 in Maumee. Phil Rumschlag leads a group on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 in South Toledo, and Ralph and Sandy Felzer host an open group on the first and third Wednesdays at 7:00 in West Toledo. Josh Spiegel's group meets Thursday evenings at 6:30 in South Toledo. Mike Dotson leads a group in Holland every other Tuesday at 7:00, and John and Elaine Heisman host one at the church on Tuesdays at 2:00. Jason and Kate Hubbard's group meets on the second and fourth Fridays at 7:00 in Maumee. Topics usually continue the previous Sunday's passage, with the goal of helping people walk more closely with Jesus in the days between Sundays.
Children and Students
Children are part of the Sunday gathering from the very beginning. The music team opens the service, and during the first set of songs the children are released to their teachers for Sunday School, which uses a Biblically based curriculum that walks them through the story of a God who loves them and wants a relationship with them through His Son. The classes are divided by age: 3 to 5, 6 to 8, 9 to 11, and 12 to 14, covering preschool through eighth grade. A nursery is also available throughout the service for nursing mothers or parents who need the space.
The Youth Ministry is open to students from seventh through twelfth grade. They meet on the second and fourth Sundays after the morning service for lunch, fellowship, and Bible study. The aim is to give the older students their own rhythm of fellowship alongside the broader congregation, with teachers and small-group leaders who come alongside them through the high school years.
The Pastoral Team and Ministry Leaders
Pastoral oversight rests with two ordained leaders. Phil Rumschlag serves as Pastor and tends to preach most Sundays, working through each series' texts in long arcs. Ralph Felzer serves as Associate Pastor, teaches regularly in the series, hosts the Wednesday-mornings Men's Ministry, and writes much of the devotional material circulated through the church. Mary Brack, the Executive Director, leads the outreach ministry that connects Grace to its neighborhood schools and runs much of the operational life of the church. Austin Welker directs the Youth Ministry.
Beyond the pastoral team, ministry leaders include Jill Rose over hospitality, the music team led by Emily Hickman and Rachel Spiegel, Tina Grau leading the Women's Ministry, Mike Kerrigan leading the Men's Ministry (which also hosts an annual fall retreat), Mike Dotson chairing the deacons who care for the people and the property, and Tim Kerrigan running the tech team that runs the sound booth and the on-screen communication each Sunday. Several of these leaders also anchor one or more Life Groups during the week.
Neighbors to Keyser and Rogers: Twenty Years with the Schools Next Door
One of the defining marks of Grace Church is its years-long partnership with two neighborhood public schools: Keyser Elementary and Rogers High School. The partnership with Keyser began in 2006; the partnership with Rogers was added in 2018. The driving idea behind both is captured in a phrase the church uses often: "We are blessed to be a blessing." Grace has hoped since the beginning that other Toledo-area churches would catch the same vision and adopt their own neighborhood schools, and the work has become a quiet model for the wider city.
The partnership takes shape in concrete ways. Volunteer reading tutors spend one hour a week with the same two students, often for the full school year. The church helps with resources, both people and finances, for events such as open house, awards nights, parents' nights, the Scholastic book fair, classroom projects, field trips, and field days. Grace hosts three parent engagement events at Keyser each year: Goodies with Grandparents, Desserts with Dads, and Munchies with Moms, all designed to strengthen the relationship between home and school. There are also weekly prayer walks on Tuesday mornings before school at Keyser, and on Monday mornings at Rogers, where small groups of adults simply walk the halls and grounds and pray for the students, teachers, and families there.
Grace also helps connect families who come through the schools to other ministries and agencies in town that can meet physical needs, and it partners with Epiphany Lutheran to provide Thanksgiving food baskets among other forms of practical support. The work is not flashy. The church describes its goal plainly: to be God's presence and blessing to the staff, students, and families of the schools and to the wider neighborhood immediately around its building on Dorr Street.
The School Supply Pantry: A Quiet Operation with Citywide Reach
Out of the school partnership grew one of the church's most distinctive ministries. In 2007, just a year after the work with Keyser began, the teachers of the school told the church something they had not realized before: across the United States, public school teachers often buy their own classroom supplies out of personal finances. Out of that conversation the School Supply Pantry was born, a place where teachers could come on the second Wednesday of each month throughout the school year and select what they needed for their classrooms.
From those first months, the pantry has grown steadily. As more churches began to partner with the schools in what is now called the Rogers Learning Community, Grace invited them to share the work. Epworth Church took on Hawkins School. Compassion Church took on Reynolds. Toledo Mennonite took on McTigue. First Alliance took on Rosa Parks. Today the pantry serves roughly 240 teachers and about 2,500 students across all five schools every year. It is funded in three ways: each partner church holds an annual summer supply drive among its own congregation, the partner churches share the financial load of stocking and running the pantry, and Grace Church raises additional funds through two ongoing programs. The Scrip gift-card program lets supporters buy gift cards from a long list of national and local retailers at face value, with a percentage returned to the pantry. The Kroger Community Rewards program lets shoppers register their Kroger Plus card so that a percentage of their purchases is donated back, with no extra cost to the shopper.
The pantry is open only to teachers, not directly to families, and donations of money and supplies are welcome year-round. The work behind it is coordinated by the Executive Director and a team of volunteers.
Faith Promises: Joining God in Poland and Mexico
Grace Church sends money to missionaries through a program it calls Faith Promises, an annual pledge made by each household or individual that is collected separately from the general operating budget. The idea is rooted in John 20:21, where Jesus says to His followers, "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." Because the funding for missions comes from these specific pledges rather than the general budget, the church is able to commit to its missionary partners with a clarity it could not otherwise achieve.
The roster of partners is small and personal. Marek and Marysia Kiewra, both former members of the Grace community, serve in Poland. Naomi Anzaldo serves in Mexico, as do Mike and Becky Kuelker. Pledges are made yearly through cards available at the Welcome Center in the church lobby. Contributions toward a pledge can be given by marking checks as tithes to the church with "Faith Promise" or "FP" in the memo line.
Conversation Partners: English Practice and Global Friendships
A second major outreach is Conversation Partners, run in partnership with a local nonprofit called Water for Ishmael. The program links American volunteers with international students who want to improve their English. It is local in its impact and global in its reach, putting Grace members in regular contact with people from across the world and giving international students a friendly place to practice conversation in a new language. The church invites anyone with a little time and patience to take part; coordination is handled by Water for Ishmael directly.
LifeChange: Sunday Afternoon Classes
Three times a year, in winter, spring, and fall, Grace Church offers a Sunday afternoon program called LifeChange. The classes are designed for adults who want richer Bible study, practical training for everyday faith, and the kind of conversation that only happens in a smaller room. They typically meet for about an hour in the Activity Center after the morning service wraps up, are free, and offer childcare so that parents can attend. Recent courses have included a parenting workshop and other topical studies led by couples and ministry leaders within the church.
The Devotional Life and the Weekday Disciplines
The teaching that happens on Sunday mornings is intended to carry through the rest of the week. To that end the church publishes a set of weekly reflection questions for each sermon, available online and sent out by email to anyone who subscribes. The questions are designed for individual use or for going deeper in a Life Group, and the explicit aim is not to "get them all done" but to stay present to the Lord and His voice through the ordinary days of the week.
Associate Pastor Ralph Felzer also circulates devotional writings among the congregation and beyond. Recent reflections have ranged across familiar territory: a meditation on Ecclesiastes 9:17 and the quiet words of the wise, an essay on Romans 12:19 and making room for God before launching into the day, a piece on the parable of the soils and what it means to be good soil for the seed of God's Word, and Advent reflections on John 1 and the way God still speaks into the chaos and darkness of ordinary life. A recurring image comes from a Stephen Covey illustration about a jar full of gravel and a few big rocks: the only way to fit the big rocks of prayer, family, calling, and rest into a day is to clear out the smaller things first. Felzer uses the image to argue for beginning each day with Jesus before the day's clutter crowds Him out.
Sermons, reflection questions, and devotional writings are free and available through the church's social feeds, and giving is supported through PayPal and Venmo (@GraceChurchToledo).
Fifty Years on Dorr Street
Grace Church was founded in 1976, and its fiftieth anniversary comes around in 2026. Five decades on the same stretch of Dorr Street have given the congregation a depth of local relationship that newer churches often cannot replicate, especially through the long partnerships with Keyser Elementary and Rogers High School and the steady stream of mission support sent to gospel partners in Poland and Mexico.
For a first-time visitor, the basics are straightforward: 3700 Dorr Street, on the west side of the University of Toledo campus; Sunday morning worship at 10:00 AM with heartfelt music and expository preaching; a nursery for nursing mothers or parents who need it; Sunday School for children ages 3 to 14; youth ministry for seventh through twelfth graders; weeknight Life Groups meeting in homes across Maumee, Holland, South Toledo, and West Toledo; weekday ministries to neighborhood schools; a School Supply Pantry serving teachers across five public schools; and a community of people who, in their own words, are trying to be faithful to Christ one small thing at a time.