2024-2025 Annual report

What a year to be a part of Grace Point! We commissioned Pastor Marc and Tera Giffin to plant Rooted Community Church. We celebrated baptisms, dedications, salvations and the way Jesus changes lives! Below is a letter from Pastor Tim and then the Annual Report which includes key metrics, stories from the pastoral team, and glimpses into the past year.

From Pastor Tim

Why does Grace Point Church exist? Before you read the rest of this letter, put the paper down (or look away from the screen) and answer that question in your own words. Why does this church exist? What difference does Grace Point make in your life? In our city? 

Now that you’ve thought through the answer to that question…

The book of Acts chronicles the movement of the church after Jesus’ death and resurrection. They had no buildings for people to go and encounter God, people encountered God in people. The church expanded when people shared what Jesus had taught them. Talk about an inefficient, risky plan!

Other than baptism, prayer, and sharing a meal together, there wasn’t really a set way of doing church. Each person offered what they could give, and the collective gifts were used to build a community to care for people, form faith, and extend it.

We are here today because someone spoke of God’s love through Jesus, and it led to the next thing and the next thing after that. It’s our turn to do the same in the power of the Holy Spirit walking alongside of us, in a way unique to Grace Point. We have expectations that church should be without flaws, a well-run show that we can watch and find inspiration. But this is not what God calls the church to be.

Grace Point exists because the Holy Spirit moved specific people to create a community in southwest Topeka. There was a need and call to be a place where people could gather to hear that God is alive and present in the world and invites us all to be a part of Jesus’ movement.

Over the years, this church has grown, shrunk, multiplied, and grown and shrunk again, but the vision has always been clear: we want to join Jesus’ in the work he’s doing in our world. The pages that follow attach numbers and stories to how we’ve seen him do that over the past 12 months. 

Jesus has a preferred future for us. There’s a group of pastoral leaders, board members, and lay leaders here at Grace Point wrestling with that preferred future right now; a process that will wrap up by 2026. We hope to better articulate why we exist as a church, trusting that the Holy Spirit is still active, moving and breathing life into the tired lungs of our world.

So… why does Grace Point exist? What you would miss if Grace Point wasn’t here? What would our community miss if Grace Point wasn’t here? The answers to those questions might give you some clues as to why we exist, and the preferred future Jesus has for us.

As you look through these pages, pause and give thanks for what Jesus has done in our midst. At the same time, ask Him for fresh direction for the future so we can see the trajectory of lives and families changed by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Pastor Tim

READ THE FULL REPORT