Though Grace Church has a short history, God has worked in very obvious ways to form this new church.  For several years, the leadership team of Sovereign Grace ministries had received requests from people in the Metroplex requesting that Sovereign Grace start a church in their area.  Sovereign Grace Ministries is a family of churches that exists to start, establish, and strengthen local churches with the gospel, for God’s glory.  Sensing God’s providential leading in a variety of ways, the leadership team began to pursue the possibility of planting a church in this region.  In December of 2002, they asked Craig Cabaniss if he would have an interest in returning to his home state of Texas to plant a church.

At the time, Craig was serving as Senior Pastor of Grace Church in San Diego, California where he had pastored since the church’s inception in 1995.  Throughout 2003, Craig and his wife, Ginger, along with the pastoral team in San Diego prayed and considered this idea.  In January 2004, during an initial “scouting trip” to Dallas, Craig became confidently convinced that God was in fact leading him to relocate his family to plant a church in the Dallas area.

Grace Church’s pastoral team believed that God was not only relocating the Cabanisses, but was also calling the San Diego church to send a church planting team with them.  In June 2004 the leaders announced to Grace Church that they would have a new Senior Pastor, Mark Lauterbach, who had just graduated from Sovereign Grace Ministries’ Pastors College and that they would have an opportunity to send their current pastor along with a team to plant a church in Frisco, Texas.  As a testimony of the amazing grace of God, the church responded with faith to this unexpected expression of their gospel mission.

Throughout the summer and fall of 2004, God drew together a group of 8 families and a single woman from the church in San Diego to form a church planting team.  They began meeting to worship, pray, and share their lives as God knit them together to prepare to uproot and move to a new city (with a new climate!) to plant a new church for the glory of God.  In January 2005, Grace Church in San Diego held an official “send-off” service for the church planting team and the families began moving to Frisco.  Along with the team from San Diego, another dozen families from other Sovereign Grace churches also relocated to help launch this new church.  Grace Church Frisco began a series of pre-launch meetings in the spring of 2005 and began weekly Sunday night meetings that summer in the conference center at the Westin Hotel.  In October 2005, the church officially launched Sunday morning worship services at Fisher Elementary School in Frisco. 

All who have participated in this church planting venture are keenly aware of the grace of God every step of the way. He has gathered a growing community of people who are building their lives together upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. He certainly doesn’t need us, but he is graciously allowing us to participate in his great mission of gospel expansion.  What a privilege. 

You may view a video including some of this history at the following link (select "2005 Mission Video"):

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/about/mission_video.html.