Our Story

· 1982 - The Reverend Robert Kerekes, Mission Executive of the Southern District, Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and The Reverend Richard Ziehr of Good Shepherd, Shalimar, FL meet to form a Destin mission congregation. They assign Vicar Joe Asher to “canvass” Destin.  He leads the first Sunday Worship Service on September 26 with 57 in attendance, of which 30 are people from Destin.

March 13 is Charter Sunday, officially forming Grace Lutheran Church.  Merle Wellhousen accepts the assignment as Vicar beginning August 1, and the church meets at Destin Elementary School.  Membership: Confirmed—10; Baptized—19; Average Attendance—25.  The Southern District purchases land from Kelly Trust for future building site.

 

· 1984 - The District installs Reverend Kirby Weimer as the first Pastor, August 5, 1984.

 

· 1987 – The congregation moves from the school cafeteria to the Old Baptist Church on Calhoun Avenue (currently the site of Hosanna House). Membership: Confirmed—30; Baptized—39; Average Attendance—31.  The land purchased by the District is still inaccessible for construction.

 

· 1989 – In January, Pastor Weimer enters the military Chaplaincy.  Due to sale of          the Baptist Church, Grace moves temporarily to the Banquet Room of the Holiday Inn.  Beginning in April the congregation holds services in a rented storefront in the Shores Shopping Center.

 

In May, the congregational voters approve applying to the Laborers For Christ to build our church the following winter if access to the land is available.  The congregation calls the Reverend Paul W. Kummer, a seminary graduate, and he arrives in July.  Membership: Confirmed—44; Baptized—51; Average Attendance—52.

 

· 1990 – The Reverend Orval Mueller, President of the Southern District and the Reverend Robert Kerekes, Executive Secretary of Mission of the Southern District, meet with the congregation to discuss the frustrations of not being able to build due to lack of access to the land.  The Voters approve the Two Trees site and purchase two and one-half acres from Destin Beach, Inc. in June. We held our groundbreaking ceremonies in October.

 

· 1992 – Due to the large winter attendance, the Elders recommend and the Voters approve holding Sunday morning worship activities at the Destin Community Center. Attendance peaks at 317 on the last Sunday in February. We hold the first service in the new building on March 29 with 228 attending. The rejoicing congregation celebrates Jesus’ resurrection on Easter with an overflow crowd of worshipers.

 

·  1998 – The congregation calls the Reverend Lane Reuter to be Associate Pastor, to bring life and laughter to our church. The snowbird attendance swells our worshipping community to 500+, so we add Saturday evening services the first three months of each year.  Diana Salmon becomes our full-time Organist and Music Director. We add an extension onto the sanctuary that seats another 150 people, along with a larger Welcome Center. Membership at the end of 1998: Confirmed—336; Baptized—472; Average Attendance—329.

 

·  1999 – The Kelly property remains inaccessible, but its value is increasing greatly.  We add another extension of classrooms, nursery, more fellowship space and moveable partition wall onto the church.  In May, we chose Don Baker to be the Building Chair for our dream of moving to Commons Drive because the present property on Two Trees is in a restricted zone of the airport. We also burned our 30-year mortgage after only seven years!

 

·  2000 – We call Brenda Oldenburg from college and the mission field to be our Family Life Minister.  We made our first visit to Nomme Rahu Lutheran, our Partner Congregation in December. Vacation Bible School goes over 100 children and blesses the community.  Membership: Confirmed—365; Baptized—531; Average Attendance—340.

 

·  2001 – Grace chooses Impac Services, Inc. to lead our Capital Campaign and embarks on a three-year campaign and the members pledge $1.25 million at our Celebration Sunday at Hurricane Lanes in March.  Nomme Rahu team visits Grace to participate in Vacation Bible School. Prescott Architects signs a contract to do their awesome work in November.  Marjorie Kilpatrick comes on board as Parish Nurse and Pastor Bill Wise serves us as a Ministry Consultant. 

 

·  2002 – Snowbird season attendance swells to 700+ and we sell our “Two Trees Church” to the City of Destin; the City permits us to stay there rent-free while our new facility is being built.  Membership: Confirmed—525; Baptized—359; Average Attendance—342.

 

·  2003 – We clear the Kelly property on Commons Drive and break ground under a tent in March.  Don Baker relocates to Colorado and Dave Raymond replaces him as chair.

 

·  2004 – Grace breaks the 300 regular Sunday attendance barrier thanks to the 40-Days of Purpose Campaign and grows greatly in her faith.  Steel erection begins in earnest in July. Wesley Burk joins Grace as our full-time Minister of Worship and Production. Membership: Confirmed—426; Baptized—631; Average Attendance—347.

 

·  2005 – Judy Parks comes on board as our Children’s Minister; Anna Roberts becomes our Administrative Director.  We hold our first Worship Service in our new 35,000 square foot campus on May 22 with 555 people present.

 

·  2006 – New staff additions include: Wayne Brown – Youth Pastor; Sandi Moors – Finance & Accounting; Rick Royston – Property & Technology; and Mike Wind – Executive Director of Ministries.

 

·  2007 - In order to be good neighbors, be witnesses and draw the community in, Grace hosted:

 

- the first major "revival" type simulcast involving hundreds of women, and a few select men on February 24, 2007 - a Beth Moore Conference;

- an international seminar for 40 clergy leaders from six European countries;

- the first VMTC prayer ministry conference with new format;

- the local symphony group, Sinfonia, filling the sanctuary for an exciting performance of Handel's Messiah;

- our neighbor, the YMCA, using the facility for several morning classes weekly;

- Community Bible Study, drawing 185 from several churches for a weekly bible study; and

- the Mattie Kelly Arts and NWF Symphony using our sanctuary for special events.

 

We expanded the Nomme Rahu visits to include other congregations, denominations, and countries. The Baptism Pool was finished in the courtyard and placed into service in summer of 2007.  A large number have taken the Pastor's Class and 53 have joined the church.  Pastor Paul hopes that the successful 40 Days of Mission program will become a catalyst to even more great things.

 

Membership: Confirmed - 558; Baptized - 829; Average Attendance - 425.

 

·  2008 - This year has proved to be a huge year of missions at Grace spreading the influence and message of the gospel around the world!

 

 

2009 - Another devoted to living out our mission statement: passion.journey.mission: