Our congregation began in 1969 with seven families. At the time, the area where the church is was mainly pasture land. These families met in Floris Elementary and several other schools for the first few years. Roger Mills was the first minister for our congregation, and served until 1978.

The current property was purchased in 1973, and the church began meeting in the building in March 1973. This building was about 1/2 the size of our current facility, but there have been several expansions over the years. Elders were first appointed in 1975.

During the 1980's, Mike Root served as pulpit minister for the church, and the church continued to grow. To help handle growth, an addition known as the 'annex' was added in 1988. This includes the current office area, and rooms 122-124. As the church moved into the 90's, a small auditorium meant having 3 worship services on Sunday mornings, and Bible class on Sunday nights. In 1991, Bruce Black moved here to become the pulpit minister for our congregation. Attendance was about 600 when he started.

To handle additional growth in our congregation, in 1997, a $3 million addition to our church was added. This included a new auditorium, lobby, four classrooms, and converting the old auditorium into our Nursery area and fellowship hall upstairs. The church sacrificially gave to pay $1 million of this project in advance, and the other $2 million was financed. Around this time, our elders made another significant decision to make small groups a priority as a church, and we began having groups meet on Sunday morning.

Attendance was around 750 before the building, and quickly rose to 900 within a year. Our plan at the beginning of the building program had been to have an auditorium big enough to have one worship service, but due to growth it was only a few months before we had 2 services.

Why have we grown? A few observations:

• Right from the beginning, one of our first elders said there was a strong feeling of love and acceptance as part of the church. A feeling of tolerance for people of all different backgrounds has continued as part of our identity.
• Mostly, he said he believes that God has really worked here, because our attitude as a church and a leadership has been to really follow God's will, and to try to avoid the quarrels and controversies that other churches get involved in.
• Also, our elders have let people use their gifts, talents, and creativity for ministry to keep things fresh and alive. Some churches stifle ideas that go against 'what we have always done before'