It all begins with Grace.
Our name begins with grace because our hope in this world begins with God's grace. Salvation isn't something that we can earn on our own, it is only because of God's undeserved gift to us that we can experience eternal life.
You are loved.
We love because He first loved us.
We didn't set out with a goal of being a church. Our focus always has been the people. We first gathered together at a park in 2012 out of our love for one another and found community.
We truly believe that if you focus on making disciples you will always get the church, but if you focus on making the church you will rarely get disciples. We choose to focus on the people.
2012
A group gathered at the South Pavilion at Rotary Park in Mequon in September. They didn't gather to form a church, they simply gathered out of love for one another. A true community grew from that first gathering and we began to gather for worship at the Logemann Center in Mequon. As word spread, the gathering grew and Cedar Creek Community Church in Grafton hosted our worship on Sunday nights.
2013
A group of leaders were raised up from the gathering and began meeting to start the process of forming a church body. Out of a desire to move worship to Sunday mornings, we began worshipping at the Mequon Nature Preserve in January. Although we had already been gathering for several months, Grace 242 was officially formed in April. In May, we identified and called our founding pastor Rev. Dr. Tim Harrison.
2014
After officially forming Grace 242 as a church and calling our founding pastor, a period of discernment took place to discuss affiliation with a denomination. We identified a denomination that held a set of values that aligned with our beliefs, and in September we officially joined ECO, a Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
2018
In August, the our founding pastor received a calling to another church and we began a search for a new pastor. We were richly blessed and only a few months later called the Rev. Bill Ver Velde as our new pastor starting in December.
2019
To support our ministry, we identified the need for an office space and meeting space for our pastor as well as our small groups. In March we opened our first Grace 242 office in downtown Cedarburg.
2020
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March, we launched a virtual house church model. We felt God calling us to leave our worship space at the Mequon Nature Preserve in July to pursue an in person house church model.