History

History

Grace Presbyterian Church is a reformed, evangelical Christian Church.  It is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America.  Grace Church (the building) is located in Hudson, Ohio; more importantly, Grace Church (the people) come from Hudson, Aurora, Medina, Silver Lake, Stow, Streetsboro, Tallmadge, Twin Lakes, and other communities in the greater Cleveland-Akron region of Northeast Ohio.

Grace Church was planted in 1988, and our organizational service was held on January 6, 1991. We originally met at the Barlow Community Center in Hudson before moving to what was then the Hudson High School.  In the spring of 1992, the congregation purchased 18 acres of land that had been a pumpkin patch in southwest Hudson.  The land was dedicated on November 28, 1993. The building was completed in time for our service on November 27, 1994—truly a time for Thanksgiving that year!

Grace Church remains a tightly-knit family of believers.  God’s abundant faithfulness to our Grace Church is evident in many ways.

  • Grace Church is debt free; our mortgage was “burned” in effigy several years ago.
  • Grace Church served as the incubator for three men who were called to seminary and ministry, and for four children of our congregation who serve either in the mission field, in the church, or in collegiate ministry.

These are Dave Wicker (retired), Rev. Fred Greco (Senior Pastor, Christ Church, Katy, Texas; https://www.cckpca.org/), and Rev. Patrick Tebbano (Senior Pastor, University Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico; https://www.upclc.com/);  Ashlee (Willeke) Wells, https://www.redeemercortland.com/), Ashley (McMichael) Grimm (www.FaceBook.com RUF at Queens);  Jenny Haver (MMS Aviation, https://mmsaviation.org/); and one whose name is withheld because of the sensitivity of her ministry.

  • Grace Church provided “real-life” continuing education to three interns: Ehren Gaebler, Rev. Jon Key (Senior Pastor, New Life Church PCA, Burbank, California) and seminarian Joey DeAngelo.
  • Grace Church reaches a much broader audience both nationally and internationally through this website, through sermonaudio.com (https://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=gpcwr); through books, chapters and articles written by our Senior Pastor, Rev. Dr. Rhett Dodson, which are based largely on several of his sermon series; and through Pastor Dodson’s service at an Adjunct Professor at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he teaches Old Testament to Ph.D. candidates drawn from many nations.
  • Grace Church was instrumental in planting a sister church, Trinity Presbyterian in North Canton, Ohio (https://trinitychurchohio.org/), and assisting a sister church transitioning from another denomination, Veto Presbyterian in Vincent, Ohio (https://www.vetopca.org/).
  • For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/gracechurchpca or https://twitter.com/GraceChurchOhio.

In July 2020, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Pastor Dodson’s ministry at Grace Church during our annual church picnic at Silver Springs Park in Stow, Ohio.