Meet the Pastor
Pastor Tom and Susan Stone
Pastor Tom Stone graduated from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fl. in 1976 where he received a BA degree, majoring in Biblical Studies and minoring in Speech and Communication. For the past thirty years, he has served in various pastoral positions in Alabama and Indiana. Upon starting Grace Worship Center in September of 2003, the Lord spoke a very clear word to his heart about the need to raise up a people who understand New Testament ministry relative to the world. The word the Lord dropped in his heart was God’s desire for a “REAL people, serving a REAL God, and one another.” The world as a whole is tired of plastic Christianity; in other words hearing the truth of God's Word preached on Sundays and yet many living a compromised life the rest of the week. The Bible says, “His love has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit." And that love walk should consistently be lived out before the world. Jesus did not pay the ultimate price He paid in redeeming fallen man back to God for us to merely have church services and go through religious form or ritual. Our church services should be power-packed and anointed with the life changing presence of the Holy Spirit. May God deliver us from just having church services to be able to say we’ve been to church while the services are void of His power and presence. The question we must ask ourselves is this, did we come to church with a spirit of expectancy in our hearts and a living vibrant faith reaching out to God knowing He desires to meet with us in a life changing way? May God deliver us from having “church as usual.” God's people should come expecting God to show up and in supernatural ways reveal his power in meeting people at their point of need and impacting their lives with His presence and power.
“Relationship” is the one word that best describes the essence of the Kingdom of God. God is looking for a people who will so desire such an intimate relationship with Him, that their lives will be so completely changed and will become contagious and life changing to our families, friends, and co-workers. That is how revival breaks out. It’s called “Lifestyle Evangelism.” It was evidenced in Peter and John in Acts 4: 20 where they told the Sanhedrin, when being rebuked concerning the healing of the lame man, “We cannot but speak the things which we have both seen and heard.”
If you are tired of plastic Christianity and just merely going through form or ritual with little or no power; if you are looking for a church that majors in equipping believers to go forth in the power of His might to make a difference for God in this world; then let me invite you to attend Grace Worship Center. At GWC you will experience contemporary worship in an informal setting, with anointed teaching and preaching of the Word of God designed to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry” and a church where by God’s grace we are endeavoring to be “a REAL people, serving a REAL God, and one another.”
