Our History
The 59-year story of people following a faithful God.
In the early 1960s, three families came together to answer the call of planting the first Charis Fellowship church in Central Ohio. In the summer of 1964, thirteen people began gathering in Marion and Dorothy Forrest’s basement for a Bible study led by Nathan Meyer. Within two months, the group tripled in size.
Our rapidly-expanding congregation quickly outgrew the Forrests’ home and two subsequent rented meeting spaces. Pastor Dave Hocking followed the Lord’s leading and moved to Columbus to help lead the church, and our congregation unanimously called him to be the first lead pastor of Grace Brethren Church of Columbus.
In May of 1965, we purchased our own plot of land on Worthington-Galena Road, and broke ground on a new facility on April 3, 1966. The building was complete in October the same year.
In the spring of 1968 Jim Custer was called to be our new lead pastor.
The 1970s and 1980s were a time of great growth for our church. A new building was constructed with a larger auditorium, classrooms, and a basement in which the newly-founded Grace Brethren Christian School began meeting. Later, a new facility called the Worship Center was constructed a few miles away, at the corner of Lazelle and Worthington Galena Roads. We hosted Sunday morning services at both campuses with a shuttle service between the two locations.
Over the next few decades, more additions would be built onto the Worship Center, including the R. Fred Hogue Family Center, the DeArmey Discipleship Center, the Custer Family Early Childhood Center, and the Forrest Family Ministry Center.
In 1991, we planted Grace Brethren Church of Powell, and in 2001 we planted Grace Brethren Church of Upper Arlington. Now known as Grace Powell Church, that first church plant went on to plant churches that have planted churches, and there are now four generations of Charis Fellowship churches that can trace their roots back to Grace Polaris Church!
Pastor Dave Plaster was installed as lead pastor on Sunday, September 30, 2007. In March 2010, after a brief illness, Pastor Dave Plaster passed away at the age of 60.
On Sunday, August 28, 2011, Pastor Mike Yoder was installed as lead pastor. Mike served in this role for more than 11 years until he accepted the role of Executive Director at Encompass World Partners.
Pastor Zac Hess was installed as lead pastor on Sunday, May 7, 2023.