Welcome to GRF church

Grace Reformed Fellowship is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, also known as the PCA. The PCA is comprised of over 1700 churches and more than 350,000 believers. While each local congregation within the PCA is autonomous, we fall under the oversight of our regional body (called a Presbytery), as well as the General Assembly, which is comprised of Elders from every church within the PCA. This oversight ensures that each local congregation stays faithful to the scriptures, true to the reformed faith, and obedient to the great commission of Jesus Christ.

Currently, GRF has about 50 members, including communicant members (professing adults) and non-communicant members (children of professing adults).

Garry L. Knaebel was born and raised in Royal Oak Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. His parents were members of Calvary Baptist Church of Hazel Park where Dr. David D. Allen pastored. It was under his ministry that Garry confessed Christ as Lord and only Savior of his life.

During his senior year in high school Garry felt a strong desire to serve the Lord in some full-time capacity. He enrolled in William Tyndale College and began to consider a career first, in missionary aviation, and then in pastoral ministry. During his time of studies he was introduced to the Reformed faith and sought to study it further at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia.

Upon graduation from seminary Garry had the unique opportunity and privilege to serve a short internship at Philadelphia’s 10th Presbyterian Church under the tutelage of Dr. James Montgomery Boice. When moving to Phoenixville near Valley Forge, he joined a PCA church, was employed in the Upper Perkiomen School District for a year and began working on the ordination requirements for the PCA. In 1982 he received a call in Maryland at Grace Presbyterian Church of Hancock.

After serving there for six years he left and filled the pulpit of an ailing PCA pastor in Martinsburg West Virginia while receiving a call to plant a PCA church in Hagerstown Maryland. As Assistant Pastor in Pilgrim Presbyterian of Martinsburg he began a Bible study in Hagerstown until its numbers grew large enough to begin Sunday services. Pastor Garry served as organizing pastor of Grace Reformed Fellowship until such time the church was able to particularize and call him as their first Pastor in November of 1992. Pastor Garry has been serving there since.

Garry met his wife while growing up at Calvary Baptist Church in Hazel Park Michigan. They married there in 1978, two years into his seminary studies. They have three children who are all walking with the Lord, and several young grandchildren.

We believe that God includes families in His covenantal promises. Therefore it is our desire that families be included in corporate worship. For family worship to work, training is necessary for both the children and the congregation. As a congregation, we should train ourselves to be flexible regarding children. We should give aid to parents who may have need and be tolerant of the distractions that accompany the teaching process. As parents, we should take adequate time to teach our children at home what is to be expected of them at church. We should train them in the disciplines of public worship, teaching them to participate according to their individual abilities. We should also be sensitive to the needs of others. When our children become a distraction, we should remove them to another area as the need arises.

This can be summarized as tolerance on the part of the congregation, sensitivity on the part of the parents, and training on the part of the children. We are all one body and should strive to put others’ needs before our own (Philippians 2:3-4).

We do have a staffed nursery available with a video and audio feed from the service for those who need it.

Yes.  We have a staffed nursery available for families who need it for children 5 years old and younger.  All nursery workers have consented to and passed a background investigation.

Since the very beginning of the church, all manner of heresies have surfaced. As a result, the church has been forced to respond by stating clearly and concisely what it believes. For example, in the 4th century AD a heresy espoused by Arius began to permeate the church. Arius stated that Christ was of a similar essence with the Father. In short, Arius claimed Jesus was a created being and denied the full deity of Christ. As a response to this, in 325 A.D., the First Council of Nicaea produced the Nicene creed affirming the foundational Christian doctrine that Christ is not of a similar essence with the Father, but rather He is of the same essence – that is, Christ is fully God.

Time and again throughout history by the grace of God the church has risen to the task of preserving the purity of our doctrine by publishing creeds. GRF is a confessional church and ascribes to the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms. Of course, these are all subordinate to the Bible, the only infallible rule of faith and life.

It is not required for members to hold to the Westminster Confession and Chatechisms. To become a member, you must make a genuine profession of faith and live a life that does not contradict it.

Yes. When God calls us together for worship, it is corporate worship. We often recite portions of the confessions and creeds we affirm, as has been the practice of the church for ages, as a dialogical response to God (see “What are our services like?” for more on this). Just as when we sing hymns together, worshipers are never to speak the words without thinking, but are to affirm the words they are speaking with their minds and their hearts.

Yes, we do baptize the infant children of believing parents. The scriptural case for this practice is based primarily on the parallel between circumcision as the sign and seal of the covenant of grace in the Old Testament and baptism in the New Testament. In the transition from the “old” form of the covenant to the “new,” brought about by the work of Christ, there is no command to abrogate the principle of family solidarity – that is, the practice of applying the sign of the covenant to infants, signifying their entrance into the covenant community. Thus while in the Old Testament Jewish male infants received circumcision as the identifying mark of entrance into the covenant community, in the New Testament baptism is the identifying mark of entrance into the covenant community (now called the church).

It is important to note that baptism – infant or adult – does not guarantee salvation. All the redeemed rest solely on the sufficient and finished work of Christ for salvation.

While baptizing the infant children of believing parents has been the historic practice of most churches, we do acknowledge that today some distinguished, biblical thinkers dispute the practice. It is not a requirement to hold to GRF’s position to become a member, and it is up to the parents to decide whether or not to pursue baptism for their children.

Yes! We have small groups that meet for study and fellowship, a ladies’ bible study, and a men’s prayer breakfast. Also, we are involved in a number of ministries, including holding service at a local nursing home and a local prison. The primary focus of these ministries is not merely social welfare, but primarily sharing the Gospel and ministering the Word of God. And finally, we have more than two dozen different ways of serving the body through various committees and service opportunities.

Yes. We support the work of missionaries through prayer and financial support. In addition to giving financial support to Mission to North America and Mission to the World, we keep in regular contact with and financially support several missionaries directly.

GRF = Grace Reformed Fellowship.

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