For about 60 years, Grace Church, formerly known as Gorham Baptist Church, conducted services, ministered to visitors and members, and served in the surrounding community of Jackson, Mich.

But for two or three years the 600-member church – a perennial baptisms leader in the state – hadn’t been experiencing net growth as strongly as in years before. In the early 1990s, Pastor Mike Lee began asking why other Southern Baptist churches in nearby Midwestern states were thriving while Grace Church’s growth stood still.

Lee joined the Grace Church staff after several years of involvement with the Southern Baptist Convention throughout Michigan and Illinois. His years within the denomination and among other churches offered motivation for reinvigorating Grace Church. “I became convinced that growth could happen,” Lee said.

So he took the church’s new minister of music and students, Rich Ratts, to a conference in Dayton, Ohio, where Rick Warren explained the basic ideas and potential benefits of a purpose driven church.

Lee said they knew then that big changes were around the corner for Grace Church.

“We felt like we not only needed to change to a Purpose Driven model, but we needed to change our worship model as well,” he said.

In 1994, the church loosely adopted the Purpose Driven model. It was not an easy transition as about 30 families left in protest, including one whose grandfather had once served as pastor there.

In spite of the initial resistance, the recently static membership numbers at Grace began to show signs of life. Throughout the next nine months, about 350 people joined the church.

The growth didn’t stop there. Throughout the next eight years, attendance at Grace Church bloomed to nearly 1,300 in weekly services with an average of 50 visitors each week.

“We made the decision to go with the truth,” Lee said, explaining how Grace Church pushed through initial opposition to the transition. “That was the key to freedom.”

In the blue-collar community around Grace Church, Lee said people desperately wanted and needed the type of church experience a Purpose Driven model creates.

“I think our people were looking for something new,” Lee said. “They were looking for a relationship – something transparent and real and honest.

“They wanted to know, ‘What does it mean to do life?’”

With a new 1,000-seat worship center and services intentionally designed to meet the needs of seekers, Grace Church obviously has its ministry solidly in place among the local community.

Lee said visitors come because of the church’s reputation for offering an inviting and relevant worship experience. In fact, the church’s reach has extended so far as to attract one couple in particular who are new Christians with two small children. They drive an hour each way to attend Grace Church.

“It’s warm, it’s exciting,” Lee said, explaining the appeal of Grace Church. “It’s a personal touch, but it’s quality. We firmly believe it when Rick [Warren] says, ‘You don’t have to give up quality to gain quantity.’”

Even as Grace Church continues to reach out to the immediately surrounding community, Lee said leaders and congregants alike are gearing up for the global P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

The church has already completed 40 Days of Purpose and had about 800 participants in last fall’s 40 Days of Community campaign. Lee said the congregation understands the time has come to broaden the scope of Grace Church’s ministry.

“It’s not just good enough to do something here in Jackson,” he said. “We’ve got work to do all over the world.”

Already the church has affiliations with missionaries in France and Indonesia. Lee said the push for now is getting “all our ducks in a row” to fully participate in the global P.E.A.C.E. Plan when the time comes.

In the meantime, Grace Church has plenty of activity closer to home on which to focus.

The church planted its first purpose driven daughter church, The Orchard, two years ago. In mid-April, with about 200 regular attendees, The Orchard constituted to a self-supporting church, though Lee said Grace Church still plans to offer plenty of support and assistance.

The Orchard marks the first of what Lee and others at Grace Church hope are several purpose driven church plant opportunities. But even if Grace Church doesn’t have a direct hand in founding an entirely new church, Lee said Grace Church is committed to helping others see the benefits of a Purpose Driven structure.

“Our goal is to help any church that wants to learn and transition to a purpose driven church,” Lee said.

“It’s all about people,” he said.

All 2006 Church Health Award winner information is correct as of Jan. 1, 2006.