The Beginning

In March of '94, an anonymous donor gave Shady Grove Church of Granbury, now know as Generations Church of Granbury, $4,000 towards a permanent location. With that gift, a Land & Building Fund Began.

During 1995, Pastor Alan attended a special service at Eastridge Baptist Church, where a man named Chuck Pierce was to speak. (Alan met him for the first time just before the service began). As he was preaching, Chuck shared what the Lord had shown him about our community. He told of driving into town the day before on 377 and how as he neared our city he saw a sign that said, "Shady Grove Church" and he heard the Lord say to him, "This church will be a liaison between what I am doing in Granbury and what I am doing in the Metroplex, (and vice-versa."

Knowing that there was no sign where Chuck said he had seen one and that he did not even know our congregation existed before coming to Granbury, Alan did not take what was said lightly and he kept it in his heart.

Nine months later, while looking at property for a future building site, he recalled Chuck Pierce's words. Driving to Cresson and turning back toward Granbury, Alan determined to inquire about the first "Property For Sale" sign he saw. To make a long story short, a large acreage for sale was found,m on Hwy. 377, in the area where Chuck had "seen" the sign.

    We are Land Owners

In October of 1996, our congregation bought a piece of that acreage; 17.638 acres of land at 5718 East Highway 377. The 'land on a hill' was sold to us for $2,600 per acre. This property was owner financed with a 5 year note.

During 1997, Chuck Pierce was asked to return to Granbury and to preach in our Sunday service, during which he prophesied that we would build a "place for the generations". Afterwards, he went out to see our property and confirmed that it was in the area where he had seen the sign that said, "Shady Grove Church." He mailed us an offering later, to pay one of our land payments.

Two churches in our town that year gave us offerings also to pay towards our land. With the Lord's provision and the generosity of our members, the first year note was paid off in 11 months!

    Excavation begins

In 1999, we were able to begin land excavation, fence building, well drilling, property surveying, gravel road building, site planning, building design, soil testing, engineering, blueprinting, etc.

In January of 2000, a Faith Commitment campaign was presented by Shady Grove Church leaders to our faithful members, asking them to make a 2 year commitment to give additional funds to the Building Fund; for the upcoming building; as the Lord enabled the.

Over $170,000 was committed to be given by faith, as those committing would be able to give. During the next year our new members also made commitments. In addition to raising money, we purchased three 40" shipping containers for storing construction materials until the building contraction began. The materials we were given to store in them saved us thousands of dollars.

The Building Project accelerated in 2001 with the drilling of piers, the digging of trenches, the pouring of the new foundation, the purchasing of the steel, etc.

    Time for a Contruction Loan

On November 28, 2001; at a special congregational meeting, Shady Grove Church leaders announced that everything done on the project, up to that point, was paid for. The leaders also communicated that we were at the point that a $250,000 construction loan would produce a usable building and that the payments on a mortgage that size would be close to what we were already paying in rent at Country Love Theater (along with the higher utility rates of the City of Granbury).

On the next day, a construction loan was made at Liberty Bank for $250,000 and the new building began to be erected in February of 2002.

Currently, our mortgage principal payments are 2 years ahead and recently our interest rates were reduced, making our monthly payments $32.55 less than what they were.

    A New Home

In August of 2002, we began meeting in our new facilities, with an indebtedness of only $250,000. The steel building has a 12,500 square foot first floor and a 5,500+ square foot second floor, which is being used for storage at this time.

    Update

Over the last three years, we have completed several things to improve our facilities. We hope to finish our 5,500 sq. ft. second floor by the end of 2005.

    
    8/1/2005