HISTORY OF GRACE COVENANT
Grace Covenant Baptist Church began in 2003 when Pastor Sammy Burns was led by the Lord to create a simple in worship, pure in doctrine, and totally Bible-based New Testament church with the vision to exalt God as sovereign in salvation as in all things (Jonah 2:9). Initially the church consisted of only about 20 people who met regularly at one of the families’ homes for Bible reading, prayer and singing. That was the birth of Grace Covenant Baptist Church.
This continued for about four months. During this time, the name “Golden Triangle Christian Fellowship” was chosen. Plans were made to seek a centrally located meeting place and the first became the Longview Community Center outside of Starkville, MS. The church met in this building for approximately three months, but as other needs arose they began to seek the Lord about another location. Holiday Inn Express would be the location – it had a nice banquet room that the church could rent for well within its budget. For the next three years, Grace Covenant Baptist Church became known as “the hotel church” in Starkville. This was a blessed period of spiritual growth as well as a time for transition.
The church began to attract students from nearby Mississippi State University and at times had a room full of visitors. A particular blessing during this time was the opportunity for several weeks to minister to displaced families who had fled from Hurricane Katrina – feeding them, loving them, and ministering God’s Word to them. The Lord added many to the church during this time.
The end of 2007 brought the church to another turning point as plans were made to seek a location closer to Columbus, home of many church residents as well as the pastor. The Shell Conference Center, adjoining a Truck Plaza, became the next meeting place for the church in January 2008. Though this presented some challenges, it afforded many more opportunities such as ministering to truck drivers and other travelers and being in a highly visible location. It also helped to “split the difference” between the Starkville and Columbus residents who are part of the church.
The Lord has continued to bless Grace Covenant Baptist Church as they hold true to the promise of Jonah 2:9 and the true nature of the Gospel: God saves totally and man has nothing to do with his salvation. The church chooses to hold fast to the Word of God.
OUR CHURCH COVENANT
In gratefulness for the Father’s eternal love, the Son’s accomplishment of our redemption, and the Spirit’s sovereign application of this great work to our own lives, we covenant together before the Eternal God that, by His grace and for His glory, we will strive to do the following:
To give ourselves daily to our God, so that whether we eat, or drink, live or die, we wish to do all for the God who loved us and saved us, Who has become our portion now and for eternity.
To walk with each other as fellow-heirs, born from above into the family of God made alive in Christ, sealed by the Spirit. We agree to meet together faithfully in order to stir each other to love Christ, and follow Him in careful obedience. We agree to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, laboring together under God’s help in order to bring each other to the full measure of the stature of Christ.
To give ourselves as light and salt in this dark world, striving to live in such a way that those who are strangers to God may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. We look to God for our sufficiency, to be faithful ambassadors of His gospel, to be a distinct aroma of the Knowledge of His Son in every place, to be humbled and reverent witnesses to the hope that dwells within us.
We beg God to hear us in this covenant, and to give daily the desire and ability to walk in these biblical principles, aiming at His pleasure in our individual and corporate lives.
May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.
All our hope is in Him, Who is our Life.
ADOPTED JUNE 9, 2009
STATEMENT OF FAITH
Grace Covenant Baptist Church’s Statement of Faith holds to Scriptural truths as laid out in the 1689 Confession of Faith & the Abstract of Principles. We are also proudly affiliated with the Founders Conference.
Download 1689 Baptist Confession
Download Abstracts of Principals
PASTOR SAMMY BURNS
Pastor Sammy Burns of Grace Covenant Baptist Church was born in 1957 in Corinth, MS. He was married to Jo Lynn Alexander Burns in 1977. They have 5 children: Farris, Joseph, Rachel, Mary, and Andrew. He was called to the Gospel ministry and ordained in 1991 by First Baptist Church in New Albany, MS.
His first pastorate was New Harmony Baptist Church in Blue Springs, MS from 1991-1995. He then led Cedar Bluff Baptist Church in Cedar Bluff, MS from 1995-2003, before founding Grace Covenant Baptist Church in 2003.
He is committed to, by God’s grace, expounding the Scriptures of God, exalting the Son of God, and encouraging the saints of God.