Grace Point Church of the Nazarene turns 116

By Basil Gist

Staff Writer

       Grace Point Church of the Nazarene celebrated 116 years of service on Sunday with a special service and proclamation from the city of Pilot Point.

       Pilot Point Mayor Elisa Beasley joined Pastor Dwayne Edwards at the pulpit early in the service to present Edwards and his congregation with a Life on Point award.

       “Today I want to honor Pastor Dwayne for a life well lived,” Beasley said. “I love celebrating all the big things and anytime you have that moment to celebrate someone, to say thank you and say we appreciate you, do it.”

       Then Dr. David Downs, West Texas Nazarene District superintendent, praised Edwards for shifting the then over 100-year-old church out of a time decline.

       “There was a pastor in his late 70s, a veteran who was basically keeping the doors open by himself and praying that the Lord would bless the church,” Downs said. “I want to say congratulations to this church. There is so much ministry in the community.”

       He also recalled the church’s 100-year anniversary and forecasted the 125-year anniversary.

       “I asked, 'What’s so special about 116?' and he said, ‘Every day is a day for celebration,’” Downs said. “I wondered how I could tie this to the Bible. In 116 Psalm, there is verse 16. So, I looked it up and it basically says, ‘Oh Lord, I am truly your servant.’”

       Edwards spoke about the service, saying that the church’s West Texas district is widespread.

       “The West Texas District Church of the Nazarene is the world,” Edwards said. “We have tremendous missions to India, congregations down in Arlington, African congregation and congregations up north of Amarillo. The world is represented in West Texas. It’s the most unbelievable thing I’ve seen in my life.”

       Nazarene Archivist Pastor Dr. Ryan Giffin returned to Pilot Point for his fourth sermon, during which he spoke on the nature of grace and faith as it pertains to salvation in the scripture inspired by “The Scripture Way of Salvation” penned by Methodist Pastor John Wesley in the 1700s.

       “These two words, salvation and faith, include the substance of all the Bible, the marrow as it were, of the whole scripture,” Giffin said.

       He posited that the scripture details the fact that everyone is already saved, by way of Ephesians Chapter 2, verses eight and nine.

       “It’s a thing that has happened to us in the past and is happening in the present,” Giffin said. “We are being saved. It’s a blessing that we are in possession of right now.”

       He further stated that, as a result, it is an individual’s choice to have faith, and it is their choice to make at any point.

       “They may have turned their back on God, but God has not turned his back on them,” Giffin said. “We can trust that God hasn’t abated anyone. When they decide to repent on their sins, in that moment they receive a full pardon, a complete release from the penalty of the sins that they have committed. God accepts them as righteous.”

       Giffin assuaged a history lesson in favor of preaching during the service, though later confirmed the importance of Pilot Point’s Church of the Nazarene as it pertains to the greater denomination.

       He explained there were disparate groups of Nazarenes in New England, Los Angeles and the South prior, but each came to Pilot Point to merge and form the denomination as it is currently.

      “Since 1923, the official mechanism for establishing these things declared 1908 in Pilot Point as the Church of the Nazarenes' founding,” Giffin said. “The real historical significance of Pilot Point is that merger.”