Grace Community Church was established in 1975 by Pastor Warren Carlsen. He and a small group of 15 family and friends believed that God wanted to do a great work in Tualatin and felt called to pioneer that work and began meeting at the Ramada Inn in Tualatin, now the site of the Nyberg Wood shopping mall. The following year property was purchased at 7400 Sagert Street which included an old barn structure. The barn was renovated to became the first home of Grace Community Church.
As the church grew between 1977-1980, a second building was added. The community outreach of the church led to the opening of Community Christian School 1980. In 1982, Steve Carlsen followed in his father's footsteps to become the senior pastor. The following year, 1983, Stan Russell became the youth pastor and served for 3 years. In 1986 following the resignation of Pastor Carlsen, Rev. Mike Eichenberger became senior pastor, leading the church in financial stewardship as well as seeing the construction of a third building that would serve as the church sanctuary and school gymnasium.
In 1993, Pastor Eichenberger resigned and Rev. Stan Russell returned to serve as the new Senior Pastor. The church and school grew numerically, spiritually, financially, and in its facilities over the next several years. The Sagert campus was expanded with 3 additional buildings and 3 renovations to accommodate the growing ministries.
In 2000, church leaders felt led to further expand the growing school which now included a daycare, preschool, and grades K-8. The church was unified in this effort and from 2001-2006, the miraculous unfolding of an expansive vision took place. Fund raising began and the church purchased 38 acres on Boones Ferry and Norwood to facilitate the growing church and school system. A comprehensive master plan was developed and approved and ground was broken in a special prayer service in 2003. In November 2006, the first of nine planned buildings was completed and Horizon Christian High School opened its doors.
In February of 2007, the church moved into the new facility as well. Also that year, the ministries of the church were all unified under the one name, Horizon Community Church. The Sagert campus continues to be the home of Horizon Elementary School as well as Horizon Community Church's midweek services for Student Ministries. Since then, expansion has continued with the addition of sports field lights, scoreboards, library and gym renovations, a covered playground structure, a monument sign and water feature on the new campus, a baseball field, with more plans underway to be completed as the Lord leads and enables.
The vision for the Boones Ferry campus includes 9 state of the art buildings designed with a variety of learning environments and ministry atmospheres in mind. The athletic facilities will include a synthetic turf football stadium and track, two additional natural turf fields, a unique indoor training center and six gymnasium floors. Our facilities are multipurpose, with our church interacting with our schools on this property. Every square foot of our land is dedicated to encouraging people to follow Jesus with their whole heart.
Our vision is not about land and buildings, but about reaching and helping people. As the ministries of the church and school have grown so has its heart to reach people in Tualatin, across the U.S. and around the world. Annually hundreds of people make commitments to begin a relationship with Jesus, many are baptized, scores of missionaries and works are supported to further this effort beyond our walls, with hundreds of thousands of dollars given annually for missions’ efforts.
Horizon Community Church and Horizon Christian Schools will be known as a place where you can find real people with a real Jesus. This is not a place for a select few to gather. Whoever will come is may come. Horizon's journey is a visionary project that sets the pace for generations to come. As long as there are people needing Jesus, students needing training and a group of people walking the journey in humility and unity, God will keep expanding Horizon's borders. There is room on this journey for you. Join us for the adventure of a lifetime.