History of Rejoice Lutheran Church, Frisco
1994: Rejoice Lutheran Church of Frisco and McKinney Texas began through the efforts of the Northern Texas Northern Louisiana Synod and the Division for Outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 1994. these organizations approved Frisco and McKinney as new communities for ELCA congregations.
1996: In August, 1996, recent seminary graduates Pastors Mike and Linda Williams were called by the Synod as Mission Developers. They moved with their family to Frisco and began their ministry. The first service was held in the Frisco Community Building in November 1996 with about 25 people attending.
1998: January of 1998 we moved our Sunday worship service to Noel Smith Elementary, which served as our location for worship until we moved into our new facility in 2009.
Our constitution was approved on November 15 and our first Church council was elected.
On November 22 Rejoice Lutheran Church officially became a member congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with 112 members. Pastor John Barrington was appointed interim pastor and a call committee was formed to search for our first called pastor.
2001: A call was extended to Don Gray, who had just completed his seminary education. He accepted and was ordained and installed as pastor of Rejoice in March of 2001.
2003: In February of 2003, Sandra Gass, Jan Fischer, Kathy Odom and Jane Winge began Stephen's Ministry training led by Julieanne Kimbell. They were commissioned on May 18.
In July, Vacation Bible School was held at the Methodist Church with about 100 children and staff participating.
In September we launched our children's church.
2004: In May of 2004 we received 18 new members, so Rejoices' membership now stands at approximately 185 and worship attendance is about 125 per week.
2005: In a capital campaign to resource building, Rejoice members pledged approximately $450,000. Land originally purchased on Main street in Frisco was found to be inadequate for new building code requirements. A new church site was purchased on the northeast corner of Eldorado and Independence, in the northeast part of Frisco. The land was dedicated on August 20, 2005. In November, Pastor Gray leaves to accept a call to another church.
2006: November 1st was Pastor John Van Sant's first day as pastor of Rejoice Lutheran Church.
2007: A visioning process was completed and a strategic plan was developed. Expanding Youth and children's ministries will continue to be a primary focus. We begin offering two worship services at our current site beginning April 1, and attendance grows. Design-build firm "Building God's Way" is engaged and plans move forward to break ground for Phase One building construction in early 2008.
2008: We broke ground on our new church building in April.
2009: We finished construction and held our first service in our new building on Maundy Thursday (April 9).
