Free Grace United is a Baptist evangelical multisite church affiliated with Converge North Central in Elk River, Minnesota. Free Grace United is one church with 24 locations throughout Minnesota, Iowa, Kenya, and Pakistan with a vision to launch 100 churches by 2040. Each church operates under the same name, mission, values, and statement of faith, but meet in different cities with different pastors. Each FGU church features live preaching.
Values and beliefs
The mission of Free Grace United is to "help as many people as we can cross the line of faith and follow Jesus." Senior Pastor Eric Dykstra expresses that Free Grace United is "always, only about Jesus," and focuses on reaching out to the community with the Gospel. Free Grace United's Statement of Faith is available on its website, as well as its code of values. Sermon outlines are the same at each location, though preached live by different pastors, and are mostly written exegetically working through books of the Bible.
History
In 2004, Eric and Kelly Dykstra were sent by Grace Fellowship Church in Brooklyn Park, MN to lead an Elk River church plant, Woodland Fellowship. In October, The Crossing at Woodland Fellowship held its first Grand Opening at Marcus Theatres’ Elk River Cinema.
2005 - The Crossing added a Celebrate Recovery ministry, a 12-step faith-based recovery group that welcomed people struggling with "hurts, habits, and hang-ups".
2009 - The first permanent location of The Crossing at Woodland Fellowship was purchased across the street from Elk River High School. The church's name was abbreviated to "The Crossing," and plans were initiated to expand the church into neighboring cities. In October of 2009, The Crossing's first satellite campus was launched at Westwood Elementary in Zimmerman, Minnesota.
2010 - In February, The Crossing committed to fully support an orphanage in Haiti after the January earthquake that left the country devastated. In June, the first THRILL+MOVE Conference was held at the Elk River Campus. The new Big Lake Campus launched in September at a bar called The Friendly Buffalo in Big Lake, Minnesota. The church made local news when it gave away four pairs of Vikings season tickets on the opening weekend of its series "First & Goal."
2011 - A permanent location was purchased for the Zimmerman church in May.
2013 - The Crossing changed its tagline from "church for people who don’t do church" to "Guilt free. Grace full."
2014 - In February, The Elk River location's remodel and expansion opened, providing greater lobby space, a larger auditorium, and more parking. The church opened Free Grace Bible College to help laypeople learn more about and practice their Christian faith.
2015 - The St. Cloud location of FGU launched in February.
2016 - In January, the church celebrated the launch of the St. Michael location in the newly opened St. Michael Cinema.
2018 - The church launched five new locations throughout the Twin Cities area.
2019 - The church changed its name to "Free Grace United" on March 31, 2019, to reflect a new ministry philosophy. This year the church also added a ministry to inmates at the Mille Lacs County Jail.
2020 - Free Grace United offered online-only church from March 22 through June 1 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 - A church in Downtown Minneapolis (Grace in the City) became a Free Grace United location in January. The church also purchased and renovated a former movie theater to use as a meeting space in Milaca, MN. In August, the St Paul location of Free Grace United became an independent, autonomous church called Second Story Church; they remain in the Free Grace United Network. Free Grace United also began a partnership with Pastors Timothy and Teresa Nyandika, pastors of four churches in Kenya, who integrated their four churches with Free Grace United. The church also resumed its ministry to Mille Lacs County Jail inmates which had been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022 - Pastor Ehtsham of Pakistan officially became a Free Grace United Pastor and launched two FGU churches in Pakistan. In February, FGU purchased Pine Lake Camps from Converge and began conducting ministry for children and youth in the state of Iowa. In April, an FGU church was launched in Eldora, IA. In September two more churches were launched in Albia, IA and Chariton, IA.