Gracepoint Apostolic Church

Gary and Stephanie Ryan felt as though they were being called to Malvern to help spread the word of God.

“I feel like the Lord not only called us to the city but called us to this county,” Gary said. “That’s what I told everybody from day one, we’re not just here for Malvern, it’s the county. The Lord has orchestrated in a way he said that he would to guide our steps.”

Gary, a native of Malvern, was working in Hot Springs and said he was ready to come home. “I was ready to come home and the Lord just brought us here,” he said. The Ryans have spent almost three years ministering in Malvern and in January of 2020 started the GracePoint Apostolic Church.

Since its creation, Gary has felt that the Lord has provided the church with everything it needs. “From a point to needing a place, to even the chairs that people sat, to the sound system, just everything was orchestrated,” he said. “And when we needed it, we didn’t wait two, three, or four weeks, it was like a day or two it was there.”

GracePoint first opened in the location that was once A Pocket Full of Posies on East Page. Gary said he had asked the owner what she had planned to do with building since she had moved the business to Main Street. “I called Stephanie (Collie) one day and said ’Stephanie what are you going to do with the building? and she said “What do you need?’ I said ‘we need a place to worship’ and she just gave me the keys and said ‘here you go.’” He said that conversation was on a Monday and on that Wednesday they had started.

GracePoint stayed in that location for three months before the Ryans purchased their current building located at 201 Hot Spring Street in North Malvern. “I felt that within my spirit that North Malvern was the place,” Gary said. “I felt like North Malvern was what the Lord had impressed in my spirit.” He added that one day he and his wife were driving down the road and he said that spot on top of the hill would be a great place for a church. “And it wasn’t just a few weeks after that I saw a for sale sign.”

The Ryans signed the paperwork for the building the first week of March 2020, “when the whole world shutdown,” Gary said. But the Ryans turned to online services to keep the message of God going even while churches were closed.

“Online has been a big deal for us,” Gary said. “I was very uncomfortable at first. You’re putting yourself out there and you can’t do a retake. I just feel like everything we’re doing is for the Lord anyway and people can look at it as that.” He added that he wants people to understand that he wants them to worship at home as they would at the church.

Stephanie added that having services online has made a big difference in their mission to spread the gospel. “People who wouldn’t even come to church have been watching online,” she said. “I think it’s a bigger out