OUR STORY

The Seed

In the fall of 2002, our founding pastor, Patrick Grach, felt debilitated and tired of "church." In the midst of his frustration, he wrote down some short thoughts on what he felt church should be:

Ever felt this way before? These are the thoughts that birthed the passion and vision for Lifehouse Church.

Early Growth

Beginning with only a few people in 2005, Lifehouse Church launched that April in Eastern Elementary School and outgrew it in late 2007. By January 2008, we relocated to the Leitersburg Cinemas, where we continued to grow and focus on serving the greater Hagerstown area. In 2009, Lifehouse started a second service at the Cinemas, and in 2010, we sent out one of our pastoral leaders and a launch team of Lifehouse volunteers and leaders to start our first church plant, Lifehouse West Virginia. From that point, each year, Lifehouse either started a new church, a new service, or a new campus, and a few years we were able to do all three.

By 2012, Lifehouse had outgrown the Cinemas and sent a pastor and another team of volunteers and leaders to launch a Saturday campus at Bethel Assembly on Wilson Boulevard, which eventually became two services. By 2014, while running 2 Saturday services at Bethel and three services at the Cinemas, we realized we needed to find a way to increase our seating and gathering capacity. After a season of prayer, fasting, and visionary conversation between Pastor Patrick from Lifehouse and Pastor Curt from Bethel, they began a journey of integrating Bethel Assembly into Lifehouse Church, and over time, the elders and congregation of Bethel agreed and became part of the Lifehouse family. In the Fall of 2015, Lifehouse sent another team of pastors, leaders, and volunteers to the newly renovated Wilson Boulevard location to launch a Sunday campus there.

Multiplication

In 2018, the elders and pastors of Lifehouse felt God leading them to expand by launching a new campus in Chambersburg, PA to reach new people in a new way. Similar to previous campus and church plant launches, we sent pastors, leaders, and a large team of volunteers and attendees to be part of starting Lifehouse Church Chambersburg. Since that launch, the Chambersburg location has grown and relocated to the current facility on Pennsylvania Ave. 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lifehouse was forced to close the Cinema location (due to their bankruptcy), and those services were consolidated with the Wilson Boulevard location becoming the only Hagerstown campus. 

In September of 2022, Lifehouse sent one of our pastors, along with a team of leaders, volunteers, and attendees, to start our Frederick campus. In 2023, the Lifehouse Network launched Reset Church, which is bilingual experience, about one mile from our campus, to partner in reaching the unchurched in the Frederick area. Together this new church plant and Lifehouse campus partner in outreach events and ministry opportunities.

Lifehouse Church has grown into a multisite church with three physical locations, averaging over 1,200 in Sunday attendance, and has started nine new churches, adopted three others, partnered to mentor and support no less than forty more church planters, and has been recognized as one of the fastest growing and multiplying churches in America. 

Lifehouse Network

After starting two church plants, the governing team of Lifehouse Church recognized the value of starting a separate organization, the Lifehouse Network, to provide greater development of church planters, resourcing of new churches, and governance for existing church plants.