Thank you for taking the time to visit our website. I hope you get a sense of who we are and what our ministry is all about.

At the core, we are a group of believers who strive to be God-focused, Christ-centered, and grace-oriented in all that we do. We endeavor to serve God together sincerely, always rejoicing in his electing grace and eternal love. Whether assembled for Sunday worship or dispersed for weekday ministry, the Word of God is our compass and obedience is our aim.

Our greater Springfield community has a significant influence of churches that are seeker-sensitive, felt-needs and culture-driven, or legalistic and law-oriented. Either way, they are man-centered. We hope and pray that God will use Great Light Baptist to help reverse the self-centered mindset that permeats our present age. We hope to have the privilege of participating earnestly in the expansion of his Kingdom in our community and around the world.

Worship services at Great Light are carefully prepared to center primarily on the glory of God’s sovereign work of Redemption, the astonishing person and accomplishments of Jesus Christ, and the work of the Spirit of Truth to keep the people of God vibrant in the faith.

We would love to have you visit us to see if God would have us grow and work together. If you have a question or a comment, please do not hesitate to contact me—I’d love to hear from you.

For God’s glory,
Pastor Al Garard

WHAT KIND OF CHURCH ARE WE?

Great Light Baptist Church is committed to Baptist principles and practices such as are expressed in various historic Baptist Confessions (Second London Confession, Philadelphia Confession). But while we appreciate and love the Baptist confessions of faith, we are not “strict subscriptionists.” In other words, we use the confessions as a guide only, not as instruments to bind the church or the believer’s conscience.

We are committed to what are commonly called the Doctrines of Grace. This means that we believe salvation is entirely of God and entirely by sovereign grace. Additionally, we are committed to what are referred to as the “solas” (alones) of the Reformation: Sola Fide—faith alone, Sola Gratia—grace alone, Solus Christus—Christ alone, Sola Scriptura—Scripture alone, Soli Deo Gloria—to the glory of God alone.

We believe that worship is to be orderly and by design. Our services are constructed to exalt God and to celebrate his Son’s completed work. We rely on the Holy Spirit and the Word to direct our preparation for worship services.

Our music is a blend of traditional hymns and conservative contemporary Christian songs. Our preaching is expository. Our weekly pattern for the gathered church is to read the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word, and preach the Word. Our passion is to see God glorified in our hearts, our homes, our church, our community, and our world, and we currently support church-planting efforts in Haiti, Honduras, the Philippines and Russia.

Our Leadership

Al Garard, our teaching elder, has been in church planting and development for more than 40 years.

Steven Thompson, our other Elder and worship services leader.

Our Deacons

Noah and Marcee Minner

Nate and Leah Henderson

Joe and Pippa Minner

Danny and Lauren Thompson

Charles and Molly Elliott

Wes and Shannon Rose

Sam and Heidi Messick