Greater Community was created in 1991 and born out of First Community Missionary Baptist Church, then located on New York Ave. in Arlington, Texas. Our name was created in the mind and heart of Sis. Addie Sanders who told the group, “We don’t want to be second best, but greater than the first.”
The first meeting to establish the church was held at the home of Elaine and Pastor Jones. The late Deacon Melvin Jones and his wife Sandra, along with Deacon Selcer and Marsha Jones were in attendance as well. The original congregation was started with a group of 18 adults and 4 children with Rev. Kennedy Jones as the founding pastor. Worship services were held at Harvest Time Church on 1911 Cooper St. in Arlington.
A people that was moved by their faith. OUR GOD IS AWESOME!
· 1991 – Purchased original church lot
• 1992 – Built the church building
• 1998 – Purchased the Fellowship Hall & Expanded the sanctuary to add more seating
• 2000 – Hosted 1st Women’s Conference
• 2001 – Paid off Mortgage of Church Sanctuary
• 2002 – Finalized plans for church expansion & renovation
• 2003 – Purchased 3 additional properties
• 2005 – Continue the process for church expansion & Established the Greater Community Bible Institute for Christian Education
• 2007 – “March to Higher Ground” took place to establish the West Campus at 2201 E. Park Row
• 2011 – Broke ground on church expansion
• 2011 – Zumba Movement and Motions of Praise were established.
• 2013 – Expansion of our facility began with Frank Pleasant as the Construction Manager
• 2014 – The expansion ended on Sunday, January 19, 2014, at 5:45 am and the first church service was held that same day at 8:00 am.
• 2014 – Our Church community has progressed into 21st century technology and innovation beyond our sanctuary walls with a Social Media Ministry Team.
• 2016 – GCMBC became the first African American Church site in Arlington for Hope Tutoring.
• 2018 – Opened the Zenith Rock Licensed Day Care for community access.
• 2019 – Expansion of Worship center for our Children’s Church Ministry.
• 2020 – We updated the church online and branded messaging and we did a foreign mission in Guatemala.
• 2021 – Major church renovations began because of the Texas winter storm, and we did a foreign mission in Haiti.
• 2021 – Rev. Samuel “Shake” Anderson became the Minister of Music worship leader, with praise teams, a full live band, and an orchestra.
• 2022 – We did a foreign medical mission in Mexico.