Granville’s newest church will celebrate its first anniversary just before Christmas.
The non-denominational Impact City church will commemorate one year in Granville during its 10 a.m. service on Sunday, Dec. 21, at 11 Westgate Drive, near Wendy’s on Cherry Valley Road NE.
With the arrival of Impact City, Granville has 12 churches representing 10 different denominations of Christianity.
“I’ve had many people say to me, ‘There’s plenty of churches in Granville, why do we need another church?'” said Bob Nicholson, the pastor at Impact City in Granville. “Because there is no church in Granville like Impact City.”
“There is a group of individuals within the community of Granville who’ve tried the Methodists, they’ve tried the Episcopalian church, they’ve tried [the] United Church of Granville, they’ve tried the Presbyterians, they’ve tried Spring Hills Baptist, and so on,” Nicholson said. “They’ve tried all these churches and are still looking for something else. There are people out there that are searching for exactly what we’re offering.”
Impact City describes itself on its website as “a modern, non-denominational church that’s focused on being relevant to life today, while remaining grounded in the Word of God.”
The church was founded in 2014 in Pataskala, where the original church still operates at 8577 Watkins Road SW. In 2018, after having outgrown the space in its Pataskala building, the church began looking to expand.
Nicholson, of Pataskala, and his wife, Sarah, explored Granville as a possible new home for the church.
“My wife and I started having a Bible study in Granville in the fall of 2021, and we started it because we knew that someday in the future, we were going to have a church in Granville,” he said. “We knew it was going to be Granville, but we did not know when. We didn’t have a team. We didn’t have a place. We didn’t have a budget. We didn’t have anything. We just knew that God was calling us to Granville.”
By 2022, Impact City leaders decided they would expand into Granville.
“We chose Granville for two reasons,” Nicholson said. “Number one, it’s the next town over, so it’s easy to get to. Number two, no community in Licking County is like Granville – Granville is its own little universe. If you can start a church in Granville and it works, you can start a church anywhere in Licking County.”
Nicholson and other members of Impact City began assembling a “launch team” to seed the new church in Granville. The team consisted of Granville residents who were interested in seeing Impact City come to their town, as well as members of the Pataskala church.
They found a temporary location at the Cherry Valley Hotel & Event Center, and then Granville Elementary School, before moving into the Granville Christian Academy building at Cherry Valley Road and Westgate Drive. And on Dec. 1 last year, Impact City welcomed folks in the Granville area.
Nicholson said he knew there was a possibility that the church wouldn’t get off the ground.
“What’s sobering is that 25% of new church starts fail within the first 24 months,” he said. “That’s a pretty high rate. We went into it knowing that there were no guarantees. I knew going into this that it’s going to be kind of like a crapshoot. We’re going to be throwing the dice and seeing what happens.”
A year later, the church has about 140 members – more than double the number of people who attended regularly in those first few months.
“We’re already double what our launch team was,” Nicholson said. “I will tell you right now, we did not anticipate that. We were hoping for maybe a 10% growth – you know 10% to 12%, maybe 15% if we’re really optimistic – but not double. So it’s been really, really amazing… Granville has welcomed Impact City with open arms.”
The church’s growth comes at a time when, across the United States, religious participation is on the decline and religious disaffiliation is on the rise. A Gallup poll published last year says that “two decades ago, an average of 42% of U.S. adults attended religious services every week or nearly every week.
“A decade ago, the figure fell to 38%, and it is currently at 30%,” the poll results said. “This decline is largely driven by the increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation – 9% in 2000-2003 versus 21% in 2021-2023 – almost all of whom do not attend services regularly.”
Nicholson and other leaders at Impact City looked at data published by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) that indicated a similar trend was occurring in Licking County.
“We tapped into the SBC data source and those results were overwhelming,” Nicholson said. “We suspected that the numbers wouldn’t exactly be great for church attendance, but it was even more sobering than what we anticipated. What we found out was that the numbers were terrifically low.”
He said the village has about 5,600 residents, and the Granville school district is serving households representing 14,000 people.
“The SBC data showed us that out of that 14,000, only about 4,000 people are involved in church in some way. Where are the other 10,000?” Nicholson wondered.
Like many churches, Impact City is trying to adapt in response to this trend. “We at Impact City are asking ourselves, ‘How can we remain relevant without watering down the message?'” Nicholson said.
One way they do that is by embracing modernity, said Herb Minard, who is the bassist and one of the original members of Impact City Granville
“We’re leaning into social media,” he said. “For example, during service, you might even see some videos based off of internet trends. We’re not afraid to embrace modern technology and a modern aesthetic. Some churches are not willing to do new things like that. We are – without compromising on the essential things that we really believe in.”
Being new and non-denominational, Impact City has an easier time with that than some other churches, because it isn’t beholden to the rules and traditions of a denomination.
“The reason why we chose to be non-denominational and autonomous is because scripture flat-out does not teach adherence to what you could call SOPs – standard operating procedures,” Nicholson said. “Mainline churches have a ton of SOPs, but people are finding out that in order to connect with God, they don’t have to jump through the hoops of what a mainline church requires.”
Being non-denominational also gives Impact City leaders freedom to make decisions for themselves on matters of doctrine, which Nicholson said allows them to be more flexible:
“I would say probably the most unique thing about Granville is that we are a church that offers a life-giving, inspirational message,” he said. “We do not handle doctrine on Sunday mornings, and we do that on purpose. We have a catchphrase: ‘doctrine divides the church, it doesn’t bring it together.’ So we deal with doctrine in our small groups, where we can debate and talk about it. But on Sunday mornings, you’re going to come in and hear a very immediately applicable message – something inspirational and cutting edge, that will leave you inspired.”
Luke Dunlap writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.