One Church, Eight Front Doors Across the Northeast
Grace Community Church grew from a single congregation in the Hudson Valley into a network of seven physical campuses and a full online experience, all carrying the same mission statement and the same weekend sermon. As Senior Pastor Jarrod Jones puts it, the church exists "to reach the Northeast and beyond for Christ by making fully devoted followers of Jesus," and the campuses are how that vision shows up on the ground: Washingtonville, Newburgh, Middletown, Warwick, Port Jervis, Dutchess in Hopewell Junction, and New Milford in northwest Connecticut, plus a Church Online campus that streams the same message each week.
The original location sits on Route 94 in Washingtonville, NY, with the church's central offices now located at 199 Kings Highway in Warwick. The most recent addition, New Milford, is led on an interim basis by Scott Cheney. Each campus has its own Lead Pastor, its own GraceKids team, and its own weekly announcements, while the teaching pulpit is shared across the whole network. Services are livestreamed at live.graceoc.com and the latest messages are posted afterward so any campus, or any household, can stay current with the same series.
A Fresh Name for the Same Family
Grace Community Church is in the process of rebranding as Echo Grace Church: "Grace Community Church is now Echo Grace Church. We're still the same church family you know and love, just with a fresh name that reflects our growing vision to echo God's grace across the Northeast and beyond." A new dedicated hub, echograce.com, has been launched, while the existing graceoc.com domain continues to host campus pages, ministry pages, sermon archives, and online giving during the transition.
The motivation behind the new name is the church's stated sense of calling to the Northeast, which its leadership describes as one of the most post-Christian regions in the country. "All of this is happening in the Northeast, where eight out of the top ten post-Christian cities are located. What a great Savior! What a great mission!"
What a Weekend Service Looks Like
Weekend services follow a consistent shape across every campus, designed to feel familiar whether a guest shows up in Washingtonville or watches from a laptop in another state. Each gathering opens with two or three worship songs led by a campus worship band, with lyrics projected on screen. After music, the host pauses for announcements and encouragement, then Pastor Jarrod preaches live or via simulcast to every location. The message runs about forty minutes, and the service closes with a short wrap-up from the campus Lead Pastor and a final song.
No offering plate is passed during the service. Giving boxes at the back of the auditorium and online giving through Pushpay handle tithes and offerings, in keeping with the church's teaching that "giving is an act that happens out of the overflow of a person's relationship with God." The cafe at every campus serves free coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. A first-time visitor who stops by the Info Center receives a small gift from the church.
Service Times by Campus
- Church Online: Sunday at 8:00 AM, 9:30 AM, 11:00 AM, and 12:30 PM, streamed at live.graceoc.com.
- Washingtonville (2839 US Route 94): Saturday at 5:00 PM and Sunday at 8:00 AM, 9:30 AM, 11:00 AM, and 12:30 PM (12:30 PM is GraceKids Jr. only).
- Newburgh (128 Old South Plank Rd): Sunday at 8:00 AM, 9:30 AM, 11:00 AM, and 12:30 PM, with the 12:30 PM service held entirely in Spanish, including music, announcements, and preaching.
- Middletown (443 East Main St): Sunday at 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM, with American Sign Language interpretation provided at the 9:30 AM service.
- Warwick (199 Kings Highway): Sunday at 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM.
- Port Jervis (41 Route 209): Sunday at 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM.
- Dutchess (10 Corporate Park Drive, Hopewell Junction): Sunday at 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM.
- New Milford (126 Kent Rd, New Milford, CT): Sunday at 11:00 AM.
Three Languages, One Pulpit
The Newburgh campus hosts a full Spanish-language service each Sunday at 12:30 PM. Lead Pastor Keni Epp translates and preaches the same weekend message Pastor Jarrod delivers across the other campuses, and the music, announcements, and children's programming for that hour are run entirely in Spanish. Children's ministry is available for that service from Kindergarten through third grade.
At Middletown, the 9:30 AM service is interpreted in American Sign Language. Sharleen Anglin coordinates the Deaf ministry for the church, making sure interpretation, visuals, and community connections support deaf and hard-of-hearing attendees. English remains the primary language everywhere else.
GraceKids: From Birth Through Fifth Grade
GraceKids partners with parents to help children from birth through fifth grade "discover more about God each week." First-time families are encouraged to arrive about twenty minutes before service to get oriented and check in at the Info Center or GraceKids Registration counter. The first visit collects parent names, children's names and birth dates, contact information, allergies, and any special needs, all kept confidential. After registration, volunteers escort the family to the age-appropriate room, and parents keep a numbered tag that matches their child's name tag; if a child needs a parent during the service, that number appears on screen in the auditorium and a staff member in a green GraceKids shirt brings the parent back.
GraceKids runs alongside every weekend worship hour on every campus. Washingtonville offers the most options: Saturday at 5:00 PM and Sunday at 8:00 AM, 9:30 AM, 11:00 AM, and 12:30 PM, with the 12:30 PM hour serving GraceKids Jr. only. Newburgh offers GraceKids at all four Sunday hours; Middletown, Warwick, Port Jervis, and Dutchess offer it at both Sunday hours; New Milford offers it alongside its single 11:00 AM service. A Family Room is available at most locations for parents who want to keep a child nearby while watching the service on a TV feed.
Family Ministries Director Hortense Denny oversees a teaching calendar that walks elementary-age children through the metanarrative of Scripture, with current quarterly units covering how Passover and Easter connect, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and what it means to be rooted in Christ. The Faith Journey Road Map, distributed at the Family Resource wall, walks first-through-fifth graders through the basics of the faith, including a free workbook called "What Is a Christian?" that introduces the Trinity, communion, and baptism. Each spring, fifth graders "Level Up" from GraceKids into Collective Youth.
Grace Buddies: One-on-One for Every Child
Grace Buddies is a dedicated one-to-one ministry for children and teens from infant through age eighteen who benefit from extra support, whether they have diagnosed special needs, emotional sensitivities, are in a foster-care transition, or are grieving the loss of a loved one. The vision is simple: "no child is overlooked, excluded, or uninformed of who Jesus Christ is." Each Buddy is paired with a volunteer who accompanies the child into the regular GraceKids room whenever possible, with a "chill space" available for moments when a child needs to step away.
Special Needs Director Jackie Dederick leads the ministry, which now operates on four of the church's campuses and runs a monthly respite afternoon at Washingtonville so parents of children with special needs can take a break. Buddies volunteers undergo the same screening process as every other children's worker, including background checks and interviews.
Collective Youth: Middle and High School Students
Collective Youth is the student ministry for grades six through twelve, with its own logo, its own online presence, and its own worship team. The ministry gathers midweek at three campuses: Newburgh on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM, Port Jervis on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM, and Middletown on Sundays at 6:00 PM. Washingtonville offers Collective Youth Middle School on Saturdays at 5:00 PM, alongside the 5:00 PM worship service that many West Point cadets attend.
Student Ministries Pastor Chris Arroyo oversees the ministry across all campuses, with Amanda Dominguez as Collective Youth Coordinator, Kylee Valdes as CY Worship Director, and Eliel Valdes as Youth Director. The team also runs annual retreats, including a high school Advance and a middle school Getaway, and occasional events like Worship Nights open to all students in the network.
Military Ministry and the West Point Connection
Each year Grace Community Church welcomes cadets from the United States Military Academy at West Point. From September through May, the Washingtonville campus runs a bus from West Point to the Saturday 5:00 PM service, followed by a home-cooked meal at 6:30 PM. The church describes this as a long-standing part of its ministry and a way of caring for young cadets and their families throughout the academic year. Executive Pastor Adrian Schoonmaker serves as the primary point of contact for cadets and their families.
Foster Care and Adoption
The church's foster-care and adoption ministry, Grace Foster & Forever Families, grew out of Senior Pastor Jarrod Jones and his wife Christie adopting two Ukrainian girls in 2012. The ministry was formally established in 2013 and supports Christian foster and adoptive families across Orange County and beyond, with families in the church regularly coming alongside others walking through the process.
Groups, Studies, and the Growth Track
Life at Grace is organized around a "Next Steps" pathway with seven steps: Baptism, Gospel Groundwork, Gospel Framework, Serve, Groups, Membership, and Leadership Orientation. Gospel Groundwork is a six-week online course covering the basics of the Christian faith, paired with a personal coach; Gospel Framework is a ten-week group study that builds on those foundations and explores how the Gospel shapes everyday life.
Small groups are the main relational engine of the church. Three formats are available: Study Groups meet for a defined period (six to twelve weeks) around a particular book or topic; Bible Studies run longer (typically eight to nine months) and often follow a classroom rhythm; Small Groups meet biweekly or weekly for fellowship, study, and social life over eight to ten months. All groups are searchable at the church's online directory.
Marriage mentoring pairs couples, whether dating, engaged, or married, with a more experienced couple for mentoring, prayer, and accountability, and uses the SYMBIS and SYMBIS+ premarital and marital assessments. The Spiritual Care Ministry provides short-term, biblically based, confidential peer discipleship for people walking through grief, relational struggles, financial pressures, or other difficulties, and refers out to professional counselors when needed.
Leadership and the Teaching Team
Jarrod Jones has served as Senior Pastor since the church's early days and continues to carry the primary teaching role, with the weekly sermon preached live from Washingtonville and simulcast to every other campus. He and his wife Christie live in Sugar Loaf, New York, with their four children.
The central team includes Binu Thomas as Executive Pastor, Jeff Dueck as Worship Pastor, Mike Jones as Weekend Experience Pastor, Greg Jaloszynski as New Locations Pastor, and Chris Arroyo as Student Ministries Pastor. Each campus is led by its own Lead Pastor: Jim Barringer (Washingtonville) with Associate Pastor Abe Dueck, Keni Epp (Newburgh) with Associate Pastor Scott Cheney, Jeff Harrison (Middletown) with Associate Pastor Rich Gonzalez, Nehru Grant (Warwick), Greg Jaloszynski (Port Jervis), and Branden Brown (Dutchess). Scott Cheney also serves as Interim Lead Pastor at New Milford.
The teaching rotation regularly features other pastors on the team, with recent series messages from Pastor Nehru Grant ("The Life-changing Habit of Bible Reading"), Pastor Chris Arroyo ("Tithe & Trust"), and Pastor Jim Barringer ("Clear the Way").
Beliefs and Governance
Grace Community Church teaches that the Bible is the foundation of everything the church does. The mission is to reach the Northeast and beyond for Christ by making fully devoted followers of Jesus, and the vision is "a church kicking the darkness in the Northeast, being the transforming light and love of Jesus to families and communities." A fuller Statement of Faith is available as a downloadable PDF.
The church operates under a congregational form of government: members approve budgets and major financial decisions, and elders are elected by the congregation and serve without compensation. "Our elders are elected by the church and are not paid staff." "They come from all walks of life and provide spiritual and practical oversight of the church's ministry and finances." A set of ten team values, including "Kneel Before You Run," "Sharpen the Saw," "Clean the Toilet," and "Protect This House," guides how staff and volunteers work together.
Sermons, Series, and Online Resources
The church's teaching calendar moves through topical and book-by-book series. Recent series have included "About the Bible" (a four-part walk through trusting, unlocking, tackling tough texts, and reading Scripture), "Sowing & Reaping" (a four-part series on stewardship and trust), "Anchored," "Echo Grace," "Before You Vote," and the older "Adventage" and "The Well." Messages are posted as video and audio on the messages page, on the church's Vimeo channel, and as a podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Wonder@Home extends the Sunday teaching into the week with take-home activities, songs, and games mirroring the lessons taught at GraceKids, and a quarterly newsletter previews the months ahead. The Parent Cue app and Focus on the Family resources are recommended to parents for continuing the conversation at home.
Giving, Generosity, and Transparency
Tithes and offerings can be given online through Pushpay, mailed to the central office at 199 Kings Highway, Warwick, NY 10990, or dropped in the giving boxes at the back of each auditorium. The church publishes an annual Impact Report and a Generosity Ladder, a five-rung framework (Initial, Consistent, Intentional, Sacrificial, Legacy) that walks givers through stages of growth. Financial statements are reviewed by independent third-party professionals each year, every credit-card purchase is seen by at least three sets of eyes, and the congregation votes on budgets and major financial decisions.
Events and Gatherings Beyond the Weekend
Throughout the year the church hosts retreats, conferences, and one-day events. The annual IF Women's Conference is simulcast at the Port Jervis campus; the Into the Wild Men's Conference gathers men at Washingtonville for two days of worship, teaching, and fellowship; Flourish, a year-long women's mentoring program, matches women in pairs of mentor and mentee; and Night to Shine, a prom-style evening for people with special needs sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, is hosted at the church with a long waiting list each year. Collective Youth runs retreats and Worship Nights, and local campuses organize smaller gatherings such as men's breakfasts, women's hikes, and welcome lunches for newcomers.
Serving and Volunteering
Almost everything that happens on a weekend at Grace is run by volunteers, from the cafe to the parking team to the children's classrooms. Open teams include Guest Experience (greeters, ushers, parking, info center), GraceKids, Collective Youth, Worship and Production, Online Hosts (chat and prayer during livestream), Care Team (meals, prayer, and support for people in crisis), Logistics (set-up and tear-down), Operations, and Midweek (administrative and childcare support during the week). A short spiritual-gifts inventory is offered as a starting point for anyone looking to find the right fit.
What to Know Before You Visit
Families new to Grace can pre-register their children online before their first visit to speed up check-in. Everyone is welcome in service; if a parent prefers to keep a young child with them, a Family Room with a livestream of the service is available at most campuses. The cafe is free. Dress is casual. Parking is on-site at each campus, and Washingtonville runs a Saturday shuttle from West Point during the academic year. Anyone can request prayer through the prayer page or sign up for weekly announcements by email from their campus.