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About Us
Mission Statement
The purposes of this Church are to bring glory to God by equipping
God's people of all cultures for the work of the ministry and
to bring its member to the point of Grace.
History
GracePoint Fellowship had its beginning when a group of people
decided to meet together to finish the study of John's Gospel
begun during the term of service of Jerome Wernow as an interim
pastor. Meeting in various backyards and homes of the summer of
2000 to study John, to pray, and to fellowship, a vision was born
to begin a church. A desire to live "considered" lives,
growing through study of the Word of God and the practice of spiritual
disciplines was held in common by the group. The Washougal Grange
building was home to the fledgling church which officially formed
in September of 2001. After meeting at the grange for a year,
the group had outgrown the facility and looked for another venue.
Now meeting at Prune Hill Elementary School in Camas, the church
has grown in number as well as in God's grace
Pastoral Team
Jerome
Wernow Ph.D., R.Ph. and Mary
Ellen Wernow Ed.D.
Jerome’s Journey
I was born into
a family with both Jewish and Catholic traditions and came to
know Jesus Christ in my childhood through catechism
classes taught by a Franciscan priest in a small rural Ohio
town. After moving to a big town environment with an institutionalized
church, cathedral and all, I exchanged the values and traditions
that I learned in childhood for the pleasures, buffoonery,
and idealism of the late 60s and early 70s radical movements.
This trail ended in despair as I was terminated from a graduate
program in pharmacology, a crushing blow that softened my stony
heart. During this crisis I encountered the reality of Jesus
Christ again in the gentleness and peacefulness I once knew
as a child.
Life and truth came back into my journey,
and what a journey it’s been! Since those days of spiritual
transformation I have walked the paths of medical missions as
a pharmacist in
Borneo, directed a hospital pharmacy in Portland, received awards
for helping chemically dependent pharmacists, survived the ups
and downs of the healthcare industry, completed a doctorate in
Europe, researched and taught as a European scholar, buried a
church and a seminary program, founded a bioethics center, and
have been enriched by a host of other stories of success and
failure. During this journey, an inner desire has emerged to
use my education and life experiences to help others who seek
to deepen their spiritual encounters with God through intelligent
scriptural study, prayer, meditation, authentic worship, and
service in the local community.
Editors note:
Jerome is pastor of GracePoint Fellowship in Camas, Washington
and was ordained by First Baptist Church of Corvallis, Oregon.
He is also the executive director
of the Northwest Center for Bioethics in Portland, teaches as an adjunct
faculty member at Western Seminary Portland, Oregon and at
Golden Gate Seminary in
Vancouver, Washington. He has published widely in the areas of theology,
bioethics, and philosophy. Some of his works can be found
at www.ncbioethics.org and www.cbhd.org.
Mary Ellen's Story
I grew up in a missionary/ pastor’s family, moving back and
forth between cultures in Africa, Guam, and the Northwest. I can’t
remember a time when I didn’t know Jesus, but during a five-day
club I attended at age six, I realized that I personally needed
to make a decision to become God’s child and to follow him.
Following high school, I spent eight months working on an Israeli
kibbutz, an experience that broadened my vision of God and his
heart for the world. College and graduate school, combined with
church ministry and a variety of jobs, provided excellent training
for life and further ministry. It was during this time that Jerome
and I met and were married. In 1989, our family moved to Belgium
to serve with Greater Europe Mission. Language and cultural studies,
Bible school teaching and administration, local church ministry,
outreach via English as a Foreign Language classes, women’s
Bible study facilitation, church leadership, and family responsibilities
were all a part of my life in Belgium. Our return to the Northwest
at the end of 1996 enriched my life further through friendships,
church ministry, joys, sorrows, and a deepening of my relationship
with the Father. As a result, I seek to know God more each day,
to be transformed through the indwelling presence of Christ so
that I may walk in his truth with an undivided heart, following
his path for life, fearing him, praising him, glorifying him, and
enjoying him for all eternity. I seek to share his grace with others
in order that they also may know and follow him. (Philippians 3:10;
Galatians 2:20; Psalm 86:11-12; Psalm 16:11.)
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