Our Story
In June of 2008, God started putting into motion something that none of us could have ever dreamed. Donnie and Jill Griggs came from California for a week long trip in Eastern North Carolina to help with a youth leadership training time and to visit friends in Donnie’s hometown of Morehead City. What began as a group of friends hanging out and catching up on life – soon began to develop into a desperate sense of a large group of people in need of Christ and a church where they could come to know, grow, and glorify God together. Quite to their surprise, Donnie and Jill were captivated by the many people who “were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34) and started to have an overwhelming sense that God was calling them to this place and these people.
Months went by with lots of praying and seeking godly counsel, until on a Sunday evening in early October of 2008, four young married couples had dinner together and started sharing what God had been speaking to each of them – it was time to start a church!
Donnie and Jill made the move from Southern California to North Carolina to start and lead One Harbor Church at the end of January of 2009. On Superbowl Sunday, February 1, 2009, 17 adults and 2 children met in the living room of Matt and Sam Barts’ home for One Harbor’s first official gathering.
Jesus truly has done abundantly more than we could ever ask or think in every step of the way. God has provided meeting places, drawn men and women to Himself and His church, and continues to lavish His love, goodness, and grace over us daily. We can say with sincere hearts that God is the author, continues to write, and will faithfully complete the story of One Harbor Church for His glory alone!
