New Church Opens in Geist Area

When I sat down with Pastor Adrienne Homes of Geist’s newest church — Abounding Grace Church of God — I was a little surprised to hear this sweet, soft spoken lady proclaim: “I can preach the horn off a bull!”

But, as members of Pastor Adrienne Homes’s congregation will tell you, if you are headed to her church on Sunday, “You better put on your shouting shoes!”

Abounding Grace Church of God opened its doors at 6280 Sunnyside Road for the first time this past Easter Sunday, March 22nd. The Church may be new to the area, but Adrienne is no stranger to Indianapolis. The 57-year-old preacher arrived in Indy from Cleveland, Ohio in 1988 as a single Mom with
five adopted kids in tow. “I just love kids,” says Adrienne. “That’s why I adopted four girls and one boy.”

She worked as the business manager for Park Tudor School until she got a higher calling, as Adrienne says, and began pastoring in 2000, at Bell’s Chapel, 10002 E 42nd St. Then it was time to make another move.

“The Lord told me to plant a church,” Adrienne recalls. “I didn’t know where, how and when, but that’s what I was told!” And it was a natural progression of events that led her to the Sunnyside location to “plant” a new Church.

Abounding Grace Church of God has about 50 people attending on Sundays now and continues to grow. Their daycare is now open with six kids. Future plans for the church include a food pantry (opening this month) and a summer camp for kids. They also hold weekly Bible studies at the church.

The fiery preacher seems to love what she does, and does exactly what she loves. Homes says she wakes up every morning and says, “God, it’s Adrienne Homes reporting for duty — tell me what to do today!”

In her spare time, the Geist resident enjoys her 12 grandchildren and tooling around Geist Lake in her pontoon boat looking for a quiet place to fish.
On Sundays, you can find Homes at the pulpit at 9 a.m. After the service, she pastors at the church where her preaching career began, Bell’s Chapel, at 11 a.m.

The Church of God is a non-denominational movement, where all churchgoers are invited to attend regardless of denomination. “After all,” says Pastor Homes. “We’re all going to the same station …We just take different trains to get there!”