About Us

At Covenant of Grace Church you'll find ordinary people whose lives have been changed by encountering Jesus and who now live to follow him.

We’re one of a family of gospel-centered churches who are devoted to the Bible as the ultimate authority for life, have a high view of God’s sovereignty, believe the spiritual gifts still operate today, and are committed to planting new churches.

Sunday Mornings

We’re glad you’re interested in our church and in possibly visiting us. If you plan to visit us on a Sunday, we’d love to have you! Learn more about what our Sundays are like.

Read more about Sundays⟶
Membership Classes

Our members class will provide an introduction to our church’s beliefs and life. It’s a great way to connect with some of our leaders, get your questions answered, and determine if this is where God wants you to be.

Get in touch about classes⟶

Our Pastoral Team

Jesus is the leader of his Church and he has called, qualified, and gifted individuals to imitate Him in the task of caring for, guiding, teaching, and serving His people. They are servants who lay down their lives for others and are accountable to God and to us.

The following men have been appointed as pastors and are charged with leading our church. They serve as equals, assigned various responsibilities that shift according to needs and strengths.

Bert Turner

Executive Pastor

After serving as a missionary and church planter in Brazil for eight years, Bert moved to Akron in 1990 to become part of Covenant of Grace Church. Bert and his wife, Karen, have four adult children and live in West Akron.

Bert serves the eldership by overseeing the business affairs of the church, assisting in the management of the pastoral team and church, supplying strategic counsel and perspective to the lead pastor, preaching and teaching, and overseeing prayer ministries.

Merrick Potter

Pastor-In-Training

Merrick graduated from the Sovereign Grace Pastors College in 2022. He was brought on staff soon after his return to Ohio and is currently studying to be ordained as a pastor while assuming various responsibilities at the church. Merrick and his wife, Abbey, have known each other since they were children attending Covenant of Grace Church. They live in West Akron with their three boys.

Our Deacons

The following serve the pastors in meeting many of the practical needs of church ministry.  This ensures there are no un-served people and no unmet needs in the church. This also ensures the pastors are able to govern the church and devote themselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer (Acts 6:2-4).

Our Story

God has been gracious and faithful through the decades.

As a partner church in Sovereign Grace Churches we own a shared conviction: churches are stronger together.

Sovereign Grace Churches was birthed in the 1970s when a group of young believers, reading their Bibles with fresh eyes, were captured by the New Testament vision of interdependent congregations. They saw churches existing not in distant association but in close and vital partnership with one another. This vision spread to a handful of churches, then to new churches established across the U.S. Eventually churches outside the U.S. joined the movement and a global family of churches was born.

Covenant of Grace Church’s part in the Sovereign Grace Church family began as a church plant in 1982. Our infant church believed and practiced a kind of community life that demonstrated Christ’s relevancy to all of life. Bible teaching and preaching, prayer, discipleship, small groups, hospitality, believers’ baptisms, breaking bread in communion, worship and a pursuit of the gifts of the Holy Spirit were intentionally embraced. Jesus brought new life to our spiritual experience but also offered a new orientation to family life, law, politics, education, medicine, science and the arts.

While retaining all our original distinctions today, our congregation also embraces a gospel-centrality in life and ministry that springs from a reformed understanding of the doctrines of grace.

Over the years, the path to maturing in Christ has been one full of joys and sorrows, laughter and tears. Looking back, we see how God faithfully encouraged, redirected, and sustained us. Today, we joyfully press on toward the goal to multiply and mature disciples of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father.

What We Believe

At the core of what we believe is the gospel of Jesus Christ—the glorious truth that Jesus Christ died and was raised so that sinners would be reconciled to God. The gospel is our primary passion and the driving influence in our church’s preaching, worship, small groups, and outreach. You can read our full statement of faith via Sovereign Grace Churches, but in brief we believe:

The Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error. It is the supreme and final authority for all matters of Christian life and belief.

There is one true and living God, who eternally exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who are equal in every divine perfection and who execute distinct but harmonious offices in all the work of the Godhead.

Man was created by God in His own image, but through his sin incurred physical and spiritual death. As a result, all people are separated from God because of their sin and are lost and without hope apart from salvation in Christ.

The Gospel is the good news of God’s saving actions towards sinners through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God, took on human nature, lived a sinless life, and died a substitutionary death for sinners. To aid you in thinking through all this we’d like to point you to a website that we think helpfully outlines the gospel of Jesus Christ and answers these questions.

Salvation is a free gift that comes only by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Anyone who turns from their sin and trusts in Jesus Christ and His death on their behalf receives forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

The Holy Spirit works progressively to transform genuine believers more and more into the image of Christ. His work is carried on in our hearts through such appointed means as the study of Scripture, prayer, worship, and fellowship with other believers. The Holy Spirit also empowers believers for Christian witness and service and gives gifts for the building up of the body of Christ, the church.

The Universal Church, composed of genuine followers of Christ, exists to worship, serve, and glorify God. All members of the universal church are to be vitally committed members of a local church, where they receive pastoral care and the opportunity to employ their God-given gifts in His service.

Jesus Christ will return to the earth, personally and visibly, to establish His kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost—the saved to endless joy, living and reigning with Christ, and the lost to endless punishment away from the benevolent presence of God.

Sovereign Grace & Our Values

Covenant of Grace Church is privileged to partner with Sovereign Grace Churches, a family of more than 70 local Christian churches in the U.S. and across the world. We share these seven theological values with all Sovereign Grace churches.

REFORMED THEOLOGY
GOSPEL-CENTERED DOCTRINE AND PREACHING
CONTINUATIONIST PNEUMATOLOGY
COMPLEMENTARIAN LEADERSHIP IN THE HOME AND IN THE CHURCH
ELDER-GOVERNED AND ELDER-LED CHURCHES
A FAMILY OF INTERDEPENDENT CHURCHES UNITED IN FELLOWSHIP, MISSION, AND GOVERNANCE
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH AND CHURCH PLANTING
Read more about Sovereign Grace’s Seven Values⟶
Sovereign Grace Lower Great Lakes Partnership

It is a joy for Covenant of Grace Church to partner with the Lower Great Lakes region of Sovereign Grace Churches. Our regional partnership provides an important level of support, care, accountability, and cooperation in mission outside of the local church.

Living Hope Church
Middletown, PA
livinghopechurchpa.com
Sovereign Grace Church
Toronto, ON
sovgraceto.org
Sovereign Grace Church
Bellbrook, OH
sgcdayton.org
Christ’s Covenant Church
Winona Lake, IN
christscovenant.org

Visit Us On Sundays

If the ideas that we’ve described here resonate with you, we hope that you’ll consider visiting our church for either of our Sunday morning meetings.

Learn more about Sundays⟶