New church to launch in Maricopa

“God specifically wants us here.”[quote_box_right]LUKE PANTER
Age: 35
Occupation: Pastor, GCU adjunct professor and church planter
Hometown: Emory, Texas
Resides in: Maricopa Meadows
Maricopan since: 2015
Family: Wife Emily, five children
Education: PhD, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary[/quote_box_right]
Pastor Luke Panter has faith in his family’s decision to move to Maricopa last year. They quickly “planted” a church in their home in Maricopa Meadows.

Aug. 14, Grace Fellowship Church will launch to the public, meeting in the cafeteria at Maricopa High School at 10 a.m.

“When we plant a church here, we are not trying to create another church for church-goers to attend,” Panter said. “We want to engage people who don’t believe and we want to have these conversations.”

Grace Fellowship is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

Panter, 35, has been married to Emily for 17 years. Emily Panter is a teacher at Maricopa High School. They have five children. Three girls attend Maricopa Elementary School. Their son attends Maricopa Wells Middle School, and their oldest daughter attends Maricopa High School.

Originally from Emory, Texas, Luke Panter has been a pastor for 11 years in Texas and Oklahoma. He came to the ministry rather reluctantly after he started attending Bible Study at 19.

“I sensed God was telling me he wanted me to tell others,” he said. “I thought, ‘I’m not going to be a pastor,’ and I fought that for many years. But I know he wants me teach people about him and give my life over to that.”

Panter came to Arizona in 2014 to find a good area to plant a church. He said he felt strongly the family was supposed to move to Maricopa. He brought Emily out in June 2015 to have her tell him whether it was God or his own wishes that caused the promptings.

“She’s from the Midwest. She loves the rain. She loves the cold. She said, ‘Yeah, I believe this is where God wants us to be,” he said.

Planting a church in Maricopa meant opening up their living room. Around 25 to 30 people have been attending Bible study.

“The high school cafeteria can hold hundreds,” Luke Panter said. “We have all the stuff for worship meetings. We have a worship leader [Frank Wade] and a children’s ministry.

Rather than sermonizing or lecturing, the adjunct professor at Grand Canyon University uses a teaching style in his preaching. He stresses fellowship and grace and growing the ministry through relationships and coming through trials together.

One of the Panters’ darkest days was, ironically, two days after their youngest daughter was born in 2008. Seeing Emily recovering well, Luke left her in the care of her mother to take care of important matters. However, he soon received a call from his mother-in-law that Emily was in trouble.

She was rushed to a hospital with an aneurysm as Luke tried to get home again. He was met at the hospital by two pastors who could offer more solace than assurance she would survive.

“I was 27 and a pastor, and this was a side of ministry I had never seen before,” Panter said. “It was a testing time. It was a tough time for my kids.”

He slept 40 nights at the hospital during Emily’s slow recovery from what is often deadly. But the Panters also learned the strength of church fellowship and relationships.

“The church is not here to fix anybody,” he said. “Everybody needs the same amount of God’s grace. I need Christ just as much as everybody else.”

CopaGrace.com
Facebook.com/CopaGrace
480-372-7429

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This story appears in the August issue of InMaricopa.