Glory Bound Church to celebrate 34 years of growth

In 1988, a small group of people gathered in the living room of David Woods Sr. for an informal church service. It wasn’t long after when Ron and Shirley Callaway offered the use of their diner which used to sit just north of Hop & Sack. Now, the Glory Bound Church will be celebrating its 34th anniversary and a homecoming service, Sunday, Nov. 20.

Woods said he had just resigned from pastor duties at the small Bailey Community Church before the living room congregation gathered. At some point, the Callaways and others asked if he wanted to start a church, but he said he didn’t know anything about starting one. He just liked to spread the word of the gospel.

“I always remember the anniversary because it was just before Thanksgiving when we started,” Woods said.

With interest growing, Woods rented a place at the Chickasaw Housing for weekly services, and from there, it moved to the American Legion building in 1992. Not long after, a new facility was built at Fifth and Gilkey.

“We’ve been blessed in that regards. We started small and humble.” Glory Bound Church is now located at 1109 N. Broadway, which is where the anniversary celebration will be held.

“We want to invite our family and friends to come and celebrate the wonderful occasion with us,” he said. As with many churches, large and small, Glory Bound was impacted by the restrictions of COVID-19 pandemic. “We did lose a few, and many people still don’t want to be in large crowds. We are getting some of our members back. I’m just grateful to see us getting back to a sense of normalcy,” Woods said, including not just church, but society as a whole.

The celebration service starts at 10:30 a.m. and an anniversary and homecoming banquet will be held after the morning service, Woods said.