TRADERS POINT HISTORY

With more than 185 years of church history, there’s so much to celebrate at Traders Point! We invite you to check out the church’s highlights since our humble beginnings. Notice how God has been at the center of every building renovation, growth spurt, and financial sacrifice to get us where we are today. 

So much has changed, and yet one thing remains the same: We are unapologetic followers of Jesus who aim to carry His light into everything we do.  

THE BEGINNING YEARS | 1834-1884:

Traders Point Christian Church, originally Ebenezer Christian Church, was organized in Marion County, Indiana, in the spring of 1834. There were ten charter members, and they took turns hosting church in their homes. Charter member Annie Wilson donated land just south of Fishback Creek on the east side of Dandy Trail for the first church property. Her husband furnished the lumber to help build a log cabin-type church on the triangular plot of ground. It was the third organized Christian Church in Marion County. By 1853, membership had grown to nearly 100.  

In March of 1858, they erected a new church building to accommodate the congregation's growth. The foundation cost $43.20, stoves and pipes cost $25, and lamps and hangings cost $16.60, making a total of $949.80. The building was completed in June of 1859. 

SECOND FIFTY YEARS | 1885-1934:  

In March of 1886, work was started to physically pick up and move the church building to a 1.5-acre lot in what was then the Village of Traders Point. After a long and tedious process, the new church building was dedicated in November 1886. Family and church life were disrupted by the Civil War, World War I, and the Great Depression. Men went off to war and women had to shoulder extra responsibility. Money was scarce, but through the sacrificial giving of the church families, the doors of the church stayed open.  

One of the highlights of those years was the October 11, 1925, dedication of what was now called Traders Point Christian Church. A basement, Sunday school rooms, bell tower, and furnace were added. Little did the members know how many times the basement would be flooded in years to come.  

In 1934, the Centennial Celebration culminated with an outstanding performance of the pageant called “Marching Onward.” 

MARCHING ONWARD | 1935 - 1997: 

The Great Depression made it difficult to pay the minister, but thanks to the generosity of two church members, they saw to it that the minister was paid. Drawing strength from God’s blessings during early hardships, the church continued to “march onward” and give thanks for the growth experienced. The coming of the first full-time minister in 1942 marked the beginning of over half a century of exceptional growth, both spiritually and numerically. For many years before this milestone, worship services were only held on the second and fourth Sunday of each month (but communion and Bible school classes were available every Sunday). 

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The first part of the Lafayette Road church building opened in 1964 when the congregation moved from the frame building in the valley of Traders Point to the current site. This 1964 facility has been enlarged and remodeled several times. The current church offices and loft were once the auditorium. The “Marching Onward” pageant was updated by its original author and presented again for the church’s sesquicentennial in 1984. The largest building project, including the current auditorium, was dedicated in May 1988, and an additional worship service was added on Sunday mornings. 

In 1949, Traders Point established its first full-time mission program, supporting missionaries in Japan. 

In 1964, 11 acres were partially donated to the church at 7860 Lafayette Road, which became the next location for a church building. They constructed a building that seated 375 people, and the first worship service was held in October 1964. The facility was enlarged and remodeled several times.  

In 1976, Traders Point Christian Nursery, the origins of what would be called Traders Point Christian Academy today, opened with an enrollment of 15 kids.  

In 1983, the church began looking for another lead minister, and they were led to Howard Brammer. The church grew from under 300 people to more than 1,000 attenders under Howard’s leadership.  (It was around this time that the church sent out their first short-term mission trip with 30 people to Northwest Haitian Mission.)

The “Marching Onward” pageant was updated by its original author and presented again for the church’s sesquicentennial in 1984. The largest building project, including the current auditorium, was dedicated in May 1988, and an additional worship service was added on Sunday mornings. 

THE EXPANSION YEARS | 1998-2012: 

Traders Point Christian Church continued to grow and expand at the Lafayette Road location, so much so that they were busting at the seams. The children’s ministry rooms were overcrowded on Sunday mornings, and adult small groups were competing for the limited classroom space during the week. For 10 years, the church was prayerful over what to do next as they searched for a new location, but each option was riddled with complications. Then, in 2004, God provided 92 acres of land on Indianapolis Road, the current location of the Northwest campus. It was purchased from Wrecks Inc., a junkyard business down the Road, owned by a Jewish man who was hesitant to sell to us, but God worked on his heart. In 2005, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the 156,000-square-foot facility that would seat 2,600 people. 

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In April 2007, after three years of construction, the church celebrated the grand opening of the current Northwest campus building with 2,377 people. In June 2007, Howard Brammer retired after 25 years of service.

In search of the next pastor for Traders Point, elders visited churches all around the country to listen to pastors give messages. It was nine months of searching before Aaron Brockett’s name was brought up – then a teaching pastor at a small church in Missouri. One weekend, Aaron was visiting and teaching at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and the elders went to observe. In November 2007, the Traders Point elders hired 31-year-old Aaron Brockett as the next lead pastor.

In 2009, after a congregational vote, Traders Point bought an additional 28 acres on the north side of the Northwest campus building. The church currently leases the land to a farmer with no other plans in the works.

Attendance nearly doubled over the next four years, with more than 3,500 people attending on Sundays, and there was already a felt need to expand. So in 2011, the church organized a generosity campaign called Generous Giants with the hope to raise enough capital to add on to the building. 

There were two phases of the Generous Giants campaign. The first phase was focused on expanding the children’s spaces at the Northwest campus. The goal was to double the children’s spaces, which included creating a secure drop-off station and expanding The Park for the children's ministry and community. It also included plans to renovate the Northwest campus auditorium and expand the children’s center of one of our partners in Nairobi, Kenya. This phase was completed in 2012.

Phase two was focused on expanding staff offices, youth spaces, multi-purpose meeting spaces, and the grand entry/gathering space at the Northwest campus building. This phase never began. The entry, main gathering space, offices, and youth space at Northwest still look as they did in 2007.

The Surge of multisites | 2013-2019:


From 2013-2015, Traders Point saw more than 5,300 people attending church each week – a 20% attendance increase – with some people driving from Lafayette, Anderson, Greenwood, and Crawfordsville just to worship here. By this point, the church had also introduced online live-streaming through Traders Point Live, and more than 500 people were tuning in weekly. There were 1,021 baptisms, 1,177 in membership classes, and 3,616 new families that checked out the church. 

In 2013, Traders Point initiated its eighth expansion campaign called Humble & Hungry to become one church in multiple locations. The leadership wanted to create a way for church attenders to invite their friends to church and serve right where they live, rather than having to drive further distances to church.

This growth was exemplified by an award given to Traders Point by Outreach Magazine; naming Traders Point the fifth-fastest-growing church in America in 2016.

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In 2014, as part of the Humble & Hungry campaign, church leadership determined that Downtown was going to be the first location for a multisite campus. A Jehovah’s Witness kingdom hall downtown became available, and the staff was anxious to make the purchase for the first Traders Point multisite building, but the elders felt uncomfortable with the expense. Ultimately, the elders recommended they find a different location for the first multisite. By God’s hand, two years later, in 2016, a donor within the church bought the building for Traders Point, and the church was able to spend the money reserved for a building purchase instead fixing it up.

While the church was looking for another option as the first multisite location, church leadership decided to pursue a Carmel location as a Traders Point campus. In 2016, the Carmel location first opened in an elementary school – ideal for a church launch because of the large-group accommodations and kids classrooms. After a couple years in the school, the Carmel campus purchased and moved into the former Central Christian Church in Carmel.

So many of members were driving from Brownsburg, Plainfield, and Avon to attend church at Traders Point. Going where the people were, the church launched the third multisite campus in 2017 on the west side of Indianapolis, originally meeting in Avon Middle School. Zoning problems kept the campus from purchasing a building in a permanent location, but while they waited for an ideal space, Marsh Supermarket became abandoned and came down to a reasonable price. The Plainfield campus opened in their renovated space in June 2022.

The Midtown campus was the fourth multisite location for Traders Point. They currently meet at Indianapolis Glendale Seventh-Day Adventist Church, with a permanent location already purchased but not yet renovated. The former Marsh Supermarket at the northwest corner of Keystone and Broad Ripple Avenue is the future home of the Midtown campus. There's a plan to sublease some of the Marsh property to bring in businesses that support the community’s needs. A portion of the property has already been sold to a bank – a strategic decision since banks are closed on Sundays.

In August 2018, Traders Point launched Growth Track, a place to help people get engaged at Traders Point—taking steps to start following Jesus, connect in a group, grow in generosity, and go serve on a team. They sponsored nearly 5,000 children in South America through a partnership with Stadia and Compassion International. They also helped Hands of Hope launch an online care portal and more care communities to address the foster crisis in Indy. There was also financial and missional support of church plants around the world—in Santa Barbara, Germany, Paris, Harlem, Hollywood, and more.

In 2019, the church launched the Traders Point residency program and leadership development program, both catalysts to helping people grow into the next generation of healthy church leadership. 

FORWARD | 2020 – Current

In early 2020, with attendance of more than 9,100 people each weekend and thousands watching the weekly livestream to hear the message of Jesus, the church knew they needed more TPCC locations around Indianapolis. That’s when Traders Point launched the Midtown location in January 2020 and the Fishers location a month later.  

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Then in March of 2020, the spread of COVID-19 was labeled a global pandemic. Per government recommendations, the church met online for six months and reopened physical campus doors in September. The team got creative with Traders Point Online, a staff-lead campus-style resource for doing church from home. The average weekly views for Traders Point Online was 6,721 people across 80 countries. Then, in September, they relaunched physical gatherings with about 2,500 average weekly attendance.  

Looking back on the history of this church since 1834, there have been many hardships that could have shaken or taken it down: Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, recessions, and COVID-19. But God was and continues to be faithful through it all. This is a church that has always drawn from the Source of Life to get its strength in tough times. 

Today, we believe God is doing something big - not just in our church but in our city and all over the world. We feel He's asking us to wake up from our spiritual stupor and join Him on mission to bring His Kingdom to earth. We're continuing to move into the future with open hands and ready feet, believing God will work in and through us to make His name known.

We've started this process through Awaken, our two-year generosity initiative. We're committing to come together as a church and dedicate our time, talents and resources to what God's doing at Traders Point in order to achieve our vision to release the church, revive the city and restore hope to the world. It's through God's power and your generosity that we can make such a significant difference.

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We Are Traders Point | Series 

Traders Point was founded in 1834 with a desire to gather for worship and then scatter to proclaim the name of Jesus to the community. While our location and methods have changed over the years, these foundational principles haven’t. In the month of November, we’re talking about who we are as a church, what we do, and why we do it. This isn’t just a series about the church. It’s about God’s heart for you and His call to be all in through spiritual growth, life-giving relationships, and kingdom impact.

Learn more about We Are Traders Point