A long history
The Summit began life as a church in the early sixties under the name Homestead Heights Baptist Church. Some of our current members have been a part of the church from the beginning and could tell stories of the blessings they’ve seen and the challenges we’ve been through as a church.

A fresh vision
In 1998, Homestead Heights was without a senior pastor and we called Dr. Keith Eitel, then head of the Missions Department at Southeastern Baptist Seminary to be our Interim Pastor. Dr. Eitel taught us about the world outside of Durham and the USA; a world that needed to be reached.

Dr. Eitel led the church to reassess what it meant to be led by God and that it wasn’t about having a church that catered to our own personal preferences. It was about being a church that worshiped God and reached out to the world. A new unity and purpose was born in the church.

In December 2001 the church voted to call J.D. Greear as our new lead pastor. J.D. had been serving as the college pastor.

Pastor J.D. immediately cast a vision for the church to engage the RDU area with the Gospel. Homestead Heights was "re-launched" as the Summit Church. With a new identity, it was time for a new beginning. Worship attendance at the time was about 400, but a goal was set to have 1,000 in worship that Easter. The members came together in a show of unified energy and focus unlike anything anyone remembered seeing before. On Easter Sunday, more than 1,100 people experienced worship at the Summit.

Within the next two years, it became clear that God had even bigger plans. We had outgrown our facility and began to look for a new location. The church sold the property it had owned since the early sixties and began meeting at Riverside High School. Attendance grew to more than 2000 per week.

A Regional Church
As the Summit grew, we saw people coming from all over the Triangle. Our search for land became more focused on areas that would allow us to continue to reach people from all over RDU. Late in 2006, the church purchased 37 acres on T.W. Alexander Road, near Brier Creek, one of the fastest growing points in the area and a place that would put the Summit in a better location to reach the entire Triangle.

Multiple Campuses
Having outgrown Riverside High, it became necessary to develop a facility plan that wouldn’t take as long as it would to develop 37 acres. In September of 2007, the Summit began meeting in multiple locations. By leasing and renovating warehouse space, we've been able to provide an 1100 seat auditorium which has become known as our Brier Creek Campus. Our second location is our Cole Mill Campus, seating 225 and perfectly situated to continue reaching north and west Durham and west along I-85. In the fall of 2008, we launched the West Club Campus, situated in an historic Durham neighborhood within walking distance of  Duke University. The West Club Campus seats 350 for worship. Most recently, in the fall of 2009, we launched our Summit en Espanol campus, which currently also meets at our Brier Creek facility.  This campus is pasionate about reaching the growing Latino community in RDU with good news of Jesus.

Becoming a multi-site church has enabled us to expand the gospel by allowing people to worship closer to where they live. We will continue to explore opportunities for new campuses throughout RDU. Check out our BELIEVE project for how you can help us in these efforts.