When St. Paul Lutheran Church was established in
1893, our mission was to serve as a Gospel outreach base not just for
Fort Worth and its suburbs, but several counties in North Texas.
For
more than a century, that mission has continued as the St. Paul family
today includes people from more than 60 different zip codes. We have
grown -- not so much stone upon stone, but grace upon grace and
blessing upon blessing -- from a tiny congregation of a few dozen
families in a simple wood-frame church to more than 1,200 members
meeting at a hillside campus near the freeway.
Through
God's guidance, we've increased at a measured pace, based upon need and
ministry opportunity. Our first permanent home was in a Knights of
Honor hall at Houston and Second streets, where rent cost $80 a year.
Four years later, we borrowed $1,500 from the Missouri Synod and built
a 20-foot by 24-foot wood-frame church at Hemphill and Vickery streets.
Twenty years after that, we borrowed and built again.
Through
the decades, we have trusted the Lord to provide the means for tasks
only He could accomplish -- and then witnessed His faithfulness! Fifty
years ago, when were half our present size, we paid (in 2005 dollars)
almost $600,000 for the 3 acres at 1800 West Freeway and more than $4
million for our A-frame sanctuary and Fellowship Hall. All debt was
paid within a year of completion.
The same
challenges and opportunites of expanding the kingdom are with us today,
and through the fullness of God's grace, we have received one blessing
after another. Therefore, we are Compelled by His Love to act again.
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