Our Story
December 1942 – With the war against the axis powers in full–swing for nearly a full year, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered that the nation would be rationing gasoline. This new requirement was made public on November 26, 1942. The country was given one week to comply with the rationing. As of December 1, 1942, the average American was now only allowed between 3 and 8 gallons of gas per week. For many, this made it difficult to conduct life and business and continue to travel to church week in and week out.
In Aurora, OH, a local church devised a plan. They were going to start a church. On December 20th, 1942, the Church in Aurora started Geauga Lake Community Church in the Geauga Lake Country Club Clubhouse under the leadership of Rev. J.R. Hutchinson. That day a church was birthed that would eventually become New Life Church.
They continued to meet for the next few years in the clubhouse until they were able to purchase property and begin construction on a church.
On another late December day in 1950, a small church opened it’s doors for the first time. The church continued to expand during this time in both numbers and facility. On July 11, 1976, the church voted to join the Assemblies of God under the leadership of Rev. L.A. Thompson.
At the dedication of the first building, these words were the declaration of the church:
Our church meets for worship in this building, but the building is not the church. The church is in the hearts of its people… Our church is us, wherever we go; we are its ambassadors [and] its ministers...
The reality then and now is that our church exists to facilitate the worship of God and the progress of His message.
