our history

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Church documents going back to the mid 1920's tell how a group of believers shared the vision of establishing a church in the Southlawn Park community.  The group was meeting in homes, but their vision was for a church building where they would have room to worship, to teach Bible classes to all ages, baptize new believers, and conduct various ministries in service to the community.  Soon they began collecting donations and one member stepped forward, volunteering to oversee the building project 40 hours per week, at 14 cents an hour!  Believe it or not, that was a fair wage at the time! Property was secured on the corner of Jefferson and Abbie, and construction soon began.
 
By 1927 the building was completed and the Southlawn Church of God was established. Many generations have served the community faithfully from the corner of Abbie and Jefferson.  The church has experienced ups and downs, with 3 major building expansions, and purchasing 2 parsonages over the years.  In 2002 we celebrated 75 years of serving the community.  In the past few years the make up of the church has changed dramatically.  We have mourned the loss of many of our life-long members to the enemy death, yet God has brought in several young families, dropping our average age from 55-56 in 1999 to about 33 in 2007.  
 
Visitors often comment how they feel "at home" when they visit Southlawn.  We know it is God's Spirit, as there is a wonderful sense of community and family as we seek to be true to the scriptural admonition to "make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3).  The real strength is found in small groups where people get a sense of “belonging” and being “connected.”  We seek to inspire study of God’s Word with strong emphasis on it’s application to our daily lives, with a goal of growing in all aspects of discipleship.  Our emphasis is less on being like churches of our day, and more on being like the church of the New Testament.

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