HISTORY OF

WINTERSET COMMUNITY CHURCH

 

Winterset Community Church

Photo Courtesy of Google Maps

 

The Winterset Community Church (WCC) is an Evangelical Free Church (EFCA) with their first community service occurring in April 1999. WCC started as a church plant by the Martensdale Community Church, Martensdale, IA. The church began with five families doing a group bible study to determine if there was interest in establishing a church in Winterset. The church's goal was not to compete with or take people away from the established existing churches but to reach the un-churched and offer a different type of church.

WCC’s vision is “To Abide in Christ" (John 15:5). This vision is carried out by:

1. Abiding in Christ Personally. Live our daily lives with an awareness of God's
    Love 
for us and all people. (John 15:9)

2. Abide in Christ Corporately. Attend Sunday morning worship. (John4:24)

3. Abide in Christ Together. Be a part of a Community Group, building relationships

    to encourage us to live in the Way of Jesus. (John 14:6)

 

WCC’s values are:

 

1. A community driven life.

2. A conservative Christian faith.

3. A casual Christian environment.

4. A contemporary style of ministry

 

The location of the church services and meetings changed a lot during the first five years of existence. They began meeting in the Commons area of the Junior High School building, then moved to the High School Cafeteria lunch area, and finally held meetings at the Winterset Elementary Building using the gym and several classrooms. During the summer months, when the School needed to reseal the gym floor, they met at various places such as the Winterset Theater, the Fitness Room on the second floor of the Farmers & Merchants State Bank building, and the Jackson Building.

In late 2004, Bill and Karen Brookhart offered to let the church use the vacant storage area of a building at 113 South Second Street that they had purchased for their business, Jackson Medical Supply. This building was constructed during the Depression (1930) by the the Civilian Conservation Corps. The building changed ownership over the years, but for at least 20 years, Bill Meyer owned the building operating as Meyer Auto Repair shop and rented part of the building to Dan Madison, who ran the Big A Auto parts store. Brookhart's purchased the building from Russ Schoenauer in 2004.

WCC renovated the storage area which took about six months to complete, finishing in the fall of 2005. This space became WCC's next interim meeting space with the church actively looking for land to purchase and build a church home. But then on February 5, 2007, the Brookhart's offered to sell the building to WCC for their costs in the building, allowing this location to become their permanent home. WCC also purchased the rental property directly behind the building to the East in order to expand the sanctuary area.

In 2008, WCC began their first remodeling project at a cost of $730,000 to expand the current sanctuary to increase visibility and seating space, enlarge the cafe area, create an office space for staff, build classrooms for their growing youth program (K to high school), widen the hallway, expand the bathrooms, and renovate the nursery and toddler area.

In the Spring of 2017, they began their final building expansion project at a total cost of $1,810,000 which involved the purchase of 5 homes so that the church owned the entire block except for the Four Square Church on the NE corner and the adjoining lot to the west of their building. New construction of 8,508 ft2 plus the existing 1I,945 ft2 created a total usable space of 20,453 ft2. The project consisted of adding a half court gym, additional men and women's restrooms, a youth kitchenette, and a remodel of the existing youth room. The expanded sanctuary allowed for seating of 320. Also, two additional classrooms were added  along with a new sound room and a cry room for infants.

The current (2023) Senior Pastor is G. Scott O'Conner, who has been with the church since October of 1999. Scott, a native Iowan, received his undergraduate degree from Simpson College, and his Master of Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. Eric Fulton is the full-time Youth Pastor since January 2011. He is a graduate of Iowa State University and has a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Ancient Hebrew and Greek from Bethel Seminary.

_____________________

 

Source:  WCC Church History submitted to IAGenWeb by Tim Rethmeier, 2023


Maintained by the County Coordinator This page was created on December 10, 2010.
This page was last updated Tuesday, 26-Sep-2023 21:12:15 CDT .