Church History

How Our Congregation Began

The congregation began in April 1971 when Jerry Lee and his family came to Chelmsford supported as stateside missionaries by the Park Plaza Church of Christ in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Lloyd Cain family arrived in January 1973 supported by churches in Oklahoma City and Lubbock, Texas. In line with previous plans, Jerry left in 1979 to begin another congregation in New England. Lloyd remained as minister, until retiring in 2002. He and his wife, Mary, now live in North Carolina and can be reached by e-mail.

That first Sunday in 1971 only the Lee's family of four met for worship in their own living room. Growth came slowly at first, then in spurts, and actually declined in the early 90's when a weakened economy moved several families elsewhere. Attendance remained level for a few years. Currently, the Lord is once again blessing us with growth.

Church property at the corner of Parkhurst and North Road was purchased in December 1971. The two family home was remodeled and converted into a usable worship facility. The church met its goal of becoming self-supporting in 1978.

Associate minister Danny Mercer, and his family, arrived in January 1998 to work primarily in the area of outreach. Danny served with us as associate minister and then as minister until August 2002, when Danny left to further his education and prepare for further ministry.

We were then blessed by the arrival of Scot Poirier and his wife, Helen. Scot served as our minister from 2002 until November 2007, with great enthusiasm for evangelism and working with youth. Scot's moved on to his next adventure, and can now be reached by email .

We designated the year 2001 as our year of Jubilee: A Time of New Beginnings

Every fifty years God wanted Israel to celebrate a "Year of Jubilee." It was a time of new beginnings. Everything and everyone were to be set free. In a similar way, we hope this year can be "Our Year of Jubilee." Not literally the way Israel celebrated, but as an analogy of the new beginnings we see ahead of us.

For this reason, the congregation has adopted this as our theme for the year 2001: "Our Year of Jubilee." We hope no one stops what they're doing, but we do hope we can all step back and take a reflective look at where we are as a church and where we're going. We hope it will also be a time to "set things free" if need be.

There are many opportunities ahead of us. We pray that as one body we can unite behind our God and our purposes and march boldly forward arm in arm.