More than a century of God's Grace

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.