Storrs Community Church

Growing in Grace

Storrs Community Church has been “growing in grace” since the first Sunday in November 1969, when thirty people gathered in the home of Ted and Sue Drake in Mansfield. These founders conceived of a church that responded to contemporary needs, that was committed to Christianity as revealed in the Scriptures and that was open to diversity, intellectual inquiry and discourse. Since the very beginning, the congregation has had a strong connection to members of the faculty, staff and students at the University of Connecticut. In cooperation with the Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, we became a “sending church” and commissioned many young men and women to various missions and ministries.

For 37 years we have been meeting in different Mansfield Schools. Our focus has been to provide a spiritual home where people encounter a loving God, mature in faith through being part of a Christian community, and spread Christ’s love to others. As time has passed, it has become clear that providing an effective ministry to our community requires space that can be used much more often than on Sunday morning. We began to conceive of our own space for supporting our ministry of hospitality, outreach and visibility in the community, nurturing the faith of children and youth, enabling regular fellowship events, and creating an environment conducive to worship and effective communication of the Gospel.

Motivated by a desire for expanding our ministries, a committee was formed in 1993 to assess needs. A beautiful eleven-acre lot in the Town of Coventry was purchased the following year. Over time it has become increasingly clear that we need a place to call home. Now, as we approach the celebration of our 40^th Anniversary in 2009, we feel that the time has come to fulfill this long-held dream and build a church facility on our land!