New Facility Planned In 2007—

Church Purchases

42 Acres In Hawleyville

By Kaaren Valenta

Grace Christian Fellowship has purchased a 42-acre Hawleyville site bounded by Covered Bridge Road, Route 25 and I-84 for $3.1 million and plans to build a new church there in about three years.

“We are very excited,” said Associate Pastor Shelia Fredericks. “We love Newtown. When we started looking for land, one of our criteria was that it had to be in Newtown. We have a special relationship with the community. When we started our church here 20 years ago in June, we said it was a New Town for Jesus Christ.”

In 1984, nine people assembled with Pastors Barry and Sheila Fredericks for their first service, and five of them were well-wishers from other churches. Today the congregation numbers about 500 and is rapidly outgrowing its church at 174 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6), where there is no room to expand.

 “Five years ago we added a second service to accommodate our members,” Pastor Shelia Fredericks said. “The sanctuary seats 275. It would be very difficult to add a third service because so many of us are a part of each service.”

“With a growing congregation and active youth ministry, we simply need more room,” she said. “Having been in Newtown for the past 20 years, we are very grateful to have found such a wonderful piece of property right in our backyard. We hope to have this new facility, which will house our teaching church, children’s church, and healing school, completed by 2007.”

Associate Pastor Christopher Caton, who joined the church almost 12 years ago, headed the project to find the land for the expansion. He said he was approached by a realtor from Coldwell Banker Commercial, Scalzo Group, who had heard that the church was looking for land.

The sale included a residential dwelling for $1.1 million and unimproved land for $2 million at 4, 8, 9 and 15 Covered Bridge Road and 9 Hawleyville Road. The owner, Stanley Simon, retained a life estate on some of the property.

“He will continue to live there and use the house, barn, and some other outbuildings,” Pastor Caton said. He credited Mr Simon for preserving a property that is filled with ponds, streams, gardens, and a virtual arboretum of trees.

 “We plan to preserve the integrity and beauty of the site for our congregation and community to enjoy for many years to come,” he said.

When the church started to look for land, there wasn’t much on the market.

“There was very little available of the size, type, and location that we needed,” Pastor Caton said. “Real estate agents were showing us land in Brookfield, New Milford, and Danbury but we said, ‘no, it has to be in Newtown.’

“This area is very convenient because it is right at Exit 9 of I-84.”

Pastor Caton said the congregation now has to begin planning for construction of what is projected to be a 30,000 square foot building.

“It is so hard to predict the timetable,” he said. “We must begin the process of designing the site and going before the town [boards] for approval. We hope to break ground as soon as possible because we already need to add a third service.”

Grace Christian Fellowship is an interdenominational church affiliated with the Rhema Ministerial Association International. The Fredericks were Brookfield residents and members of the Assembly of God congregation, then located in Danbury, when they were called to the ministry and left for the Rhema Bible school in Tulsa, Okla., in 1982.

“We packed up our three kids, two dogs and a cat and went to Oklahoma,” Pastor Sheila said. Four years later they came back to set up their own church.

“We looked for space to rent at Edmond Town Hall and the VFW hall,” she said. “Both said to try the Essex House,” a catering hall built in the late 1950s and owned by the late Nick Hayes on Route 6.

“Nick rented us the use of the building for our Sunday services for $50 a week,” she said. “We had Bible study at our house. About nine months later, he rented us the Essex House on Wednesday night, too. Two years later we leased the entire lower level. I know that God had the place waiting for us.”

The church purchased the building in 1991 for $425,000.

The Fredericks have presented a weekly television ministry, The Family Matters to God, on Fridays at 6 pm on Charter Cable Channel 21 since 1994. The show is now carried on six cable channels.

Grace Christian Fellowship has a healing ministry every Thursday from 1 to 2 pm and a monthly healing service on the second Friday evening. The church offers nursery care, children’s church, women’s and men’s fellowship, and a very active youth ministry.

The pastors’ eldest son, Adam Fredericks, 30, is the youth pastor. He and Christopher Caton also are graduates of Rhema, where Seth Fredericks, 23, now is studying. Blaine Fredericks, 28, teaches the Wednesday evening children’s service and is involved with the junior high youth group.

Pastor Sheila Fredericks said that when the new church is built, the congregation plans to sell the building on Mt Pleasant Road. But for now the focus is on trying to figure out the best design for what they will need in the new building.

Whatever happens, she knows her church will continue to be “a blessing to the community.” 

“It’s a walk of faith that unfolds step by step,” she said.