The History of our church:

In the early 1960s a group of people in the Northeast part of the Twin Cities came together to discuss a desire for an Assemblies of God church in their area. At the same time God was speaking with Mark and Shirley Denyes about leaving their current home in Missouri and settling in Fridley, MN to pastor an Assemblies of God church. Knowing that they’d heard God’s voice, the young Denyes family obeyed the call and moved to Minnesota in March of 1963.

On Mother’s Day of 1963, the second Sunday of this small church’s existence, Pastor Denyes spoke. Mark Denyes was elected as their official pastor just a few weeks later.

The church began meeting at Hayes Elementary School soon after starting. This facility was rented so the congregation could begin to grow, and it did!

The leaders of this new young church then requested affiliation from the Assemblies of God, and on June of 1963, the new church became Fridley Assembly of God.

On August 21, 1963, a building at 472 Osborne Road was purchased for $33,000. Three years later three adjacent lots were purchased and plans began for a 500 seat auditorium. In 1968 the building was completed and in 1976 a gym and more space was added.

More land was purchased in the anticipation of further growth.

The church family grew both spiritually and numerically. Pastor Mark Denyes shared the Lord’s challenge with his congregation to reach out to “the hurting, bruised, sighing, crying, and those hiding behind closed drapes.” The Lord said He would bring them in, and He has!!

In 1979 eight-and-a half acres was purchased across the street at 7777 University Avenue and plans were made for a 3,000 seat sanctuary. In 1987 construction began and another eight acres was purchased. We moved from Fridley to Spring Lake Park so it was evident that a new name would have to be chosen. On November 4, 1987 we became Emmanuel Christian Center. Emmanuel means “God with us.”

Our 25^th anniversary was in May of 1988. We had our final service at 472 Osborne Road on the last Sunday in May. Both worship services were full. It was an emotional time with a mixture of sadness in leaving our old church location, but also joyful anticipation at what God had in store for us in the future!

We were excited to hold our very first service as Emmanuel Christian Center in our new home the first Sunday in June, 1988. With God’s help we grew quickly, and very soon the 1,500 seat sanctuary was packed full. To make our services more comfortable for everyone we decided in September of 1989 to return to two worship times, one at 8:45 a.m. and the other at 10:30 a.m. In 1992 we added 16,000 square feet to our education wing to service our families.

The growth in our attendance continued, and in May of 1997 we enlarged our sanctuary to accommodate 3,000, and a new chapel with a capacity of 450 was also built. Every area of ministry was growing steadily so we also added more classroom space and increased our parking.

It wasn’t just the building that was changing, our leadership was about to change as well. In 2006, after 43 years of faithful service to this church family, Pastor G. Mark Denyes announced he was stepping down as Senior Pastor and into the role of Founding Pastor. He didn’t retire from preaching; as he still loves sharing the Word of God with the congregation at 6 p.m. on Sunday evenings.

Dwight Denyes, who had been our Executive Pastor since 2002, was voted in as our new Senior Pastor in March of 2006. Pastor Dwight has brought his own leadership style and gifts into the position and he has led with humility and in the power of the Holy Spirit. His passion is to help all who attend Emmanuel Christian Center to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

Hundreds of people have made the commitment to come alongside Pastor Dwight and the other ministry leaders to pray for the needs of this church one hour a week! We know that prayer works and we have already begun to see the fruit of those prayers. We are very blessed!

With God’s help we will continue to love others, grow in our faith, impact our community, and see Him transform lives as we surrender to His leading.