Spencer Mills Church began in the 1960’s as a small group home Bible study. The group met for some time in homes and began to grow. Soon, they outgrew the homes they were using and needed a larger meeting space. Led by Clarence Worst, the group acquired a vacant church building that stood to the west of today’s existing building. The group used this building for several years for their mid-week Bible study.
As their numbers grew, the members of the group decided to start a Sunday school. Clarence Worst would go out into the community to recruit children to come to the new Sunday school. Soon the Sunday school grew, too, and the next natural step was to begin holding worship services.
The Rev. James Kiefer volunteered to come up from Grand Rapids each Sunday to preach to this growing community of believers. This early congregation sought affiliation with a Reformed denomination, and approached several groups, but none would help. The group was inspired to contact the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and met with the church extension committee of the Presbytery of the Midwest. On November 18, 1967, the church was formally organized and received into the OPC. John Barnett was called as first pastor.
The congregation soon outgrew the small building it was using, and a new structure was built in 1971. Rev. Barnett eventually accepted a call elsewhere, and the Rev. Don Stanton became pastor in 1979. He served as senior pastor until 1992, when Rev. Frank Marsh was called to shepherd this congregation. In 1981, the building was enlarged so that the sanctuary was able to seat 325 worshipers. Again in 1998, the building was renovated to accommodate the growth of its membership. In 1999 Rev. Hank Belfield was called as assistant pastor, and later accepted a call to Virginia in 2002. Pastor Frank served until 2009 when he accepted a call to shepherd a congregation in Wisconsin. Rev. Alan Flowers was called and has served as Senior pastor since 2010, along with his wife, Lisa.
