At a local church in Gnadenhutten, Bible studies were held after regular Wednesday night choir practice. These studies lead to salvation, water baptism and a hunger to know the Lord more, including Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Mid-summer, several left the local church maintaining a weekly home Bible study at various homes. We separated on Sundays, searching for a new church, each family going to random churches with no real plan to ever start a church of our own. We were looking for a church that would fill our need to learn more of the scripture.

Summer, our Bible study group met with David Barlock for a special meeting in a rented bank basement. The group was about 30 people including children at that time. Soon after that meeting, we prayed to appoint deacons/elders and established a foundation for our own church. We met 4 Sundays at a rented bank basement, and then we found we could rent the local Masonic Lodge social hall on Sunday mornings. By fall of 1984, our church was established as Koinonia, Believers Fellowship in Christ. We grew at that time, adding new people from Uhrichsville and Dennison.

By October, the Lord called us out of our comfort zone, and we began to actively look for a permanent church building. He led us to the Egler household where church was held for 14 months, waiting for a building.

Late January 1987 the elders found an empty department store in downtown Uhrichsville whose owner was willing to sell. Immediately God revealed this was the place He had prepared for us to meet as a permanent, established church.

As the years have passed, renovations have been made to transform the “department store look” to that of a Church. Our name has also transformed to Uhrichsville Christian Fellowship, a part of the Christian Life Mission, founded by David Barlock.

In December of 1990, Tom and Julie Klaserner began to make the trip to Toronto, Ohio to teach home Bible studies. By 1994, the Klaserners made the move to Toronto, establishing the Cornerstone Church in their home on Logan Street.

During 1999 more renovations to the Uhrichsville Church were begun, making the second story into apartments to house trainees for the mission field.

In 2001 Mike and Jeannie Smallwood began to take the word to McConnelsville, Ohio in weekly home Bible studies. Before long, the Christian Fellowship of McConnelsville was an active church.

Today people from many areas have come to Uhrichsville to be trained and sent out to preach the gospel. Numerous families have passed through Uhrichsville on the way to new churches in Connecticut, Texas, California, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and beyond.