Our Story

The backdrop of an old dance hall on a Saturday evening would hardly seem to be the place where God would begin His work in Calumet County.  But as the band inside the Quinney dance hall took its break, a small group of Christian musicians from Milwaukee started playing outside.  They had been led by God to minister to the Oneida Indians.  After playing a few numbers, Reverend Erwin Brueckner gave an invitation to receive Jesus Christ right there on the east side of Highway 55, and thirteen individuals raised their hands that evening in 1935.  They were invited to come back on Sunday morning to hold a worship service in a nearby vacant Methodist building, and the early beginnings of our church were founded.

Eventually, the church would be known as the Quinney Chapel, as the property was bought for a price of $200.  During the years that followed, the church would have various men serving in the pastorate.  By the late 1950s, the church averaged about 32 people on Sunday mornings, adding the Sunday School attendance to the worship service numbers.  By this time, the church already had a “missions focus”, with yearly pledges from $400 to $900, and a new pastor was about to lead the Quinney Chapel to what God would have for its next step.

In the early days of the 1970s, attendance had dropped a bit when Jim Jensen and his wife, Marj, candidated at the Grand Street Alliance Church.  Because of a heavy mainline religious influence in the area, a denomination spokesperson had told the Jensens that a ministry in Calumet County would be difficult (“the backside of the desert”).  But the Jensens were impressed by the faith of the people, both spiritually and in their commitment to securing a new pastor, so they accepted the call to the pastorate in August of 1973.  The church began to prosper once again, and the church updated the furnaces and décor, while leadership decided to send out a monthly newspaper called the Alliance Messenger to acquaint the community with what the church was about.

As the 1980s arrived, the church began to set aside funds for a future building project.  The church’s focus on missions was as strong as ever as young people were now being sent on short-term missions trips, and scholarships were offered to teens attending Christian colleges.  The idea of Bible studies in homes was created to give the faithful a mid-week focus on Scripture and Christian living.   In 1983, a committee was formed to look for land for a new church, and the parsonage was paid off the following year.  It became obvious that the church wanted to stand on the faith values that its members had experienced, and the name of the church was changed from Grand Street Alliance to Faith Alliance Church.

Soon, it became obvious that the ministries of the church needed more than one pastor to oversee everything.  An associate pastor’s salary would require another step of faith by the congregation, and Tom Bain was hired in 1999 to assist.  The AWANA program for kids ages 3 through Grade 6, and a Youth Group for teens became a vital outreach ministry to the community.  A Women’s BreakAway was instituted to compliment the men’s outreach.

When Pastor Bain left to enter a different ministry, the church tried to use the existing leadership team to cover the bases.  However it became obvious that another pastor was needed.  Monte Follis stepped on board in 2009 as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Families.  During this time, the church’s missionary pledges continued to grow the Great Commission Fund, and baptisms and memberships continued to be a blessing. Since our inception, the church raised up 8 men who went on to lead other churches as pastors.

The coronavirus pandemic affected all walks of life, and church ministries, gatherings and relationships all took on a different look.  Since fear and anxiety were running rampant, the church focused ever more diligently on our personal intimacy with God and His sovereignty over all things.  Faith Alliance Church even got creative and had services at the outdoor cinema theater on the south end of town, so that the saints could sit in their vehicles and worship together.  Giving to missions and the general fund did not seem to suffer during this time, and upgrades were made to our security and computer systems.  We all started to realize how important it was for the body to “not forsake the assembling of the saints” (Hebrews 10: 25).