College Ave Church wasn’t originally called, or even on, College Avenue. When the church first started meeting on July 14, 1892 it was located downtown at 19th and Market. The original members were all Swedish and Rev. Augustus Orgren taught only in Swedish. The original home of our church, then called Bethel Swedish Baptist Church, still stands today in its original location.  But in 1901 the church was no longer able to afford their building and had to instead meet in members’ homes until 1907.

A new property was purchased at 16th and E, amd services continued to be held only in Swedish until the 1920s. Despite operating with no budget during the years of the first world war, the church slowly continued to grow. In 1934, services switched to only speaking English which bolstered the church’s growth and led to the church’s move to the college area.

On July 28, 1940, the church moved to the corner of Adams Ave and College Ave. Those 60 members continued to grow in number and the campus continued to expand. In 1948, there were 434 members. By 1962 the church had over 1,200 members and five years later had over 1,400. The church continued to grow and spread the gospel for the next 25 years before hiring Dr. Jerry Sheveland as senior pastor.  

Pastor Jerry led throughout the 1990s before taking over as president of Converge (formerly the Baptist General Conference). The church struggled to find a new senior pastor and, with a brief exception, was without a lead pastor for almost a decade. In 2006 Rev Carlton Harris was hired. Pastor Carlton worked to unify the church and led through several difficult social periods before he left in 2021. In 2023 Pastor Chris Hilken became the senior pastor and that brings us up to today!

Want to learn even more of our church history? Click here to take the deep dive.