St. Paul Fellowship

Our History

St. Paul Fellowship began in 2002 as a group of 25 people who responded in faith to God's call to church planting. We're part of a broader movement of church planting that was begun by Jesus Christ, and has extended down through the centuries to our time.

But the history of St. Paul Fellowship actually goes back further than 2002. In 1990, Pat and Jane Kahnke purchased a home in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul, and at that time they began to dream of a new church that would reach out to unchurched people from St. Paul, across all lines of race and class, bringing a fresh wave of God's Spirit into the neighborhood. Based on this initial vision, Pat returned to school, first to finish his undergraduate degree, and then to pursue seminary training.

Pat earned his Master of Divinity from Bethel Seminary in June, 2001. During the course of his studies, he had the opportunity to participate in planting Hope Community Church at the University of Minnesota (out of Bethlehem Baptist Church in downtown Minneapolis). He eventually became Hope's full-time Pastor of Worship and Outreach.

Continuing to obey God's original leading, in 2002 Pat began spearheading the launch of St. Paul Fellowship. Begun as a project of Hope Community Church, we've been growing into the church we've always dreamed about in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul. We're convinced that God's hand is guiding us, as evidenced in part by our congregation's heartfelt commitment to the vision of the church, God's provision of a building for us, the spiritual growth of our church as we study His word and fellowship together, and the numerical growth He has given us as people from the neighborhood continue to join with us.

Our long-term vision is to establish St. Paul Fellowship as a strong, viable church, and then to plant more churches in the city. Toward that end, we took a major faith step of purchasing a church building at Victoria and Sherburne. We have made a long-term commitment to this specific neighborhood, and we hope to see many new churches planted from out of this small congregation. Our dream is to see many, many people come to Christ on the corner of Victoria and Sherburne, and to see hundreds of lives changed over the years through participation in the body of Christ at St. Paul Fellowship.