History of Niles Christian Assembly
A New Church
At the beginning of Pastor Reigle’s ministry, services continued to be
held on Wednesday evenings only. Pastor Reigle undertook a remodeling of
the structure – a house located on 505 Pratt Street – to hold more people
and allow for expected growth. He was able to add three more services
weekly. A Sunday morning and Sunday evening service and a Friday Night
Youth Service to go along with the Wednesday night services still
held.
Sunday School Classes were started initially with two classes. One comprised of the toddlers to age twelve and the other was from ages thirteen and up. Eventually the Sunday school grew and expanded to ten (10) classes. The church had a name change from the Italian church of North America to Full Gospel Christian Assembly. Later another change in the name occurred to comply with a decision made at the National General Convention of the C.C.N.A. The name was changed to Niles Christian Assembly which remains the same up until today.
The church continued to see growth to the extent that the current
building became inadequate for the congregation. In 1964 a building
program was initiated and after a number of frustrating years of buying
and then having to sell four pieces of property, the present site was
purchased in 1967. Within 60 days construction was begun and with the
congregation, under the supervision of Pastor Reigle who served as the
Building Chairman Coordinator did 90% of the work. This was done mainly
by the men of the church and volunteers who donated their time and
talents. Pastor Reigle did the majority of the varnishing and painting of
the church; Rudy Yurjevich headed up the carpentry area; Pete Rommel was
in charge of the electrical; Dom Stigliano was responsible for the
Masonry; Sam Bernard (Sister Eleanor & Sister Eva’s father) did the
plumbing; John Reigle assisted in many areas adding his talents to the
mix; Dorcas Fellowship provided meals daily for all the workers; Youth
Group fulfilled the role of manuel laborers; Brother Nick Zezzo did the
exterior brickwork on the building. The building was completed in a
little over one year’s time. Because of the people from the congregation
and outside community, friends, relatives, and other churches members
giving of their time and talents, the cost of the building was kept at a
minimum. Five years later Pastor Reigle along with the board members and
members of the assembly held a mortgage burning service.