Many people have asked, “Where did Grace-St. Paul Methodist Church of Jim Thorpe go?”

While the congregation no longer meets at its former building at 40 Church Road, Penn Forest Township, the church is still going strong at a new location — inside the former Jim Thorpe Junior High School building at 410 Center Ave. in the Heights section of Jim Thorpe.

For Daniel Meader, pastor of Grace-St. Paul Methodist Church, the decision to separate from the United Methodist Church was a difficult one. But he and the members of the congregation know that they must trust in God’s care when making tough choices.

“The church is the people, not a building,” Meader said. “There were some pretty major changes in quality, administration, and in their doctrines with the United Methodist Church. We decided that this was not tenable for us to stay, and we decided that we needed to leave.

“The difficulty is that in the United Methodist Church, there is a trust clause, which binds the property and the assets to the denomination. In leaving, it meant leaving the church assets and the building and property at 40 Church Road.”

Meader says the decision sparked some challenges.

“We were scrambling really bad in the beginning of the summer when we decided to leave, to try to find where to go. We looked at hotels and banquet rooms, all kinds of places. Someone brought this (410 Center Ave. building) up.”

When they first decided to meet at the Center Avenue building, they did not yet have rooms set up for their use, so were told they could use the gymnasium.

The only catch was, the night before the service, there was a professional wrestling tournament fundraiser, and the wrestling ring was still set up. So because there was not much room, he did his preaching from the wrestling ring.

“Wrestling with spiritual forces,” is how he described it.

They started to meet in a smaller room, but the congregation outgrew that room and moved to its current room, Room 101 on the first floor, earlier this year. The plan will be to eventually have a building of their own.

Right now, though, renting the space in this building works well for the congregation.

“Not having a mortgage or those kinds of bills that accompany the owning of a building has been, in a lot of ways, a blessing to us,” Meader said. “We are able to do ministry, we have the funds available. We are where the Lord has put us for this moment.”

In October, the congregation aligned with the Global Methodist Church, which launched out of response to what the United Methodist Church was doing.

“We want people to know that we are here, and they are welcome to join us,” Meader said.

Sunday services are at 10:30 a.m. There is a fellowship hour at 9:30, before the service.

They hold a book study Wednesday mornings, looking at various works of Christian literature, and they hold a Bible study Wednesdays at 4 p.m.

“We worship God in spirit and truth. We exposit the Scriptures; I do expository preaching. In everything we do, we strive to be faithful to God, faithful to His Word. We want to be a place that reaches our community for the Kingdom of God, for Christ, and to be a servant to our community.”

Grace-St. Paul is currently doing a winter mission, collecting adult and children’s socks, hats, gloves, scarves and coats; new or gently used.

Donations will be distributed to Family Promise, Peaceful Knights, and the Cold Weather Station. They will be collecting the items now through Nov. 9.