Our Church History

The Founders

Our church began in Columbia City, Oregon, just two miles north of St. Helens. The original building was built in 1924, along with the school across the street, two years before the town itself was chartered. It was a originally a Baptist church, and being a small town in the Great Depression, it eventually shut down for lack of funds.

In 1932, Roy and Hattie Hayes and Charleton and Eva Steves were attending the Free Methodist Church in St. Helens. Mr. Hayes proposed starting a Sunday School in the afternoons in his home town of Columbia City, where he had the keys to the closed down church. After much prayer and consideration, the families sensed the leading of the Lord and began.

The Hayes knew an evangelist by the name of Rose Fidler from the Kelso, Washington. She had a Pentecostal and Baptist background, and she was instrumental in bringing the full gospel message to Columbia County. They began holding evangelistic meetings in the community hall, using a variety of musical instruments and with a powerful gospel message.

Becoming Foursquare

As Sister Fidler and her husband Albert sensed the call to start a new church across the river in Woodland, Washington, they went to Dr. Harold W. Jeffries of the Portland Foursquare Church and asked him to send someone to pastor the new congregation in Columbia City. He sent Nina Butler, a member of his church and a graduate of LIFE Bible College. She married Elvin Swanson of Clatskanie and they became the first pastors of the Church.

In 1934 the congregation met with Foursquare Superviser Herman Mitzner and applied to be chartered with as a Foursquare Gospel Church. The church received its charter on December 17, 1935, signed by Foursquare Founder Aimee Semple McPherson. In 1939 the church purchased the property from the Oregon Baptist State Convention for $150.

Pastoral History

During the early years, pastors received five dollars a week to administer services for the church. It is not difficult to understand why there was such a high turnover rate. In fact, until 1957 the church had more pastors come and go than it had years in its history. In 1942, under the leadership of Pastor Joe and Virginia Knapp, the church purchased the lot next to the church and built a parsonage out of wood salvaged from an old torn down saloon. The Knapps went on to many years of fruitful missionary work in Colombia, South America.

In 1947, Dorothy Jean Furlong and Juanita Conger kept the doors open and saw record attendance in their Sunday School outreach. During that time a young girl by the name of Arlene Ready came to know the Lord, met her husband Lewis Zeigler in bible college, and went on to oversee Foursquare in South Africa for 35 years. Sisters Furlong and Conger went on to teach at LIFE Bible College for many years and mentored may generations of Foursquare Pastors.

John and Leona Wheeler were the first pastors to stay longer than 17 months, pastoring faithfully for nearly seven years (1955-62). During the pastorate of Jerry and Joan Sanford, the church broke new barriers in attendance and fruitfulness, and Phil and Diane Franklin pastored the church for nearly 11 years before returning to the Foursquare mission field.

Present Day

Pastors Mike and Molly Cooke came to serve in March of 1995. Since that time, the church has grown and established itself as a light for the gospel and a dedicated blessing to the community. In 2003 the church purchased 7 acres in North St. Helens and took on the name Columbia River Foursquare Church. Just before Easter 2010, the congregation moved into the new facility and continues its mission to restore people, restore community, and be a change in the world.