New Church Grows in a Fogelsville Hotel

Rhonda Butz and her husband live in Macungie, but are regular guests at the .

Every Sunday for the past two years the couple and about 20 friends and acquaintances meet in a conference room in the hotel lobby to share the gospel of a relatively new, non-denominational church they founded called the Word of Life Church.

Butz, who believes God‘s “life-giving Truth“ in the words of the Bible helped her and other members overcome illnesses such as Grave‘s disease and lupus, started the church group to spread the word in her home about three years ago and moved to a hotel when the group got too big.  A new pastor, Thomas Kirkman of Maine, was hired Sept. 1.

“God’s Word is alive,” she said in an e-mail, citing Hebrews 4:12. “It isn’t just a bunch of words written on some pages to be left on a bookshelf to collect dust and do nothing.”

Spirited “Amens” and “Halleleujahs” beckon the curious inside, where Butz said all are welcome for the two-hour service that begins at 10 a.m.

Rachael Witcher, 17, of Mertztown, who grew up in a Baptist church, said she attends the hotel service nearly every Sunday, sometimes bringing along a friend.

“I like it because it’s not traditional,” she said. “There’s no specific order, such as singing first, then the offering.  It’s free-flowing, whatever is in God’s heart to do.”

While most members come from Macungie, Emmaus, Allentown, Whitehall, Mertztown and Bethlehem, Word of Life attracts some out-of-town guests and truck drivers who stay at the hotel as well.

“We have met many wonderful travelers who have worshipped with us,“ Butz said, citing a Gettysburg woman who liked what she heard so much that she asked the church to minister to her daughter, who joined the congregation before moving to another state.

That’s an advantage of meeting at the hotel,  she said, adding that the room is beautiful, guarantees seating for 30, parking and a good location.  The down-side is the group must bring in its own sound equipment to and from the Hawthorne each week and at times hosts more worshipers than the room can comfortably hold.

Now that the Word of Life Church has a minister, its members say the next step will be to find a more permanent place to teach and worship.  Whether that step is to rent, buy or build, Butz said, has yet to be decided.