King of Kings Community Church began as a vision of the Metropolitan District Christian and Missionary Alliance leadership. The Alliance recognized that Southern Ocean County was a rapidly growing area in need of a strong evangelical witness.
Tom Spaschak and Pat Sharkey accepted the call to begin this church planting effort in September 1991. During that first year the pastors worked hard to develop a viable core group of people who desired to reach this area for Christ. Over 10,000 phone calls and thousands of mailings were produced to advertise our grand opening service. That grand opening service was in November 1992 with about 90 people in attendance in the Southern Regional High School auditorium.
The church began to grow and moved to the Super Fresh Shopping Center. The church had some difficult times in those first few years. Pastor Spaschak moved on and Pat Sharkey was called to continue as Pastor on May 15, 1994. At that time, the church had to basically start over.
In 1994, the church had approximately 30 people attending each week. Even though at times it was very hard, the church continued to follow God’s vision and calling to reach Southern Ocean County for Christ. The perseverance of God’s people was greatly rewarded.
On March 3, 1997 the congregation officially was organized and incorporated as a separate, full fledged congregation of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The congregation enjoyed a worshipful celebration with a wonderful banquet at Carroll’s Restaurant.
The church continued to grow and the church went into contract to purchase the property it was renting at 508 East Bay Avenue in Manahawkin from Summit Bank for $180,000. God’s people rose to the occasion and in one week we raised the approximate $40,000 necessary for the down payment. The church received a mortgage from the Alliance Development Fund for the rest.
Soon, the church was packed out and there was a time when we had three services each Sunday morning. In the Spring and Summer of 1999, the congregation began the Building Upon The Rock stewardship campaign. The people believed that God was leading them to build an 11,000 square foot worship/community center. By the end of the summer of 1999, God’s people had committed $495,000 towards the construction of this $850,000 project. Shortly thereafter, the church received a mortgage from the Alliance Development Fund and construction was underway.
A great highlight for King of Kings was that on October 5, 1999 we started our first daughter congregation. Assistant Pastor Steve Hartman and his family felt called by God to reach into the Tuckerton area with another C&MA church. Bob Nash accepted the call to assist Steve and Lighthouse Alliance Community Church was born. We are so proud of our daughter church, led by our beloved Hartman and Nash families. Lighthouse Alliance is home to about 150 weekly worshippers in the Trish Hardware Shopping Plaza. They have recently (September 2002) gone into contract to purchase a large building in that plaza.
In the fall of 1999, knowing Pastor Pat would be shorthanded with Steve going to plant a church, the Lord brought a great new assistant. Anthony and Allison Morici came to King of Kings and have been a wonderful addition to our church. Anthony came from Bedford Hills Alliance Church in New York. Anthony also was a full time student at Alliance Theological Seminary. Anthony shares the preaching duties, counseling and leadership of all small group ministries. Since they have been with us, they have had two sons born, Soren and Levi.
On October 3, 2000 King of Kings celebrated the grand opening of our new worship / community center. Rev. John Soper, District Superintendent blessed the building. Many township officials such as Mayor Carl Block, joined to celebrate with us. Danny Daniels, a inte
1000 North Main St. Manahawkin, NJ 08050 phone: 609-597-7177 fax: 609-978-1729
