History

On September 14, 1972, fourteen persons met with Pastor Frank Shultz, founder of Galilean Baptist Mission,  to found a new church in Munith, Michigan.  They met again three days later at the Katz Elementary School for their first service.  Renting the school building,  they met each Sunday morning until January 1975. Evening and Wednesday night services were held in homes of the congregation.

Working closely with Pastor Schultz, who previously started 19 churches in Michigan, the Jeruel congregation came up with construction plans for the church building. It was to be located at the corner of Neu Road and M-106. Groundbreaking was September 22, 1974, barely two years after their first organizational meeting.

Men and women of the congregation did all the actual construction work themselves, and did it speedily. The first meeting in the church was held four months after groundbreaking. The first service in their own church building was in January of 1975. The meeting was held in the basement. Two years later, they had the upper portion of the church finished and services moved upstairs on January 23, 1977.

A major addition was added in 1986.  A full sized gymnasium that doubled as a banquet hall was built. At the same time a breeze-way was added to connect the gymnasium to the main church building.

In 2003, a complete renovation of the church auditorium was completed. And in 2007 a two-story addition was started and was dedicated in 2008.  The upper floor of the new addition has two handicap accessible restrooms, a classroom, and a large room that is now the library. The lower floor has a small kitchenette, a classroom, and a large meeting room. Also, an elevator is in the process of being added for those who need it.

The original congregation adopted the name Jeruel, which means “founded by God”, from a name found in II Chronicles 20:16. Jeruel Baptist Church began with only 14 persons in 1972 and has grown to more than 100 today.