Tallmadge Express

Tallmadge -- It's all about community for Tallmadge Alliance Church. The church, which held its first service on April 20, 1965, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in Tallmadge. To celebrate the milestone, the church held three special services led by some famous figures in the history of the church: Dan Csvaney, a founding member; Mike Vayda, the... son of a former pastor; and Rev. Jeff Miller, a leader in the central district of the Alliance Church. "The last few years, we've gone back to a community-focused mode," said Zach Reeves, lead pastor of the church. He has been at Tallmadge Alliance since January 2012, and before that worked in Mansfield for 10 years. Reeves said besides offering a traditional church service, which begins at 10:45 a.m., there are also several other programs the church puts on. Sunday School takes place every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Financial Peace University helps teach members how to handle money "peacefully and the way God intended. An ESL Master Conversational English class is offered, where church staff and members help teach people new to the area enough English to help them feel more comfortable. Another program is Awanda, which is a children's ministry that takes place during the school year. More than 100 individuals belong to the church. According to Csvaney, the church began as a group of Tallmadge residents who would meet together on Sunday nights in different people's homes to discuss the Bible. Eventually, they began meeting at the Tallmadge YWCA. In an effort to find a regular meeting place, the group came across an "old, dilapidated" piece of land that was for sale on East Avenue. After inquiring about purchasing it, they discovered there was lien on the property against someone who had worked with those that had the property and lived in Germany at the time. A group of family members of the owners wound up travelling to East Germany to search for relatives, and hopefully make it so the lien would be resolved and the land would be purchasable. "By accident, they ran into ...Read More