Our History
South Telegraph Christian Church was founded in 1969 by a group of Christians who began meeting at Oakville Junior High. Their goal was to bring the Gospel of Christ to the people of Oakville and the far south metropolitan St. Louis area.
Focused mainly on traditional Sunday and Wednesday worship, the church grew into a close-knit group of believers. In 1971 it purchased a corner lot on Telegraph and Crestline. The first building was a small sanctuary. Five years later, in 1976 Frank Myers was brought on as the Senior Pastor. As the church membership grew, so did the staff with the hiring of an Associate minister and then a Youth minister.
1992 brought about many changes. After a 15 year ministry at STCC, Frank Myers retired. Jim Graddy was brought in to fill the position of Senior Pastor. This same year, the church added a new sanctuary, connecting the original sanctuary to more classrooms to meet the needs of the growing congregation.
As the church grew in numbers, it also became more focused on the spiritual development of its members by promoting community among believers, the teaching of spiritual disciplines, and small group Bible studies. This spiritual development has naturally led the church to focus its worship and a greater number of ministries on reaching out to the un-churched and seekers within our ministry reach.
In 1998, the church purchased 30 acres of property just four miles south of the former 5414 Telegraph location, which was sold in 2002. Following the retirement of Jim Graddy, Don Soard joined STCC as Senior Pastor. In 2003, the congregation relocated to it's temporary location at Rogers Elementary School, where the congregation met for two years during the construction of the new facility.
In April of 2005 we began worshipping in our new church building at 7531 Telegraph Road. Here we have been blessed with much-needed space, enabling STCC to be a preaching center to change lives; an equipping center to build lives; a fellowship and caring center to encourage lives. Our present facility allows for 600 in worship services, in which there are two each Sunday morning (9:00 am and 10:45 am), and another 300 in classrooms.
As Paul Wingfield joined STCC in March of 2008 as Lead Pastor, we have been blessed by growth and a fresh vision to impact our community for Christ. While we recognize and honor our history and rich heritage, we are intently focused on the future and we are excited about what God has in store in the journey ahead!
