By SUSAN RUMBLE

Special to The Press

The Vine Church, 5229 Route 873, Schnecksville, is hosting a fall festival 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 30.

The event will feature a soup cook-off, free food, games, an inflatable bounce house, activities for kids and giveaways.

A Kona ice truck will be on site 1-2 p.m.

“Everybody is welcome,” Pastor Adam Kern said. “Come celebrate what God is doing in the community.”

Kern said the event is the official celebration of the building transfer from Agape New Testament Fellowship to The Vine Church.

“Agape is joining The Vine,” Kern explained. “They’re giving it to us.”

Agape was founded about 40 years ago, and members were not sure what the next step might be, he said.

For awhile they did not have a pastor.

The Vine Church, celebrating its fifth anniversary, had services at the Schnecksville Grange for two years, then shared the Agape building for the past three years.

Kern eventually became the spiritual leader of the blended Agape and Vine ministries.

“The Agape organization is dissolving and coming under The Vine,” Kern said.

He noted The Vine brings a lot of younger families into the church, while Agape has faithful long-term members who provide a foundation of support to the combined ministry.

Kern has a personal family connection to the church’s location.

The Agape building was erected on the site of the Vernon G. Kern VFW Post.

The late Vernon G. Kern was Kern’s great uncle.

“I’ve come full circle,” Kern said.

Kern and his wife, Nicole, live in Macungie.

The Vine Church offers services 10 a.m. Sundays, along with children’s church at 10:25 a.m., and Bible study at 7 p.m. Wednesdays.

Pastor Kern invites everyone to “The big celebration of what God has done at Agape and on into the future through The Vine Church.”

For more information, call 484-602-2835.