Fifty Years on Sponseller Road
Upper Room Fellowship meets on Sundays at 10:30am in Columbiana, Ohio, a small town east of Youngstown. The motto on the front door is the church's tagline: "Transforming lives that transform communities." Three phrases frame the work: Know God, Share Life, Serve Others. The church is non-denominational and evangelical, led by a team of pastors rather than a single senior figure, and known for its emphasis on healthy relationships, a supernatural Christian life, and practical care for vulnerable children and families through its CarePortal partnership.
The work began in 1971, when a small group of believers met in an upper room above a veterinarian's office in Columbiana. The name honored the biblical upper room where Jesus' disciples had gathered to pray and wait for the Holy Spirit. United by a hunger for God's presence and a desire to experience authentic Christianity, the group had no building fund and no plan beyond prayer, worship, and an open invitation to friends who needed Jesus. Five decades later, the church still meets in Columbiana, now on Sponseller Road, and the simple conviction that started it still drives it.
The current congregation gathers in a sanctuary that is consistently full. Worship is contemporary with some traditional elements, always Spirit-led, and the atmosphere is warm and casual. Visitors are not asked to stand up and introduce themselves. Coffee is served after the music. A Connection Center offers first-time guests a small gift and a place to learn what is happening next.
What a Sunday Morning Looks Like
Services begin at 10:30am on Sundays at 500 Sponseller Road, Columbiana, Ohio 44408, and typically wrap up around 11:45am.
Family Worship Together opens the morning. Adults and children of all ages start in the sanctuary. The music is contemporary, with lyrics projected on screens so everyone can follow along and scripture readings displayed for anyone who did not bring a Bible. Participation is at each person's comfort level: standing, sitting, raising hands, or simply listening.
A short Coffee and Connection Break follows the music, an intentional pause to greet each other and meet new people. First-time guests are not singled out, and no one will ask a visitor to stand up and introduce themselves.
After the break, adults and youth remain in the sanctuary for the message. Children from birth through 5th grade are dismissed to age-appropriate programs at that point. The nursery is open throughout the entire service for parents who want a quiet space with infants and toddlers, and a parent viewing room is available for caregivers who want to stay close to the service while tending to little ones.
The messages are practical, Bible-based, and aimed at helping people live out their faith in everyday life. Each week covers how to know God more deeply, build healthy relationships, and discover personal purpose. A complete archive of recent teachings is available on the church's YouTube channel and through a weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Upper Room Kids and Upper Room Youth
Upper Room Kids serves children from birth through 5th grade. The ministry is more than supervised childcare. Staff and volunteers design engaging, Bible-based experiences that introduce children to God's love, build friendships, and help kids begin to understand their God-given purpose. A secure check-in system ensures that only authorized adults can pick up a child, and every volunteer has passed a background check and training. The team tells parents that children are not the church of tomorrow; they are part of the church today.
Upper Room Youth is the ministry for 6th through 12th graders. Students meet every Wednesday night from 6:30 to 8:00pm in the Student Center. The team does not water down the gospel or rely on games alone; the goal is to challenge students to go deeper in their relationship with Jesus and equip them to live out their faith at school, at home, and in their community. Regular events and retreats build friendships and momentum. Service opportunities develop leadership skills and character.
Table Groups and the Life of Smaller Communities
Table Groups are the small-group ministry of Upper Room Fellowship. The groups meet in homes across the community on various days and times throughout the week, providing the kind of smaller, more intimate setting that a Sunday morning service cannot offer. Most groups follow an 8 to 12 week semester format, meeting biweekly or monthly. Each gathering typically includes time for connection, Bible study or topical discussion, prayer, and occasionally serving together in the community.
Groups are designed for every age and stage of life, and the church works hard to help newcomers find a Table Group that fits after their first visit. The conviction behind the ministry is simple: there is no substitute for being known, loved, and challenged in a smaller circle. The same value that shapes Sunday morning, pursuing healthy relationships with authenticity, kindness, and honor, drives the life of these small communities.
Sozo: Healing Prayer for the Whole Person
Sozo is one of the more distinctive ministries at Upper Room Fellowship. The word is Greek, used more than a hundred times in the New Testament, and it means "to save, deliver, make whole, restore, and heal." A Sozo session is not counseling and it is not a Bible study. It is gentle, Spirit-led prayer ministry designed to identify and remove barriers that may be hindering an individual's relationship with God and their ability to walk in the fullness of their identity in Christ.
Sessions last approximately two hours and are led by two trained team members. The team uses a small set of tools: the Father Ladder, which helps surface how early relationships have shaped a person's experience of God; the Wall, which identifies barriers of unforgiveness, false beliefs, and past hurts; and Presenting Jesus, which invites Christ's presence into painful memories so they can be revisited from a new perspective.
The ministry is open to anyone, whether they attend Upper Room Fellowship or not. A suggested donation of $40 helps support the work, with financial assistance available. Inquiries are handled through info@urfellowship.com, and a coordinator typically reaches out within three to five business days to schedule.
Worship as a Way of Life
The Worship Ministry at Upper Room Fellowship is more than a band that leads Sunday morning singing. The church describes worship as a lifestyle of honoring God in everything, and the ministry is organized around four teams. The Worship Team leads the congregation vocally and instrumentally. The Production Team handles sound, lighting, and visuals to create immersive worship environments. The Creative Team handles art, design, and decor for the physical space. The Media Team captures and shares special moments through photography and video.
The musical style is contemporary with some traditional elements, always Spirit-led and theologically rich, with songs chosen so the whole room can sing along. The team emphasizes that worship is participatory rather than performative. Anyone who has gone through the church's Growth Track can audition for the worship team or shadow a production volunteer to learn the role.
CarePortal: Caring for Neighbors in Practical Ways
Upper Room Fellowship partners with CarePortal, a platform that connects local churches to vetted needs in their communities. Child welfare professionals, teachers, and law enforcement officers enter specific, verified needs into the system, things like beds, appliances, mentoring, transportation, or housing assistance. The church's CarePortal team receives alerts, shares them with the congregation, and coordinates responses. Over half of CarePortal requests nationally receive a response within 48 hours.
Volunteers can join the response team, contribute items or funds, offer specialized skills like moving furniture or making repairs, or commit to praying for the families served. The church frames this work as the practical expression of its value of living the Gospel through overwhelming generosity.
The Six Core Values That Shape Everything
Upper Room Fellowship describes its life around six core values, each tied to a Scripture-shaped vision of what following Jesus looks like in practice.
Pursuing Healthy Relationships is the first. The church sees itself as a community that shows up authentically, with kindness and honor, choosing reconciliation over division and creating spaces where everyone can belong before they believe.
Accessing Abundant Wholeness is the second. Members are encouraged to receive God's healing for past wounds and present struggles and to live from an inheritance mindset rather than an orphan mentality.
Knowing Our Greatness is the third. There is no spectator Christianity at Upper Room Fellowship; every person has unique gifts and a God-given purpose, and the church works to discover, develop, and create pathways for those gifts to be used.
Owning a Supernatural Lifestyle is the fourth. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to believers today, the church teaches. Healing, prophecy, miracles, and Spirit-led risk are part of normal Christian life.
Treasuring His Presence is the fifth. Daily interaction with God through worship, prayer, and the Word is the engine of transformation. God's presence is prioritized over programs and performance.
Living the Gospel is the sixth. The good news is for everyday life, demonstrated through servanthood, generous giving, and the sharing of faith in natural, relational ways.
What the Church Believes
Upper Room Fellowship is a non-denominational evangelical congregation. The church affirms the historic Christian creeds, including the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith, as the foundation of essential doctrine, while allowing liberty in non-essentials bound together by love.
The doctrinal position is thoroughly orthodox and thoroughly charismatic. The church teaches belief in one God who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory. It affirms that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man, born of a virgin, who lived a perfect life, died on the cross for the sins of the world, was buried, rose bodily on the third day, ascended to heaven, and now reigns forever with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is fully God, co-equal with the Father and Son, who regenerates and indwells every believer, provides supernatural gifts, and offers a distinct experience of Spirit baptism available to all believers, separate from salvation yet essential for empowered witness.
The Old and New Testaments are the inspired written expression of God, the ultimate authority in all matters of faith and practice. The church emphasizes that Scripture interprets Scripture, and that clear passages illuminate the less clear.
Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, understood as a past, present, and future reality: saved by Christ's finished work, being saved as the Spirit transforms the believer into Christ's likeness, and to be saved when God completes redemption in the resurrection of the body and the renewal of all creation.
The church is governed by a plurality of Spirit-led elders rather than a single senior leader. Leadership is character-based as well as gift-based, and biblical qualifications for elders are non-negotiable.
On marriage and sexuality, the church holds to the historic Christian view that marriage is a lifelong one-flesh covenant between one man and one woman, and that all sexual practice outside of marriage is sin. The church pairs this conviction with an explicit welcome: "Our doors and arms remain open to anyone," and the leadership describes its approach as leading with the heart of Jesus, creating space where people can belong before they believe.
On women in leadership, the church takes an egalitarian position, teaching that both women and men can lead, preach, pastor, and minister according to grace, calling, gifts, obedience, and character.
The church also believes strongly in the ongoing reality of all nine spiritual gifts, including prophecy, tongues, and healing, exercised in proper order under elder oversight. Believers are encouraged to expect God to work through them in ways that exceed natural explanation.
The Pastoral Team
Upper Room Fellowship is led by a team of pastors who share responsibility for the life of the church. Greg Aker serves as Administrative Pastor. Bruce Stryffeler serves as Leadership Training Pastor. Chris Holm serves as Teaching Pastor. Kate Holm serves as Worship and Communication Pastor.
The team leads together in a plurality structure. They meet together for prayer and discernment, value the contributions of staff and volunteers, and emphasize developing the next generation of leaders from within the congregation.
Making Room: A Capital Expansion in Progress
Five decades after the first gatherings in the upper room above the veterinarian's office, Upper Room Fellowship is preparing to expand. The sanctuary is consistently full, and the leadership has launched a capital campaign called Transforming Together to fund a sanctuary expansion and the repurposing of existing space for classrooms, Table Group meeting areas, and multipurpose use. The campaign is built around the conviction that every previous generation of the church made room for the next, and that this generation is being asked to do the same.
Members and supporters are invited to give over a multi-year horizon, with a portion of every gift also supporting missions. Online giving, text-to-give, in-person giving at Sunday services, mailed checks, and planned giving through stock, bonds, and estate planning are all available. The church emphasizes wise stewardship, monthly financial reviews, and the freedom to adjust a commitment up or down as circumstances change.
Visiting Upper Room Fellowship
Anyone curious about the church is welcome to drop in on a Sunday morning at 10:30am. The dress code is "come as you are," and jeans and business casual are both equally at home. The building is fully wheelchair accessible with designated seating areas.
For those with hearing needs, the Listen Everywhere app streams the service audio directly to a smartphone or tablet. The free app is available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play and works with both iOS and Android devices; visitors are asked to bring their own headphones.
First-time guests can fill out a Connect Card online to let the welcome team know they are coming. After the service, the Connection Center offers a small gift and answers to questions, and team members are available to talk, pray, or simply say hello.
The church is at 500 Sponseller Road, Columbiana, Ohio 44408. The phone number is 330.482.9058, and the general inbox is info@urfellowship.com. The sermon archive is on the church's YouTube channel, and a weekly podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The church also maintains active Facebook and Instagram presences.
For those who want to help others, CarePortal offers a tangible way to meet specific, vetted needs of children and families in the area. For those who want to grow in inner healing, Sozo prayer ministry is open to anyone. For those who want to dig deeper, Table Groups meet throughout the week. And for those who want to explore faith alongside a new community, Sunday morning at 10:30am is the place to start.