Walnut Avenue Christian Church gathers at 601 28th St in Niagara Falls, New York, and the church is known for the way it combines plain, Bible-centered preaching with a loud and participatory worship service. Nearly every Sunday the same pattern holds: a passage is read in full, a message is preached from it, and a praise team leads the room in singing before and around the sermon. Between those two pillars sits something distinctive about this congregation, which is that people from the pews regularly step forward, tell their own stories of faith, and sometimes preach the message themselves. A message preached from Mark 1:33, Niagara Falls Desperate for Jesus, laid out the church's own posture toward its city in three phrases: preach the gospel, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and be led by the Holy Spirit.
A Church That Opens Its Bible and Sings Its Heart Out
Walnut Avenue's teaching is anchored in long passages read through in the service, and the range of Scripture is wide. Messages have been built on Gospel narratives from Mark, Luke, Matthew and John, on Paul's letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians and Titus, on Peter's letters, and on Old Testament accounts of Samuel, David, Hannah, Samson, Hezekiah, Elijah, Daniel and Jonah. The prophets are represented too, with messages drawn from Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Joel, and Revelation opens the door in more than one message. The consistent aim is Christ in the text. In Jesus Knows, preached from Matthew 14:31-32, the outline moved from what to do, to what we can do, to what we need, to what the answer is. In Keep Me Fixed on Jesus and His Cross, from Joel 1, the four headings were salvation, sanctification, truth and power. A message on John 11 titled Jesus You Amaze Me set the same four destinations in the same order: to salvation, to sanctification, to worship and to power.
The music is equally serious about what it carries. The worship set recorded with the message I Need My Heavenly Father included Fields of Grace, Happy Day, How Deep the Father's Love for Us and Stronger, songs that lean on grace and on the character of the Father's love. That message, drawn from Mark 14:36 where Jesus calls God Abba, Father, described the Father in four words: loving, selfless, strong and trustworthy. The worship team also sings at Christmas, and that gathering has included Joy to the World and At the Cross by Joe Larson, You Are for Me, and Oh Come All Ye Faithful. Soloists and instrumentalists round out the set, with Susan Metro singing a song of her own, Lift Up Your Hands in Praise, Robert Colvin singing Thank You Lord for Your Blessings on Me and He Touched Me, and Juan on the piano. A praise dance has been part of the Christmas service as well. The result is a gathering in which the sermon and the singing are not separate events but two expressions of the same appetite for God.
Sunday Mornings: Where the Word and the Witness Meet
Sunday is the hinge of the week at Walnut Avenue, and the morning meeting is where most of what distinguishes the church becomes visible. The shape is consistent: worship songs, a message from a Bible passage, and the microphone offered to anyone who has something to say. Members do use it. When a message on the woman bent over for eighteen years was preached from Luke 13, a man named Develone shared his own testimony of how he came to know Jesus and what Jesus has done in his life, speaking of the strength and healing God gave him through years of illness and struggle. Another morning brought David Coram forward to share his testimony of a successful surgery and the comfort he received from God through the whole ordeal. A youth named Pamela spoke about how the film God's Not Dead affected her life and actions, and Susan Metro has brought her testimony forward before the message on other occasions.
Some mornings are given over to guests and special presentations. Two students from Zion Bible Institute, Matt Kunkel and Lucas Lancto, came with a sense that God had placed something on their hearts to bring to WACC and shared the word. When a graduate was celebrated with the message School of Obedience, the young man himself, Matthew Kunkel, shared before heading off to Bible college. Preachers from nearby churches are a regular feature as well, and their messages are recorded alongside the church's own.
Community shows up in the way the church remembers. After the loss of a dear brother, David Lewis, several people were given the opportunity to describe how their life had been impacted in Christ through knowing him, and the message that morning was Standing With Jesus, taken from Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4 about the Lord standing at his side and giving him strength.
Evening Services and Visiting Preachers
Alongside the Sunday morning gathering, some Sundays carry a second meeting in the evening, and these tend to be the services that belong to visiting preachers. One such evening belonged to Rev. Dave Duncan, whose message Pulled Tight worked through 1 Corinthians 10, where Israel passes through the sea, is baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and then is warned by the examples of what happened in the wilderness. Another Sunday evening brought Derrick West with Release Your Resources, built on the story of the widow's oil in 1 Kings 4, with headings that traced a forgotten family, a flask that was forgotten, a faith that began to function and a flow that never fails.
The pattern is that a guest or a church member holds the pulpit for the evening while the church's own services carry on in the morning. Pastor Cassidy preached Jesus is Lord from John 8, where Jesus says neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more, with four headings that make clear what the church means by lordship: it brings forgiveness, it brings freedom, it requires commitment and it demands dedication.
Preachers From Away Who Have Stood Here
Walnut Avenue has drawn preachers from a wide circle. Rev. J.T. Norman, affiliated with the International Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, brought the word in a message titled Blessing and Fruitful and showed pictures of what God had done in his life and work, including the call he felt to go to India and bring forth the truth of Jesus. The central point of his sermon, taken from John 15, was plain: by abiding in truth. Pastor John Gordon and his wife Julie shared their testimony of a missions trip to Uganda, where they went to share the gospel, and then brought the message Earmarks of a Disciple, whose four headings name the marks of discipleship: love, obedience, sacrifice and suffering, and unity. Pastor Gordon has also preached for the congregation at other times, including a message on the liberty believers have in Christ from 1 Corinthians 6:12.
Pastor Donald Yarborough, senior pastor of Community Gospel Church, and Pastor Rodney Dirig, his assistant pastor, visited together, and the record notes that Pastor Yarborough is the same man who led Pastor James Cassidy to Jesus Christ for salvation. Rev. Robert Spike Henry, associate pastor of River of Life Church of God, brought the word at the church's harvest gathering, preaching on 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 with three headings: pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned, and struck down but not destroyed. Rev. Stefan Lach, described as a good friend of the ministry and of the church, brought Learning To Forget In Order To Achieve The Prize from Philippians 3, and Rev. Alice DePetris-Feucht preached on a theme she called You Can't Have Rainbows Without The Rain.
The Congregation Does Not Sit Silent
One of the clearest marks of Walnut Avenue Christian Church is that the platform is shared. Guy Kunkel, a drummer with the worship team, has brought messages of his own, including Who Am I?, whose five steps run from sinner walking in the world, to a God who is calling, to being saved by grace through faith and the blood of Jesus Christ, to walking with the Lord and stumbling, to being ready for all that God has in store. He also brought Submission, asking his hearers to evaluate themselves on submission to those in authority, to those in the home, and to God and Christ our Lord, telling them plainly that these things are difficult and that sometimes we simply need to be humble.
Others have taken turns as well. Rick Sweeney, Susan Burns and Susan Metro shared from the word of God at a Christmas gathering. Jimmy quoted Hebrews 11 from memory and Judy brought a message. Trish sang Mary Did You Know, and LaRhonda Burns and Tom Burns played Silent Night on the piano in a dedication to a Sunday School teacher, Guenter Feucht, who sang the carol in German. The willingness to let ordinary members handle the word is not incidental to the church's identity but one of its clearest expressions.
Children, Students and the Youth at Walnut Avenue
The Children's Ministry is part of the service itself rather than a program that happens nearby. At the Christmas Singspiration gathering the children read Scripture aloud and performed Silent Night with bells, and the church has Sunday School teachers, including Guenter Feucht, whose singing of Silent Night in German was honored with a piano dedication. The Youth Ministry is visible in the room as well: young people from the ministry performed a dance during a Christmas service, and the youth group staged a skit called The Fragrance of Knowledge, a performance not captured on the recording because no microphones were used. Young people are also given room to speak. Pamela shared how a film had changed her life and actions, and a graduating student was invited to bring the word before heading off to Bible college, in a gathering the church titled School of Obedience.
Water Baptism and the Testimonies That Lead to It
Walnut Avenue treats water baptism as a milestone worth marking, and the church has built a full service around it. One baptismal gathering was titled From Thief to Saint, taken from Luke 23:42-43, where the thief on the cross asks the Lord to remember him and Jesus answers that he will be with him in paradise that day. The message unfolded in four movements: the thief deserves death, the saint is granted life, the saint receives change, and the saint is given His kingdom. The candidates did more than appear at the front. Each one gave a spoken testimony before being baptized, and both the testimonies and the baptisms themselves were recorded, so the whole sequence of surrender and burial could be followed.
The same theme runs through the wider teaching. In a message built on Colossians 2 and 3 titled Be Real, with integrity as its single word, the church walked through the passage that says believers are buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Him, and through the call to be rooted and built up in Him. And in Immediately, preaching from Matthew 8 where Jesus touches the leper and says be thou clean, the headings were forgiveness, relief, power and salvation, in that order.
A Christmas Gathering Built for Singing and a Table Set for the Harvest
The Christmas Singspiration service at Walnut Avenue is a working demonstration of how many hands the church has in a service. The praise team sang Joy to the World and At the Cross by Joe Larson. The Children's Ministry read Scripture and performed Silent Night with bells, and Juan played the piano for Silent Night. Susan Metro sang a new song of her own, Lift Up Your Hands in Praise. Judy shared the word of God, and Robert Colvin sang Thank You Lord for Your Blessings on Me and He Touched Me. Jimmy quoted Hebrews 11 from memory, the praise team sang You Are for Me, and Guy Kunkel brought a message titled Christ Is Christmas. A praise dance was part of the evening, the team sang Oh Come All Ye Faithful, the Youth performed a skit, and Pastor Cassidy closed with a final Christmas message before dismissal.
On Christmas Eve, the church joined Desperation Life Fellowship for a service that walked through the story of Luke 2 and the birth of Christ. Four candles were lit, one each for love, joy, hope and peace, and the gathering finished with the singing of Silent Night.
The other gathering built around food is the harvest dinner, held on a Saturday evening with the word brought beforehand and the meal served after. The message that accompanied it came from 2 Corinthians 4, on being troubled on every side but not distressed, and on being cast down but not destroyed. The church's pattern is consistent across the year: there is a meal, there is preaching and there is singing, and the order tends to put the truth first and the table second.
What the Church Holds to Be True
The teaching at Walnut Avenue is stated in the plain language of Scripture rather than in denominational argument. Salvation is by grace through faith and the blood of Jesus Christ, which is the wording used in the outline of the message Who Am I?, and in The Work That Works, preaching from Titus 3, the church emphasizes that people are saved not by works of righteousness but according to God's mercy, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. A message called A New Kingdom For A New Year taught that a person must be born again to know Jesus and thereby belong to God's kingdom, and it named the substance of that kingdom as righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Spirit is treated as a real and active part of Christian life. The message Experiencing The Holy Spirit, from Acts 1, asks what the Spirit is, what He makes, what He gives and what He brings, and Follow The Leader, from Romans 8, traces where the Spirit leads: to Jesus, to conviction, to victory, to overflowing and to obedience. The same Romans passage is read for the promise of adoption and the cry of Abba, Father, and a message on humility names receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost alongside forgiveness, deliverance and encouragement. Obedience is treated as the evidence of love rather than an alternative to it. A message from 1 Samuel 15 asks whether the Lord has as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying His voice, and answers that to obey is better than sacrifice, while 1 Peter 1 is read for its emphasis on sanctification and obedience. Discipleship is described with its hard edges included, in the headings love, obedience, sacrifice and suffering, and unity.
The church also teaches plainly about failure and recovery. Jesus is preached as the God of second chances, with second chances of salvation, of sanctification and of love, and the call to humble oneself before God and one another is treated as the key to victory rather than a soft option. A message on the leper's cleansing divides the blessing into forgiveness, relief, power and salvation, and the church speaks of deliverance in Christ as a finished work, a present reality and a future certainty. It is equally willing to talk about warning, about judgment and about Jesus as the judge who comforts, punishes, rescues, sets free and warns. That combination of grace, honesty and urgency is the tone that shows up again and again in the messages.
The Shape of the Teaching, Theme by Theme
Across many years of recorded messages, the same subjects return with different names, and the outlines reveal a church that keeps circling the same core matters.
Salvation, Grace and New Birth
- The Liberty We Have In Christ (1 Corinthians 6:12): the right to do anything, and the refusal to be mastered by anything.
- A Woman of God (1 Samuel 1:20-28): a woman for Jesus Christ, a woman of grace, a woman of faith, a woman of trust.
- Set Your House In Order (Isaiah 38:1-5): God cares, God saves, God keeps, God empowers, God loves.
- The Work That Works (Titus 3:3-5): the work of righteousness, the work of salvation, the work of renewing.
- Straight To The Heart (2 Samuel 18:14-17): salvation in Christ through mercy, on the inside, and forever.
- Jesus, Please Save Me! (Matthew 21:8-9): Jesus as King, as Savior, as Victor, as Shelter.
- God's New Year Resolution (2 Corinthians 1:8-10): past deliverance in Christ, present deliverance in Christ, future deliverance in Christ.
- Who Has Returned to Jesus (Luke 17:12-19): returned to receive forgiveness, healing and victory, and to give thanks and to give back.
The Holy Spirit, Power and Deliverance
- Experiencing The Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5): who He is, what He makes, what He gives, what He brings.
- Follow The Leader (Romans 8:13-15): the Spirit leads to Jesus, to conviction, to victory, to overflowing, to obedience.
- My Help Comes From The Lord (Judges 13:24-25): help in need, help in salvation, help in obedience, help in deliverance.
- Hope For The Hopeless (Luke 13:11-13): hope to be saved, to be comforted, to be healed, to be filled.
- They Could Not (Mark 9:17-18): help, believe, contain.
- Immediately (Matthew 8:3): forgiveness, relief, power, salvation.
- The Field of Miracles Continues (Mark 4:1-8): understand, reject, accept.
- Jesus Lift Me Up When I'm Down (Jonah 1:1-5): down due to disobedience, down due to despair, down due to disconnect, up due to the Holy Spirit.
- Total Recovery (1 Samuel 30:8): recovery through pursuit, through encouragement, in our homes, in our hearts.
Obedience, Discipleship and the Cross
- To Obey Christ is Better (1 Samuel 15:22 with 1 Peter 1:2): obedience set against sacrifice.
- Earmarks of a Disciple: love, obedience, sacrifice and suffering, unity.
- Submission: to those in authority, to those in the home, to God and Christ our Lord.
- Keep Me Fixed on Jesus and His Cross (Joel 1:1-4 and 9): salvation, sanctification, truth, power.
- From Thief to Saint (Luke 23:42-43): the thief deserves death, the saint is granted life, receives change and is given His kingdom.
- School of Obedience: the message shared by a graduating student on his way to Bible college.
- Be Real (Colossians 2 and 3): integrity, being rooted and built up in Christ, and being buried and raised with Him in baptism.
- Go For The God Medal (1 Corinthians 9:24-27): getting on team Jesus, competing on team Jesus, rewards on team Jesus.
- Learning To Forget In Order To Achieve The Prize (Philippians 3:13-14): learning to forget the past, learning to be content, learning to reach for the goal.
- Forget About It (Philippians 3:7-16): forget your past, yourself, your hurt, your connections, your accomplishments.
- Pulled Tight (1 Corinthians 10:1-13): Israel in the cloud and the sea, and the warnings written down for us.
- The Voice (Mark 1:1-11): the man, the message, the motivation.
- The Call (Isaiah 6:1-8): the call to see, to cleansing, to power, to action.
- Are You Listening? (Jeremiah 1:4-5): the call to be saved, to service, to the message, to endurance, to restoration.
The Kingdom, the King and His Return
- Great In God's Kingdom (Matthew 20:20-29): those who worship, those who understand, those who serve, those who worship in pure devotion.
- This Is Jesus: The King of The Jews (John 19:19-23): the Almighty King, the Generous King, the Ruling King, the Coming King.
- Jesus is Lord (John 8:10-11): lordship brings forgiveness, brings freedom, requires commitment, demands dedication.
- The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:1-4): the character of Christ, the caring of Christ, the calling of Christ.
- I Will Come Again (John 14:1-3): to rescue you, to redeem you, to relieve you, to rapture you.
- Remember Me (Luke 23:39-42): when I have sinned, when I need mercy, when I need power, when I die.
- A New Kingdom For A New Year (Romans 14:17): righteousness, peace, joy, the Holy Ghost.
- Grow Up (Joshua 5:11-12): His promises for heaven, for holiness, for help, for the Holy Spirit.
- Multiplication From Division Part A (Acts 14:22): Jesus multiplies strength to our soul, to continue, to the end.
- The Answer is Always The Same: Jesus! (Judges 2:16): your overall conquest, your past conquest, your present conquest, your future conquest.
Warnings, Judgement and Second Chances
- Jesus' Loving Sounds of Warning (Ezekiel 33:1-3): sounds of new life, of a new heart, of a new home, of a new power.
- Jesus Christ, The God of Second Chances (Daniel 4:1-3): a second chance of salvation, of sanctification, of love.
- Jesus Christ: The Judge of All The Earth (Genesis 18:25): Jesus comforts, punishes, rescues, sets free and warns.
- Humility is the Key to Victory (James 4 and 1 Peter 5): humility to give worship, to receive forgiveness, deliverance and encouragement, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
- Whose Side Are You On? (1 Kings 18:21): the side of wisdom, of power, of cleansing, of judgement.
- Backward or Forward (Exodus 32 and 33): backward for celebration, backward for identification, forward for inspiration.
- Good Things To Come (Hebrews 10:1-4): frustration to forgiveness, fear to the Father, failure to freedom, flame to God's fire, fair to phenomenal, framework to finality.
- Christ Will Not Fail You (Luke 22:31-32): in your struggle, through your faith, in your conversion, in His strength.
- Jesus' help is on the way (Matthew 21:12-16): Jesus' help to rescue, to heal, to set free, to amaze.
- Tabernacle of David (Acts 15:1-17): on the freedom of believers and the rebuilding of David's tabernacle.
Everyday Faith, Family and Home
- Listen Up (Mark 12:29-31): listen to Christ, to yourself, to your neighbor.
- Release Your Resources (1 Kings 4:1-7): the forgotten family, the forgotten flask, a faith that begins to function, a flow that never fails.
- Qualities of a Successful Father (Genesis 18): knows God as Father, knows the cross of Christ, knows the power of Christ, knows how to give to Christ, knows how to trust Christ.
- Jesus Knows (Matthew 14:31-32): what to do, what we can do, what we need, what the answer is.
- Poured Out (Exodus 29:39-41): friends, prayer, kindness, training.
- Why? (Mark 6:47-48): why did it happen, why do I feel alone, why not me.
- Get Out Of Town (Mark 8:22-26): get out of distractions, out of faithlessness, out of this system.
- Where Do I Grow From Here? (1 Samuel 19:5): my understanding of Christ, my salvation in Christ, my troubles through Christ.
- Relying on God (Psalm 144:1-4): relying on God, on self, and on God again.
- Blessing and Fruitful (John 15:5): by abiding in truth.
- From Start to Finish (1 Chronicles 22 with 1 Kings 10): start to salvation, start to blessing, finish to faith, finish to judgment.
- Thank Bank (2 Corinthians 4:8-9): pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.
- Jesus Makes All Things New (Lamentations 3:22-23): new life, new start, new vision, new relationships.
- I Need My Heavenly Father (Mark 14:36): loving, selfless, strong, trustworthy.
- Standing With Jesus (2 Timothy 4:16-17): in reality, in heaven, in righteousness, in presentation.
- Niagara Falls Desperate for Jesus (Mark 1:33): preach the gospel, be filled with the Holy Spirit, be led by the Holy Spirit.
- You Can't Have Rainbows Without The Rain, brought by Rev. Alice DePetris-Feucht.
Hearing the Messages and Finding Walnut Avenue
Much of the life of Walnut Avenue Christian Church can be heard from anywhere. Audio recordings of messages and full worship services are available online through the church's message recordings, and the collection reaches back to 2012, including the worship recordings the church began adding when it started putting the music of the service out along with the sermon itself. The recordings cover the years of the church's teaching in sequence, so a listener can hear the same voice and the same emphasis that fill the room at 601 28th St: Scripture opened and preached, a praise team singing, a congregation ready to testify, and an invitation to trust Jesus Christ.
Walnut Avenue Christian Church meets at 601 28th St, Niagara Falls, NY 14301, under the pastoral care of Pastor James Cassidy, with a worship team, a Children's Ministry, a Youth Ministry and Sunday School teachers serving alongside the pulpit. A congregation that has spent years learning to sing, to testify and to teach its own members to open the Bible is what you find on Walnut Avenue.