New, non-denominational church focuses on love

Pastor to target people who have been judged, pushed away by churches

“We want to talk about the bible, about love — even though they might not agree with our faith, we want to tell them we that love them,” Prophet Elijah Wreh, Lead Pastor and Founder said.

The Anointed Church of Jesus Christ, 33406 Liberty Pkwy, North in North Ridgeville, will be opening its doors for its first Worship Service at 1 p.m. on June 11.

Wreh, born in Liberia, left the state of Minnesota in 2013 to work for Stryker Corporation located in Mahwah, NJ as a Regulatory Affairs Specialist.

While living in New York and New Jersey respectively, Wreh was a member of Faith in Action Deliverance Ministries located in the Bronx, NY.

In 2015, Wreh was appointed as an Assistant Pastor of the church by Apostle Dr. Violet Wallace-Burrell. After his appointment as an Assistant Pastor of the church, Wreh again relocated to Ohio to work for Invacare Corporation as a Regulatory Affairs Manager.

After seeking the Lord through praying and fasting for several days, weeks and months, the Holy Spirit spoke to Wreh in May 2016 to start church service on Sunday in his living room, he said.

Wreh and his wife, Gradieh Wreh — both Youth Pastors from 2011 to 2014 at Ebenezer Community Church located in Brooklyn Park, MN — were running service out of their home in Avon Lake before they found their church home in North Ridgeville.

Even though the church sits in North Ridgeville, Elijah and Gradieh want to focus on people in Lorain and Elyria, he said.

“All are welcome, but when I moved to Ohio — about 2 years ago from the east coast — I noticed in both Lorain and Elyria that there are a lot of problems in those two cities,” Wreh said.

“As I drove around, I noticed abandon homes, and the other biggest thing I notice is drug addiction.”

I asked myself, ‘what is the church doing about this?’ and ‘how can we help people who are on drugs live a better life?’ ”

The church also plans to host a food pantry to help feed the homeless and a dinner after Sunday services, he said.

The church also will act as an non-denominational church, he said.

“We want to help as many people as we can; and I know we can’t help everybody, but we want to be involved in the community,” Wreh said.

Wreh wants to target people who have not attended church for a while because they have been judged by churches.

“Our primary focus when we started this church was to reach out to people who feel like the church has judged them based on their ethnicity, faith and religious background,” he said. “So, we want to reach out to these people and see how we can bring them back into the church. Sometimes churches preach a message that push people away from the church.

“We are going to preach gospel; and we do believe in everything the church believes in, but we want to target these people because of they may have been judged.”

Wreh stressed the church just wants to preach a message of love.

“We want people to feel loved by the church no matter who they are,” he said.