Trinity75: A story of sending (Part ii)

by lenny spitale

As the months passed, one of the chief joys we experienced was to see some of our immediate neighbors sitting shoulder to shoulder at our emerging Pepperell Christian Fellowship Church (PCF).


One was a mother with her daughter, a girl whom little Kimberly Bickmore would eventually lead to the Lord in the field behind our house. Another was the neighbor directly behind us, an entrepreneurial mother who had become a Christian, sitting with her two young daughters. Fifteen years later, Wendy and I would attend her funeral, and her youngest daughter, normally shy around people, broke into tears when she saw us in the receiving line and greeted us with a big hug.

While the events in Pepperell were unfolding, Bill Bickmore had been attending Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The Lord used our natural connection to provide him with occasional opportunities to preach while we were still at the Grange. By the time we were meeting at our house, his face was not unfamiliar to the Pepperell folks. At Groton Street, Bill and I alternated on the preaching until he graduated from seminary the following summer. At that point, he became the sole pastoral elder of PCF and assumed those duties.


At some point, Trinity Baptist Church made the sacrificial decision to help subsidize Bill’s salary until the new church could carry him on its own. You would have to ask Bill about the details of how that came about, but I do know that there was much gratitude in the hearts of the people of PCF when we learned of Trinity’s generosity. Many praises of thankfulness were lifted to our Father in heaven for His encouraging provision.


The original plan for PCF was that we would continue to spin off “house churches” whenever we outgrew a home. When we reached a total of 60 people at our house, a second home was selected for the next church. A dear couple on Maple Street (Sean and Vicky Triehy) offered to host it.  Every Sunday, Bill would preach first at our house, and then go over and repeat the message at theirs. But the people missed each other and wanted to continue to experience life together. So we made the decision to rent a larger space at the industrial park in Pepperell, and in doing so, we surrendered the concept of house churches in favor of a larger congregation. That decision also led to our eventual purchase of a former nursing home on Main Street, next to the town library. After extensive renovations were made by members of the church to adapt the building to our purposes, it served us well for a number of years.


Over time, it became necessary to build a new structure directly behind the existing one in order to accommodate the expanding growth. How the Lord supplied the funds and the manpower to erect the house of worship that now exists is another tale of God’s wonderful providence and provision. Even the builder, a local contractor, was now a member of the church.  Throughout this time, the Bible study had continued to meet at our house every Wednesday night, and it would go on to introduce seekers to Christ for the next 17 years.


Pepperell Christian Fellowship Church has continued to be a gospel witness in our area. PCF also continued the story of sending, launching out Christ Church Townsend in 2022. What a story of God’s faithfulness!