On Christmas Eve 2025, 136 people filled a former church building in Choconut, Pennsylvania, for their first church service. At least 50 people from Bridgewater Church’s Montrose, Pennsylvania, campus were among that congregation.
“Instead of building a bigger building in Montrose, Bridgewater Church has been sending people away to create new congregations in surrounding towns,” says Bob Kadlecik, pastor of the Montrose campus. “The new congregations are connected by finances and leadership but make the church more personal and local. Choconut will be the seventh such location, although two of those seven are now their own separate churches.”
Since September 2025, the Choconut launch team has met for small group Bible studies and a children’s ministry on Wednesday nights at the Choconut elementary school.
“Even though Choconut is a town of only 680 people, we have a lot of people near there,” Bob says. “Instead of asking God to bless where we want to go, we are going where God is working.”
