Our History
Communion Chapel began as a home fellowship group of eleven people on May 5, 1989. That summer the founding pastor, Alex Mandes and his wife Julie, led the Bible study on Wednesday nights in a community center near Woodlawn Lake, which is an Hispanic urban area near downtown San Antonio. The outreach church would be geared toward the predominantly Hispanic community of the area. Later in 1989, the church was incorporated as Woodlawn Bible Church and became a member of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), and the first service was held on Easter Sunday 1990.
The initial facility was located in the Northwest Shopping Center on Fredericksburg Rd. and served as our home until the winter of 1994. We had grown to about 70 members and at that time we also changed our name to Communion Chapel EFCA. By this time it was apparent that the Lord was forming a multi-cultural church that was not only unique to San Antonio but was unique within the EFCA denomination itself.
In the year 2000, we once again experienced the need to move. We purchased our current facility at 5719 Mobud St. and had a growing congregation of approximately 160 members on any given Sunday. We continue to strive to minister to the people that the Lord brings to us, as well as outreach to the community around us. We have a strong commitment to missions both locally and internationally. This commitment is realized through financial support of various missionaries, Communion Chapel missions programs to the inner city and international outreaches, and numerous individual members serving on a short term mission trips around the world.
In October 2006, Pastor Alex accepted a position with the EFCA national team to direct Hispanic ministries.
On April 22, 2007, Communion Chapel voted Michael Pratt to become their second senior pastor. Currently the church is enjoying growth in several areas of ministry.
There are weekly ministries also for fellowship groups, youth, college and careers, AWANA, Women’s Bible study, side walk evangelism, and a bilingual puppet ministry.
On Sept 6, 2009, we began a Spanish speaking worship service in our desire to reach other ethnic groups with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.