Go Ye Chapel

In 1948, a few short years after WWII concluded and as the Cold War began, a young man named Elmer Kile had big dreams of taking the Christian gospel to the U.S.S.R.

While Kile was in New York City preparing to depart for Moscow, he took notice of what was happening all around him: he was surrounded by millions of people, most living with little or no connection with communities of Christian faith. 

So Kile took action. He bought a truck and trailer, converted them into a portable chapel, and set out through the labyrinth of New York City streets and boroughs. He named his venture the "Go Ye Chapel," and before long this pioneering work led to churches with permanent congregations in New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey. 

Now, more than 70 years and a name change later, Orchard Group continues to establish new churches in New York, and has expanded to places all over the world that share much in common with New York City: places of population density, ethnic diversity, economic disparity, and spiritual difficulty.