The minutes of Philadelphia Classis, May 10, 1848 close that "on motion (it was resolved that) brother Shenkle, Knipe and Kooker be authorized as a committee to organize a congregation at Phoenixville as they deem expedient." This action, of course, was inspired by a conviction among the members of Classis that there are enough German Reformed people in the area, as well as others without religious commitments, not only to justify such action, but also to regard it as a Christian mandate which could not be ignored.

Considerations of this nature are the fundamental ingredients of evangelism and were very much involved in the establishment of "The German Reformed Church of the Borough of Phoenixville." Moreover, it was because the Reverend A.B. Shenkle, chairman of the committee appointed to bring this about and Pastor of East Vincent Reformed Church, remained sensitive to the imperatives of evangelism that he continued to oversee the affairs of the congregation during the succeeding two decades, and was largely responsible for the impact it made on the community. Turbulent though these years were, the decision to disband in 1868 notwithstanding, the Phoenixville field had been turned and sown and the fruitful influence of the 78 communicant members it had produced, together with that of over 200 Sunday School scholars, was sufficient to propagate a concerted reorganization effort fourteen years later.

Again, it is abundantly clear that the urgency of evangelism inspired Franklin M. Yerger, a devout layman of St. Vincent Reformed Church living in Phoenixville, to promote this venture in 1881. Unquestionably, it took more than a whim of fancy for his zeal to survive the initial reverses he encountered. Rebuffed by a nearby Reformed Church pastor whom he tried to enlist in this enterprise, and brusquely ignored by influential members of another Reformed congregation whose help he sought, Mr. Yeager finally succeeded in gaining the interest and support of the Reverend J.H.A. Bromberger, D.D., L.L.D., President of Ursinus College. As a consequence, the Reformed Church people in the borough were reorganized as "St. John's Reformed Church of Phoenixville" by the Philadelphia Classis, June 7, 1882, with twenty-three charter members.