Luke and Samantha Wren met about three decades ago at World Harvest Bible College, now known as Valor Christian College. A year later, they were married and going into ministry.
“Early on we both really caught that heart that we wanted to give God our lives, our time, our treasure, our talent,” Luke Wren said.
Now, they are opening a ministry in Gainesville. They are preparing to open the doors to Tree City Church, a new nondenominational church.
For more than 25 years, the Wrens served as worship pastors, with the last 12 of them at 7 Hills Church in Florence, Kentucky.
But “a tug from the Lord” brought them to Gainesville, Samantha Wren said.
In December 2024, the couple decided to plant Tree City Church to establish a new congregation in the community. But the city in Alachua County was not originally on their radar, Luke Wren said.
“I’m from upstate South Carolina, so we kind of started to pray around South Carolina,” he said.
But everything changed on a Thursday evening in March as they drove through Gainesville for dinner.
“Real peace settled in our hearts, real excitement started to stir,” Luke Wren said. “All of us at that dinner felt that God’s hand was in this.”
Gainesville, however, was not a complete surprise for the couple. Having served as worship pastors in Lake City, Florida, for five years before moving to Kentucky, the city held special memories. It was in Gainesville that Luke and Samantha Wren welcomed their youngest child, 14-year-old Blake Wren.
“In many ways, it was kind of like us coming home,” Luke Wren said.
In just one month, the couple brought their three children, their daughter-in-law, their son-in-law and their grandson to Gainesville, moving quickly to spread the word and build excitement for a new church.
Since arriving, the couple has hosted interest parties, partnered with local schools and organizations in the community and advertised on social media to increase Tree City Church’s reach.
Now, the family is joined by 84 members of their launch party and 36 children. They have also baptized eight people.
But the early success is not just in the numbers. Members of the community, like 22-year-old Ethan Croteau, have felt the impact of Tree City Church.
“Tree City has an incredibly intentional and friendly community,” he said. “I’ve had multiple gatherings with the pastoral family, close relationships that I just haven’t had at other churches.”
Croteau, a sports management student at the University of Florida who first heard about the church on Instagram, said he appreciated the opportunities Tree City Church offered to serve the community.
One place that has felt the impact of the upcoming church is St. Francis House, a homeless shelter in downtown Gainesville.
“The thing that really stood out to me was the fact that [Tree City Church is] not going to walk past someone in need in our community to get to someone else in another community,” said Robert Atwood, the president of St. Francis House.
Atwood joined the church after attending an interest party that his wife found out about through Facebook.
“We’ve made some lifelong friends here,” he said. “We just really felt like what they were doing was what Gainesville needed.”
Tree City Church has collaborated with St. Francis House for events like the shelter’s World Homeless Day. During the event on Oct. 10, church volunteers helped serve food to the homeless and participated in a walk to raise awareness for unhoused individuals.
Although the church is new in Gainesville, the impact led by Samantha and Luke Wren is not. For those who have known them for long, like 21-year-old Carson Lokey, the couple has been impacting those around them for years.
“That’s what I base my life off of: First, serve God, and when you’re serving God, you’re also going to serve people,” he said. “Pastor Luke and Sam — with their heart of serving God and serving their local community — is why I think we’ve connected so well.”
Lokey met Luke and Samantha Wren at 7 Hills Church, where he grew up attending with his family. He moved to Florida in March 2023, settling in Orlando. Lokey then took a job in Gainesville as a sports reporter, and less than a week later, on May 7, it was announced through a Facebook post that Tree City Church would be established in Gainesville.
“I don’t believe in consequences that big,” Lokey said. “That’s obviously God working in some way.”
But whether people have known them for years or are looking for a new church to call home, Tree City Church offers a fresh start.
“Our mission is to make heaven crowded one person at a time,” Luke Wren said.
Tree City Church will host its grand opening Jan. 25 at Buchholz High School, located at 5510 NW 27th Ave.