South Hill Baptist Church was originally organized under the name Puyallup Valley Baptist Chapel in July 1967. Omer Hyde, Metropolitan Director of Missions for the Mt. Rainier Association, was enlisted by First Baptist Church of Lakewood to start a mission in Puyallup.
Sunday evening services were held at the Hill Funeral Home in Puyallup until October 1967. In May 1968, W. D. Malone became the pastor of Puyallup Valley Baptist Chapel, and the church was selected by the Home Mission Board as one of the recipient churches for “Project 500.” During this time, Vacation Bible School was conducted in the Fruitland Grange Hall.
In the winter of 1968, the church purchased six acres on 112th St. between 78th and 80th. Groundbreaking was conducted in August 1970, and the dedication of a newly constructed building took place on May 2, 1971. In 1977–1978, the education building was constructed.
In July 1971, the mission was organized into a church. At this time, the name was changed from Puyallup Valley Baptist Chapel to South Hill Baptist Church.
Pastor W. D. Malone served until 1980. Many other pastors have served over the years. Pastor John Atkins, Pastor James Hays, Pastor Eric Turner, and Pastor Paul Anderson served from 2015 to 2024.
The Chapel Church (TCC) was orignally organized under the name South Hill Calvary Chapel in Puyallup on June 14, 2001. The church first met as a small Bible study at Mel Korum YMCA. Within a few months, on October 14, Sunday services began at Ferrucci Junior High School. On March 17, 2002, meetings began at Cascade Christian Early Childhood Development Center, where they continued until March 23, 2025.
Ron Sanchez was the founding pastor of the church. In 2001, he was sent out to Puyallup as a church plant from Calvary Fellowship in Mountlake Terrace, WA. Mark Bethune and Phil Spagnolo joined the church that year and were instrumental in the church’s leadership.
In January 2015, SHCC changed its name to The Chapel Church. At that time, we developed the conviction that we didn’t just want to “do church” but to “be the church.” Along this path to being the church, TCC adopted several attributes of a healthy church through the support and ministry of 9Marks in 2017.
Ron served the church faithfully for 17 years and retired in July 2018. Following this, Stephen Brucker became TCC’s second senior pastor in August 2018.
In an effort to continue fulfilling the Great Commission, TCC joined the Association of Churches for Missions and Evangelism (ACME) in September 2023.
In 2024, The Chapel Church began a conversation with South Hill Baptist Church about possibly merging. Both church leaderships held that a merger would advance their objective of creating a greater gospel presence in the Puyallup region. Given this, on March 9, 2025, the congregations from both TCC and SHBC unanimously voted to affirm a merger and become the newly formed South Hill Baptist Church, calling Stephen Brucker as the new senior pastor.
