On March 16, 1986, a group of fifteen people gathered to form a Christian charitable organization. The group supported many non-profit organizations and needy individuals in its early years, including Hands Across America, People to People Ministries, Summit County Drug Board, Apple Creek Boys' Home, Wycliff Bible Translators, Violets Cupboard, Stonewall Akron, Higbee's Children's Christmas Association for Brain Tumor Research, Peer Services, Red Cross, and Interval Brotherhood Home.

In the tradition of the early Christians, these faithful believers met in each others' homes for prayer and worship services. They finally incorporated as Emmanuel Fellowship Church of North Canton of April 22, 1986. For the next three years, they worshiped God at a variety of locations - a florist shop, a rented house, and a rented storefront - while conducting fund-raising events to acquire a permanent home.

The group purchased the church building located a 60 N. Arlington St. in Akron on January 9, 1989. For the next several months, they repaired and renovated their new home and held worship services there for the first time on Good Friday of that year. Long known in the area as Emmanuel Fellowship Church, the congregation officially changed its name and dropped "of North Canton" in January of 2002.

Emmanuel Fellowship Church, with its unique blend of people from a wide range of Christian denominations, has had its share of peaks and valleys, blessings and trials. Out of these came a renewed Spirit of Joy in the Lord which inspired the people of EFC to expand the church's programs and presence in the community. Since 1996, the church's impact has grown and changed. It launched a Youth group, broadened its missions, and sponsored a number of innovative Christian learning experiences to meet diverse spiritual needs.

A spirit of Christian love, service to God, help for the needy , and outreach to the outcast, these form the legacy of Emmanuel Fellowship Church.