Highland Community Church purchases Jefferson School

Highland Community Church in Merrill purchased the former Jefferson School property from Merrill Area Public Schools (MAPS) for $750,000. The sale closed just days prior to Christmas in Dec. 2025. The church plans to use the property for their worship space and other ministries.
Highland has had an interest in purchasing the Jefferson School property for some time. “We’ve been pursuing this building for a couple of years,” said Pastor Adam DeBroux. The church had written letters and spoken with the superintendent and the school district to inquire about the possibility of purchasing the building. The school district eventually asked the church to submit a bid, he said.
Highland Community Church was one of two bidders, and theirs was the higher bid which was accepted by MAPS. The church intends to keep the property largely as it is, allowing the community to continue using the playground and sledding hill. Pastor Dan Shields said, “We’re going to keep it the same. And we know that the community likes to use the sledding hill that’s over there and the playground. We love that. So we’re not going to try to change that or anything.”
The new worship space will be in the former school gymnasium, which is being renovated, as it is one of the largest open spaces in the building and it has a good location within the building. Volunteers from the church are painting over everything in that space to make it more suitable for worship. Then additional renovations will begin.
The ceiling in the sanctuary will be blacked out to create a cozier feel. According to Pastor Dan Shields, “They can black out the ceiling basically, to kind of hide what the ceilings there look like, kind of made the room feel a little bit more cozy and smaller in that way.” And then, of course, the altar will be situated at one end of the space and seating added and other touches to make it feel like a church. They also plan to add air conditioning to the sanctuary, children’s church, and nursery areas.

The pastors anticipate being able to hold one service at 10:30 a.m. in the new location, which will allow the congregation to be together. Currently, the church holds two services at 8:00 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday school and Bible classes take place before the 10:30 service. During the 10:30 service, there is also a nursery and children’s church available. Then afterward, Pastor Dan Shields notes that there is “nothing formal” regarding fellowship time after church, but “people are just connecting as they desire.”
The new worship space will have a maximum capacity of around 400 people. Highland’s current building at the Merrill location has a capacity of about 220. The church’s average Sunday attendance is around 220 people, including children and adults, the pastors said. They don’t focus a lot on membership, per se.
Highland Community Church is part of the Evangelical Free Church of America. According to Pastor Adam DeBroux, Highland Community Church considers itself “one church in four locations.” The Merrill location emerged when they were contacted by what was formerly Merrill Bible Church.
“It was an adoption of sorts, as far as I understand the history,” Pastor DeBroux said. “The Merrill Bible Church had been having a conversation with Highland to consider that as an option, and so Highland adopted that church family and it’s continued to grow.”
That was in 2019 and the two pastors have been here since, co-pastoring at the Merrill location. Pastor DeBroux is a Merrill native, having grown up in the community, so he welcomed the opportunity to pursue ministry here. He is the pastor of adult and children’s ministries, and he is currently single. Pastor Dan Shields is from Eagle River. He is the pastor of worship and student ministries. He is married and has two young daughters.

Plans for the future
The church gave away filing cabinets and other school supplies that were left in the Jefferson School building to other local schools. According to Pastor Dan Shields, “We’ve been able to connect with a couple of local schools in Merrill, and a school in Wausau—Faith Christian Academy, and so they’ve been able to come and grab [the things they can use].”
Once they move into the Jefferson School property, Highland intends to sell their existing church building on St. in Merrill. Their current building is approximately 5,000 square feet, while the new property is probably at least six times that area, they said.
Pastor DeBroux is excited about the opportunities the new property will provide for community engagement. “This property provides some interesting tools to be able to do that, with a football field and tons of picnic space, an awesome playground, a sledding hill,” said Pastor DeBroux. “And so it’s kind of exciting to think about all of those opportunities.”
Pastor DeBroux said the new building will allow the church to have more of a family night where parents can bring all of their children and do everything at once as far as youth groups and weekly meetings because they will have the space to have multiple groups meeting at the same time.

One question that has come up from community members is whether the church plans to start a school. Pastor DeBroux addressed this: “We don’t have any intentions of starting a school here at this point or the foreseeable future, but I’ve gotten texts and emails and people ask about that.” He added that they’ve had good conversations with Trinity’s leadership about that, to clarify their intentions.
“It’s been really wonderful working with the MAPS administration,” said Pastor Dan Shields. “They’ve been nothing but great the entire time as we’ve worked with them.”
The pastors share duties at the church, with neither holding the title of senior pastor. “The best way that we function is Adam is the pastor of adult and children ministries and I’m the pastor of worship and student ministries,” said Pastor Shields. They also share preaching responsibilities and together shepherd the congregation.
“We love our community. We want to love our community. We’re all about Jesus. We’re all about the Bible and we want to see people take another step towards Jesus as our ultimate goal,” said Pastor Shields. “Hopefully this new facility can facilitate that goal. That’s what we’re excited for.”

Sale proceeds go into MAPS Fund 10

Kevin Blake, current President of the MAPS Board of Education, said that since the sale of the Jefferson Elementary School property was not on the budget when it was created, “the proceeds were placed into Fund 10 (General Fund) to be allocated as needed and agreed upon going forward.”