Neither First Lutheran nor St. Paul's ultimately had the resources to remain viable individual congregations over time and by 1927, the membership of both had declined such that both congregations considered dissolution. Under the leadership of the Reverend Albert Grunwald, who was called in 1927, a period of renewal of First Lutheran began. A modestly-successful fundraising campaign began with the intention of selling the Bond Street structure and constructing a new sanctuary elsewhere in Toronto.
