Some History of First Christian Church

Beginnings

Our story, like every church's begins with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ about 2000 years ago. But let's fastforward a bit. In the 1800s, Christianity in America was experiencing revival, not least of all in the frontier and developing western states. Out of this revival came an admirable dream of unifying the various denominations and just becoming the Christian Church. This dream met with dubious success, but in the meantime several Christian Churches sprang up, among other places, across the newly formed state of Indiana. There was no town of Mooreland in 1843 when our particular congregation was first organized, so the church was named Flatrock Christian Church, evidently after the Flatrock River a few hundred yards away.

For eleven years the congregation met in a log building a little south of where the town of Mooreland is now situated. One pastor around this time named Vernoldsdoll is said to have lived just a few miles south of Muncie (now about a twenty minute drive), and he would walk down to Mooreland every Sunday morning, preach in the morning and evening, and walk home that night, being paid by the congregation whatever "they were a mind to give."

Names and Buildings

In 1854 the church built a frame structure for their new building, and in 1870 the name of the church was changed to Locust Grove Christian Church (probably named after the trees, not the plague on Egypt). Among the families of the church at this time were some that are still part of the church today, including the Bales family and the Moore family. In 1882, the latter lent both its land and its name to the town of Mooreland. On June 2, 1887 the name First Christian Church was adopted, and it has stuck ever since. In September of the same year the current building was erected on the north side of Mooreland, to which the stained glass window below still attests.

Revivals and a thriving Sunday School program were a vital part of the church, as with many Christian Churches in mid-America. At one time there were 300 members of the Sunday School, far more than attended the regular morning worship service. To accommodate this growth, the entire building was raised off its foundations for the construction of a lower floor for classes. The structure has remained essentially the same since this renovation in 1916.

To Today

When the Congregational Christian Church was formed in 1931, our congregation was part of the merge, and remained in that body until it joined the Evangelical and Reformed Church to form the United Church of Christ in 1957. In 1975 our church became nondenominational, with a young pastor named John Marchak as our first minister outside of the denomination. Several young families joined the church at this time, who today are active leaders in the congregation. The long tenure of recent pastors Byron Dealey and Dave Dudenhofer have built a unified congregation with strong leaders today. The Community Ministry Center was constructed in 2005 and has provided not only a place for church activities but a center of community life and a place for church and community to connect.

After nearly 170 years, we are still learning to reach out and minister to the community in new ways, growing and changing even as Mooreland and the surrounding areas change. At the dedication service of the current building in 1916, after 73 years of ministry, it was written in a Reminiscence:

However glorious have been our achievements, and what ever good we have accomplished since the organization of this local Christian church, August 9, 1843, we realize no human organization can long maintain a useful existence upon its past. It is by effective service only that this church can meet the great responsibilities that may be thrust upon it.