First Christian Church to celebrate 185 years this Sunday

When Jane Smith first started attending First Christian Church, it was 1953.

Smith remembers the church’s old downtown location at what is now Second Avenue North and Sixth Street. She remembers many of the projects of the church’s Ladies Aid ministry over the years. But most of all, Smith loves the church that has been just as dedicated to her as she has been to it over the years.

“It’s the people,” Smith said. “We just are a close knit group. And it’s been through ups and downs in my life. They have been there for me, and other members. It’s a real part of my heart.”

Still, by the time she joined the church and became its historian due to her love of scrapbooking, First Christian Church had already been in existence for more than a century.

On Sunday, the church will be celebrating its 185th anniversary with an “Old Fashioned Day” themed homecoming service and celebration during its regular 10:45 a.m. worship service.

Pastor Lavelle Smith said the day will include special recognition of members who have been a part of the church over the years, recognizing former pastors and a dinner on the grounds.

“We encourage former members to come and visit and come back during that time,” Lavelle said.

First Christian Church was originally formed when about 30 families started worshiping together following the teachings of Tolbert Fanning in 1839, a fact sheet provided to The Dispatch said.

The church’s first minister was hired in 1845, and the church constructed its first location downtown at the corner of what is now Second Avenue and Sixth Street by 1850.

Later, during the Civil War, Columbus was temporarily declared the capital of Mississippi, and the Senate met in the First Christian building in 1863, Jane said.

From 1877-1878, Knowles Shaw, known as “The Singing Evangelist,” served as the minister of First Christian, Jane said. While Shaw was killed in a train accident as he was traveling from Columbus to Texas for a revival, some of the songs he wrote live on.

“He wrote Gospel songs, just a whole ton of them,” Jane said. “One of them was ‘Bringing in the Sheaves,’ which has carried on.”

Over the years, the church continued to grow, with a few additions to the downtown building.

In 1958, Columbus was named capital of Mississippi once again for a day, and First Christian was chosen as the site for the signing of the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway interstate compact. That year, the church also started working on plans for a new church building.

By 1967, the church purchased land in East Columbus, and by 1968, it opened its new building on 811 North McCrary Road where it stands today. That year, the downtown building was also torn down and turned into a parking lot for a business across the street, Jane said.

“They had to tear the building down,” Jane said. “But we put in the contract that we could maintain the stained glass windows that had been there in the original church. And we took them to our new church out on McCrary Road.”

Since moving to East Columbus, First Christian has continued to change over the years. The church grew for many years, including taking on new land and additions in 1979 and 1985.

Still, when Lavelle became the pastor of First Christian Church in March 2020, the church’s membership had dwindled. About 20 dedicated members still attended every Sunday, he said, most of whom were elderly.

While he had to wait until after the COVID-19 pandemic had passed to do more outreach, Lavelle said the church has grown 500% in attendance since he first arrived.

“I remember when I first came, and we had the first baptism, the deacon who was over preparing the baptistry said ‘I can’t remember the last time we filled this baptistry up,” he said. “And now, we’ve probably had close to 50 baptisms since we’ve been here.”

One of the most significant outreach programs of First Christian is a martial arts program, which now has more than 50 students in it that have won 25 national championships. Along with that outreach program, the church’s youth program has grown, Lavelle said.

Lavelle said the church also does a community-wide Easter egg hunt and a harvest festival, inviting new faces into First Christian. The youth group also visits nursing homes, he said, and some of the other members started a community bingo night.

Jane said she is excited to have so many new faces coming into the church, which has even prompted the church to expand again with a new 4,000 square foot activities building.

“We’ve had to add a new building to have room for everybody,” Jane said. “It had kind of gotten down to senior members and not very many young people, and now we’ve got young people running all over the building.”

Lavelle said the church is just too busy with all of its new programs for its current space, but he is optimistic that it will continue to grow until it has to plant a sister church somewhere else in Columbus.

“The more you grow and the more you encourage people to get involved, the more opportunities you have to minister to individuals, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about – being the hands and feet of Jesus and being able to make a difference in the lives of other people,” Lavelle said.