Evangelical Church commemorates 130 years in Sweet Home

Pastor Brian Hotrum

For The New Era

Sweet Home’s Evangelical Church recently celebrated its 130th year of ministry in the community.

The church was formed following a visit by Rev. Josiah Bowersox, who arrived in June of 1884 in response to an invitation from Samuel Nothiger, representing others in Sweet Home.

On Sunday, June 8, 1884, Rev. Bowersox preached three times at Traxler Hall. Out of these services many people found Christ as their Savior and the desire to establish a church was felt by all.

A church was organized with 23 charter members and they continued to meet at Traxler Hall for several years.

Thomas Yost came to be the pastor in Sweet Home in 1889. He also began preaching in Foster and as a result of this ministry the Foster Evangelical Church was established. Meetings in the grange hall in Sweet Home continued until 1890, when Joe Ames donated an acre of property on what was the far east end of town to the Evangelical Church. Under the leadership of Rev. Yost, the church began to build a small white frame building with a bell tower.

During the 1890s the Evangelical Church split into two denominations. Most churches had to decide which denomination to join. In Sweet Home the congregation split and between 1891 and 1916 there were two Evangelical churches in Sweet Home.

One group, called the Sweet Home Evangelical Association, met at the current location, and the other group called the Sweet Home United Evangelical Church, built the church building on the corner of 18th and Long Street. The two denominations merged in 1922, but the two Sweet Home congregations had already united, in 1916, and the 18th and Long Street building was sold to the Christian Church.

During those years of having two churches, the pastor of the United Evangelical Church on 18th and Long served on a circuit with Sodaville much of the time. Since the time of Thomas Yost, the pastor of Sweet Home Evangelical also preached at Foster.

The circuit with Sodaville ended in 1916 when the two Sweet Home congregations merged. However, the pastor of the Sweet Home church also preached at Foster until the 1940s.

The Sweet Home Evangelical Church building was not very large and extensive remodeling took place in 1934, and the building continued to be used for another quarter of a century.

After 71 years of continuous use, the old building was deemed inadequate and construction began on a new facility.

During the construction of the current building the old building was torn down and services were held in the Seventh-Day Adventist church for several months in 1961. A dedication service for the new building was held on Nov. 26, 1961. The east wing of the church was added in 1967 and 10 years later, in 1977, the Activity Center was constructed.

For the centennial celebration for the Sweet Home Evangelical Church in 1984 the bell tower was constructed.

Many things have changed over the years, but Sweet Home Evangelical Church continues to proclaim the timeless message of forgiveness and hope and is committed to growing fully devoted followers of Christ.

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