The church at Herrin has entered the new millennium
with a great sense of excitement
about what God will do through us.
It was that same sense of excitement that spurred a special meeting on Friday evening, February, 3, 1961 at Mildred Hindman's home. Valgene and Gertrude Gould met with Mildred and her children to discuss establishing a church in Herrin. Congregations already existed in Carbondale, Christopher, Marion, and West Frankfort, but there was a need for a congregation in this community.
The two families decided to rent a building at 504 North 16th St. Recently vacated by the Lutheran church, the building could hold as many as one-hundred people and only cost $35.00 a month. Valgene Gould and Mildred Hindman committed themselves to a six-month lease on the building confident that this step of faith would flourish into a new congregation of God's people.
Letters were mailed throughout the area, encouraging those who were interested in starting a church in Herrin to meet on Wednesday night, March 8, 1961. Although a late season snow storm hindered some from attending that first meeting, those present were excited about what God was about to do in this community. Twelve people came together that evening, Valgene Gould and his family, Gertrude, Brenda, and Mike; Mildred Hindman and her daughters, Debbie and Sandy; Howard Barnes and his family Louise, Mitzi and Lester; Mrs. Lawrence Williams, and O. B. Ray.
The Church Meets for the First Time
The first meeting of the Herrin church of Christ began with a period of worship and Bible study. Valgene Gould led the singing and Howard Barnes led a Bible study from Matthew 1-2. Following a prayer by Lester Barnes, the group began to discuss the future of this new church family. Everyone present was eager to begin a congregation in Herrin. They decided to continue to meet together on Wednesday evenings for Bible study and to work on preparing the building and the community for the first Sunday services on March 19, 1961.
Although the building was in fair repair, much work still needed to be done to make it usable for a church home. The members had no money to pay for others to do the work, so they all chipped in together to build a lectern, install a chalk board, erect a sign and apply a fresh coat of paint. Brother O. B. Ray found forty theater seats, as well as some song books and Bibles. He also volunteered to preach for the fledgling congregation. Everyone worked together, offering his or her special skills to make that first Sunday very special.
There are no written records of that first service, nor of the first few years of the church's existence in Herrin. New families continued to join the work at Herrin, including Ethel Jeralds and her children, Bruce, Phil, Brian, and Melanie as well as Eddie and Janet Usher. The little meeting place was just large enough for some classrooms and an auditorium. Every time the group met for a meal together or a special celebration, they would have to go to the Girl Scout Hall. It wasn't much larger, but it did provide a kitchen and tables.
Herrin's Early Ministers
Several preachers served the growing congregation during those early years. Louis Douthitt's ministry epitomizes the character of those who served at Herrin. He was an insurance salesman by trade, but committed his life to ministering to the needs of the people at Herrin. He never took a dime in payment for his service, returning all the money he received to the collection plate. He set the spiritual standard for all who would follow him in the pulpit.
Like Brother Douthitt, most of the preachers served part-time. Some were students at Southern Illinois University while others were employed at some other job full time. As the little church continued to grow, they began to see a need for a larger and more permanent facility.
The Church Builds Her First Building
After much prayer, God blessed this church with the opportunity to purchase property one block off Park Ave. at 1401 ½ Park Ave (now 1400 South 16th Street). The plot cost $5,000.00 and by January of 1962, the congregation had already raised half of that amount. The remainder was financed by Mildred Hindman. A sign was erected on the property, stating, "Future Home of the Church of Christ" and plans were underway to make that future home a reality.
The congregation was averaging thirty in attendance in 1962 and money was tight. Purchasing the property was a step of faith for this small group. To build a building would require the help of many other people. The first person to help would be Valgene Gould. He offered to build the building himself. He volunteered much of his time and some of the materials and enabled the congregation to build a building large enough to still serve its needs today.
Next, the members would reach out to their friends and family members. $50,000.00 of bonds were sold to finance the construction. By the spring of 1963, the building was nearing completion. It had an auditorium that would seat one hundred, nine classrooms, a nursery, a baptistery, and restrooms. It was also air-conditioned, which was state-of-the-art construction of that day. The first services in the new building were held on May 26, 1963. Forty-two worshiped together that day, including Jim and Nancy Clem and their two children, Mr. And Mrs. Louis Thomas and Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose Teffertiller.
From Part Time to Full Time Preachers
The church at Herrin was blessed by the talents of several preachers who came to Southern Illinois to study at SIU. Roy Enoch, Jerry Butler, and later on, Tom Holland all preached for the congregation while completing their graduate studies. Jerry continued to work with the church in Herrin after finishing his graduate degree. He took a teaching position at West Frankfort, Illinois and preached on the weekends. During the summer of 1965, he worked full time to help grow the congregation.
It was that experience of having a full-time minister that helped show the church how much they needed someone who could dedicate himself fully to the work. Jerry Butler recognized that need too, and helped acquire financial support from the South Highland congregation in Little Rock, Arkansas. This enabled the church to hire Kenneth Ware as their first full time minister. Kenneth Ware was from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and came to Herrin in October of 1965. He was described as a, "dedicated, zealous individual," and the church at Herrin welcomed him with great anticipation that God would bless this work with continued growth. Brother Ware preached for the congregation until May of 1967, but his godly spirit helped guide the church for many years afterwards.
A parsonage was built with the financial help of Mrs. Hindman and the construction skills of Valgene Gould. It would serve as the residence for ministers of the Herrin congregation until 1990. In March of 1966, a Sunday morning gathering of 104 set a new attendance record for the growing fellowship. Just three years earlier, the church had only twelve members and met in a rented room.
In 1971, during the tenure of Huelen Masters, the Herrin church of Christ selected her first elders. Harrison Norris, Gilbert Patterson, and Cecil Teffertiller were selected as the shepherds of the congregation and strove to lead the maturing fellowship of believers toward deeper faith and stronger commitment.
John Norville Begins a Long Tenure of Ministry
It was in the summer of 1972 that the Herrin church welcomed a preacher that would serve faithfully in that role for the next eighteen years. John Norville had recently retired from the Air Force, having served several years in Anchorage, Alaska. He had preached part time for several years and wanted to come back to Southern Illinois and begin a full time preaching ministry. After a short tenure at Wetaug, the Herrin congregation hired John and welcomed him, his wife Betty, and their five children. Little did the church know then how much God would bless them through John's faithful and long-term ministry.
It was during those eighteen years that the church at Herrin matured into a stable community of faith. The Herrin congregation has always had a special love of children. In 1976, to help share God's wonderful gospel message to them, the church decided to buy a used school bus and start inviting neighborhood children to church. The idea was proposed to the congregation and on one Sunday, more than $5000.00 was raised to purchase the bus and start the work. The work continued for five years and was so successful that another bus was purchased to expand the outreach. It was during those years that the church hit a record attendance of over 200. That record still stands to this day.
In the fall of 1979 the growing congregation realized they needed more room. The original nine classrooms were over flowing and there was no room for large fellowship meals. Plans were made to build an addition onto the present building that would provide more classrooms as well as a fellowship room and a kitchen. In order to begin the project, money had to be raised. The church took up a special contribution that retired the $7000.00 debt from the original building in one Sunday! With the help of the church in Mayfield, Kentucky, enough money was raised to start construction. The new addition was finished in the spring of 1980.
The Church Expands Her Facilities
With the added space, the church decided to start Tuesday School in 1982. Preschool children from the community would register for this morning program that would meet one day a week. It required the work of a dozen of our ladies to teach classes on Bible lessons and preschool readiness activities. John Norville helped with the work in addition to teaching a class for the mothers who wished to stay. The ministry continued for five years and helped the Herrin church make an impact in her community that is still seen today. Now as adults, several of these Tuesday School students fondly remember the program and the loving dedication of their teachers.
John Norville's growing heart problems demanded that he retire as the congregation's preacher in 1990, but his impact will be felt for years to come. He continued to work and worship with the church at Herrin until his death in November of 2003. The continued growth and faithfulness of this church is a testimony to his eighteen years of dedication to ministry here.
Ron Harmon and Tracey Wyatt preached for the congregation following John's retirement. Ron Harman was instrumental in bringing several students from the International Bible College to our community in 1992 for a spring campaign. It was during that time that we met Leonard Amanatey and Arthur David. The church grew to love these two men as their own and began to recognize God's will for us to expand our support of world missions. In later years, these two would go out to do mission work; Leonard to Quebec and then to Zimbabwe; Arthur to Liberia. Today the church at Herrin sets 10 percent of its contribution to support these two works, as well as the work of Jim Norville in Tomsk, Russia and Marty Koonce in Togo, West Africa. Starting in 1999, the Herrin church took a bold step and became the sponsoring congregation for Leonard Amanatey and his mission work in Zimbabwe.
It was in September of 1993 that the church hired Scott Cody as its minister. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Scott, his wife Brenda and their children Anna and Seth moved to Herrin and began a ministry that continues to this day. He taught high school for several years before deciding to become a full time minister. After graduating from Harding Graduate School of Religion, Scott made Herrin his first work.
Elders Reestablished At Herrin
One of the greatest events to take place at Herrin in the past few years was the reinstatement of elders. The congregation had gone almost 25 years without shepherds, but a growing commitment of her members to follow God's will in this matter led to a prayerful search for qualified men to lead this congregation. In December of 1995, the congregation appointed Eddie Usher and Bob York as its elders. These two men have grown into strong spiritual leaders whose godly wisdom has helped the church deepen her faith and expand her ministries.
In January of 1996, our new elders appointed five deacons to serve the ministry needs of the Herrin church. Cecil Anderson, Mike Helton, Mike Payne, Barry Valier and Tracey Wyatt accepted the positions and served faithfully in those roles. Although the Valier family was called away to help strengthen the church in DuQuoin, Illinois, the remaining four deacons continue to diligently work to help meet church and community needs In 2002, we were blessed to add Doug Gladwell as a new deacon in charge of our youth program. He and his wife Dana are dedicated servants and serve well overseeing our young people. Our future plans are to add additional deacons and elders to increase our outreach to the church family and our community.
The church of Christ in Herrin is presently made up of 75 families and welcomes an average of 115 people to its Sunday morning service. Continuing to focus on outreach and evangelism, the church hosts Special Outreach Sundays throughout the year, and in a recent drive the church members invited more than 500 of their friends and neighbors to come and experience what the Herrin church of Christ is all about.
The congregation's continued love of young people led them to hire their first summer youth intern in 1996. Joel Arnold was a member at Herrin and a school teacher. He agreed to work with the teens during his summer break, and did such a great job that the church continued the practice, hiring Ben Steed during the summers of 1998 and 1999, Josh Steed, Ben's brother in 2000, and Nathan Wear in 2001. Nathan was reared in the church at Herrin, and after four years in the Marines, we are glad that he's back to help us in our work.
Homecoming Celebration Honors 40 Years of Service
Recently, the church at Herrin hosted their first Homecoming, celebrating 40 years of service to Christ in Southern Illinois. The event was planned for November 2-4, 2001 and almost two hundred invitations were sent out months in advance, asking former members to join the celebration. The fellowship was electrifying as brothers and sisters from across the country came together. There was hugs and tears, fond memories and plenty of photos of kids and grand kids. The exciting weekend culminated with Sunday morning worship service, when over 200 gathered to praise God and hear Tom Holland speak of how God has great plan for His people. It reminded us how influential small congregations can be and how far reaching is God's great kingdom.
Hundreds of believers have called the Herrin church of Christ their church home through the years. Some have gone on to meet their Lord, others have moved across the nation and even the world. It's wonderful to think how wide our impact extends. And with our upcoming Homecoming activities, we hope to call all of those former members back home to celebrate what God has done through us.
Building for the Future
God has surely blessed the church at Herrin over the past forty years. With the auditorium at maximum capacity and the parking lot overtflowing, it was time to expand, but the plan we had devised was far from what God had in store for us. After several attempts to buy property around our current building failed, we realized that expanding our present facilities as not a real possibility. We bean to look around for propterty to building a new meeting place. Our old location was one block off of 148 and it was amazing how that single block hid us from the community. We hoped to find a plot of groud with greater visability and when we were told of a four and one -half acre plot right on 148, we knew we found a new home. It was almost five times as large as our current location and 1/2 mile north of one of the busiest interchanges in Southern Illinois. We decided to purchase the plot of ground and, hopefully, one day in the near future start building there.
The price for such a prominant piece of land was expensive and we thought we'd be paying on it for a long time, but the generosity of our congregation overwhelmed us and we paid it off wihtin six months. Now plans were being made for the building. A single level structure with plenty of parking, large classrooms, accessable space for activities and fellowship meals, and an auditorium to grow into. When the plans were complete, we were looking at a building almost three times larger than our current facilities. When all the numbers were crunched, we determined that with enough faith and with the sacrificial spirit of our church family, we could pay for it. Ground was broken in the spring of 2004 and on November 28, 2004 the Herrin Church of Christ held its first worship service on the new campus. That day 230 members and visitors gathered to worship and thank God for his blessings. We realized the results of God's promises and our determination and now our eyes were on the future.
Building Leaders
The church has an important mission of maturing people in Christ. Nowhere is that seen more dramatically than when a church searches for additional elders or deacons. Eddie Usher and Bob York serve this congregation for ten years as our elders, but the demands of a growing congregation required that more spiritual leaders step forward to assist in leading our congregation. While in years past, we struggled to find men who displayed the spiritual maturity to be an elder, our call for recommendaiton for elders provided us with an abundance of names. After the process was completed, four men were selected to join the eldership at Herrin. Cecil Anderson, Mike Helton, Mike Payne, and Jim Stevens were put before the congregation and accepted as their elders. Now with six men to nurture the spiritual life of our flock, we anticipate to continue to grow and provide for the souls who call Herrin their church home.
Who knows where God will lead this congregation in the years to come. Two things are for sure. First, the church at Herrin is built upon the faithful commitment of men and women who with vision, dreamed of a congregation in this community and worked hard to build it. And second, as long as we honor God with faithful service, and honor those who have gone ahead to the eternal kingdom in heaven, this congregation will continue to grow and glorify God.
As Paul said in the letter to the church at Ephesus,
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
(Ephesians 3:20-21)