The Christian Church of 1868 — today's Community Christian Church

Organized March 29, 1868 · 201 W. Michigan Street

The town's Christian Church began with a sermon series in the Methodist college's hall. Early in 1868, Chapman records, Elder Ira J. Chase of Mishawaka "commenced a series of sermons on primitive Christianity" in New Carlisle, at the request of two or three disciples living in the town, assisted first by W. M. Roe, pastor of the Christian Church at Rolling Prairie — across the LaPorte County line, the boundary congregation that mothered this one. On March 29, 1868, the church was regularly organized in the chapel hall of the New Carlisle Collegiate Institute. A house of worship was finished in the winter of 1869–70 — a neat structure seating about 260, costing $2,500 — and Elder Chase preached the dedication sermon on March 13, 1870. The pastors to 1880 were W. M. Gleason, Jesse Roe, Joseph Wickard, J. P. Lucas, M. L. Blaney, and M. J. Thompson; membership stood at about 100 in 1880, with a well-sustained Sunday school. Howard confirms the course and adds the founder's later eminence: Chase, "afterwards governor of Indiana," organized the church assisted by Roe, the building was dedicated March 13, 1870, and "the church has continued to prosper." Granville Woolman's reminiscence in Howard fixes the town the church was planted in: arriving in 1834, his family found "but one cabin and that was located where the Christian church now stands" — the Bourissau family's cabin, on the townsite's first held land.

A Christian congregation under the name Community Christian Church stands in town today at 201 W. Michigan Street. The name is not new: the Indiana Historical Society's Charles R. Childs postcard collection, spanning about 1900 to about 1950, includes a photograph captioned "Community Christian Church" at New Carlisle, and a Lutheran theologian's biography records an interim ministry at "Community Christian Church, New Carlisle, Indiana, 1993–1994," at weak biographical strength. The New Carlisle Business & Community Association directory lists "Community Christian Church, Attn: Pastor Rick Jones, 201 West Michigan Street, P.O. Box 155, New Carlisle," printing a telephone number in the 584 area code that appears to be a misprint for 574 and an email, rwj216@live.com; a separate ministry directory lists the church's telephone as 574-654-3344. Both numbers print as their sources give them. What no source reached actually documents is the continuity itself — that the church organized in the Institute hall in 1868 and the Community Christian Church on Michigan Street are one congregation through the whole course. The identification is probable and is printed at directory strength only; it banks as a named gap below, settled by the congregation's own records.

Sources

1. Chapman (1880), Olive Township chapter, pp. 767–768 — first-hand, ldsgenealogy.com transcription.
2. Howard (1907), vol. 1, Olive Township section, pp. 297, 299 — first-hand, same carrier.
3. Indiana Historical Society, Charles R. Childs postcard collection — the Community Christian Church caption.
4. New Carlisle Business & Community Association directory and Net Ministries listing — the present congregation at directory strength, numbers as printed by each.