3C, built to last, built to worship

In 200 years, a lot can happen. Empires rise and fall. World Wars are fought. New technology emerges that sends us to the moon and puts super computers in our pockets.

Yet, one constant has remained in the village of Bethel, Ohio: The Community Christian Church, which just celebrated its 200th year of existence.

But even within that constant, the Church itself has changed names, ministries, focuses and added buildings to its footprint, although “faith in Jesus” has remained the same throughout, 3C, as they refer to themselves, said.

On Nov. 3, 1821, circuit rider, Mathew Garder organized the Bethel Christian Church; the first church house was built on the southeast corner of South Charity and Cheery Streets, with the original brick walls still within the residence, according to the Bethel Historical Society and Museum.

The idea behind 3C was to “restore New Testament Christianity,” and in a way, diverge from the Christian philosophy predominant in Europe at the time.

An additional chapel was built on the southwest corner of East Plane and South East Streets in 1866-1867.

When 3C was built, James Monroe was the president of the United States, presiding over a population of 9.6 million people. It was the same year Missouri became a state, but still four years before the Erie Canal was completed.

A few years after their centennial, 3C added Sunday School rooms and a rear basement; by 1941-1942, 3C built its parsonage, which now houses the church offices; in 1950, they added more classrooms, restrooms and an addition to the Sunday School; in 1963-1964, they built a new sanctuary; and in 1999, they added a handicap access ramp.

And in the last 30 years, 3C’s footprint expanded beyond its origins in Bethel to short-term mission trips across five continents, seven countries and one Native American nation, while also never forgetting its neighbors in America, helping during Hurricane Katrina, rebuilding a church, helping children’s homes and more.

A fun fact, too, is that 3C was ahead of the curve on smoking bans, banning smoking in all of their buildings and on their grounds in 1951, something that wouldn’t be more widely seen in Ohio until more than 50 years later.

In 200 years, it’s incalculable to think of the number of sermons delivered, weddings presided over, funerals administered and baptisms that occurred within the walls of 3C.

Brian White, associate minister, opened the ceremony after a round of gospel singing, surely standing on the shoulders of dozens of ministers who came before him, for the 200th anniversary sermon on Nov. 13.

“God has blessed us for 200 years,” he said.

Then White quipped that the secret to ministry, and for the ministers of the past, too, is in the beard. White sports a beard himself.

“God’s people have always been a celebrating group,” Dan Pence, another minister, said. “So, we visit our past, but I hope you have an eye, and two legs and feet and hands on the future. If we don’t do that, there’s no reason for us to be here.”

Pence began as a minister with 3C in 1973. Michael Tolle, senior minister, was inspired, and later influenced in his own discipleship, by Pence when was just a self-admitted “punk” listening to his sermons.

“‘When you pray, when you worship, when you read the Bible, if it doesn’t change your life, it’s not strengthening your faith, it’s strengthening your hypocrisy.’ I remember hearing that and just feeling a gut punch,” he said, adding that it was a gut punch that came with an arm wrapped around you.

Tolle added that he’s grateful that they serve God, but he’s also grateful that the church community itself was willing to take him in. Tolle choked up as he thanked them, calling himself a “crooked stick that they used as a staff.”

To learn more about 3C, please visit http://www.communitychristian.cc/.