Lewiston Church of Christ marks century of service

Like the earliest gatherings of Christians recorded in the book of Acts, the founding members of Lewiston Church of Christ first began meeting in homes to worship and sing.

On Sunday, church members will celebrate 100 years since its founding. The present church, constructed in 1994, bears a sign testifying to the congregation's core belief: "Jesus Christ - the chief cornerstone."

"This church began as a house church in 1917 and it was pretty informal," said the Rev. Joel Solliday, who has been serving the congregation for six years.

The earliest members' "notion of worship is more simple and they started a house church in their home because they wanted to worship without (musical) instruments. It's kind of like a move toward simplicity - that's part of the Church of Christ heritage."

Churches of Christ - along with sister denominations the Disciples of Christ and the independent Christian Church - were part of the Protestant restoration movement of the early to mid-1800s.

The notion was to rid Christian practice and worship services of what the reformers at the time believed was unnecessary and misleading doctrine and ritual and return to straightforward preaching from the Bible without interpretation or nuance.

"Their call," Solliday said, "was just to restore New Testament Christianity from the basic information in the Bible and drop some of the baggage and just be Christians. No creed but the Bible. 'We're not the only Christians, but we're Christians only' - that was a popular phrase."

That belief drew some of the earlier settlers in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, many of whom migrated from Oklahoma and Texas.

Some of the earliest families included Claude and Maude Fallwell, John and Minerva Wharton, Charles and Elvina Wharton, Earnest and Ethel Henry and Cecil and Hattie Barnhart.

"It was all very family-oriented," Solliday said. "The way we grew back then, after church people would invite each other for lunch. It was like church all day. They'd meet for worship and then they'd go eat lunch and they were really close-knit."

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Churches of Christ is the preference for Sunday music without instrumental accompaniment. Solliday said that doesn't prohibit the congregation from singing. Besides filling the Sunday service with hymns, the church also has an a cappella singing ministry in which members visit nursing homes, individual shut-ins and other places to perform.

"So we enjoy singing with all the four-part harmony. It's just, that's a part of our tradition; our heritage of singing.

"We have good Sundays and bad," he said.

In 1935, the congregation built a tabernacle-style building near the Normal Hill Cemetery that now houses a Baptist Church. Articles of incorporation were not formalized until 1951, which sanctioned the church's rights to own, manage or sell property and accept donations. Finally, in 1994, the present building was constructed and the first service took place on Nov. 20, 1994.

About 120 to 130 people attend weekly services and participate in the church's various ministries. The congregation is diverse in ethnic, socio-economic and age backgrounds, Solliday said.

"We are involved in such outreach efforts as feeding the homeless and others at the Reach Out Center in Lewiston, filling backpacks with food for needy children at the Clarkston food bank, and supporting children's homes in Colorado and New Mexico.

"The importance of faith across the board ... has expressed itself in different ways," Solliday said. "We're very family oriented; very mutually supportive. We still live all those traditions but we've got our ministries cut out and we're a little more official than we used to be."

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Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.