Our History
A story of God’s faithfulness since the 1800s
What does being a Christian Church mean?
The Christian Church denomination began in the early 1800s in the Eastern United States. Leaders like Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell sought to restore the New Testament pattern of teaching and community life. This pattern included the ideas of congregational autonomy, leadership by multiple elders, baptism by immersion at the time of salvation, communion every Sunday and the elimination of doctrinal statements and creeds in favor of following the dictates and patterns of the New Testament.
This church has increasingly taken on the nature of a Community Church, resulting from our belief that the Bible is more important in determining the nature of our congregation than our denominational roots. This has also happened because we are located in a small town where the people we worship with come from many different church backgrounds. We seek simply to exalt Jesus Christ and follow God’s direction as it is revealed through the Bible and the Holy Spirit. Our mission is derived from the Bible: Loving God and loving people by being disciples of and making disciples who take Christ’s message to our community, region, country and world.
The History of YCC
In the mid 1870s, small groups of believers around the Yamhill area were beginning to meet on a regular basis. There were four denominations: Baptist, Christian, Methodist and Presbyterian. Individually, they were unable to erect church buildings, so in the spirit of cooperation, they joined together and formed the Yamhill Church Building Association.
In 1881, the Association built the oldest part of our church building and named it the Union Church Building. Once a month, on alternating weeks, each congregation held their Sunday worship service here.
In 1900, the Christian Church group bought a small building on East Main Street, which was originally built by the Wesleyan Methodists, and began to worship there. By the time they outgrew that space, the Union Church Building was vacant and at times was being used to store hay.
In 1914, the Union Church Building was acquired by the Christian Church. The next year, they loaded the building on Main Street onto log rollers and, with the help of two draft horses, pulled it to the church site and joined it with the existing building. In 1928, a basement was dug out under the buildings.
Today, we worship in the same space as they did so many years ago. However, we haven’t stayed anchored to the past. We worship using modern songs and are led by a band that is as talented as any you would hear in a larger church.
