‘We’re still here’: Allison Christian Church celebrates 100 years
Allison Christian Church celebrates 100 years
The members of Allison Christian Church call it “the little church that can.”
It’s an apt description, said Mike Peton, who has been the church’s pastor for 25 years.
Even through the decline of the coal and coke industry that had employed much of the flock, the church has continued its work in the Fayette County patch town.
“It’s been a servant church over the many years to our community, to our congregation,” Peton said. “It’s declined over the years because people have moved out of the area, but it still does stay strong in faith and commitment to God and the area.”
This weekend, the church is marking a century of that commitment.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, the church will host a special service with the congregation and local pastors for its 100th anniversary, followed by a meal. The church is located at 452 East Ave., Allison.
About 90 people are expected, including local pastors, the regional minister and churchgoers both past and present, said Rick Marker, a member of the congregation who is part of the planning committee.
“There are a few former members who were active with the church but have moved away,” he said. “So a lot of them were asked if they would like to attend this occasion, and many of them did accept the invitation.”
The church, part of the Disciples of Christ denomination, was founded by Ruth Boll, a missionary from Oklahoma who was also assigned to Newtown and Alicia. The congregation in the early days was made up of people who worked in the coal mines and coke yards nearby.
She was a “dear Christian lady,” said Marker, who was one of her kindergarten students in Allison’s grade school in 1960.
The earliest group of 17 to 20 people began meeting in a local schoolhouse in September 1926.
In July 1927, they dedicated their first church building.
It would house the congregation until it burned down in 1933, after which they met in a local bowling alley until services resumed in the new church the following year.
Marker’s uncle would tell him about the arrival of the new church, a prefabricated building that arrived on the railroad.
“They shipped it up by rail car right to Allison and they unloaded it there,” Marker said. “It was probably about a quarter-mile to get it up to the site.”
That lasted until 1991, when the church built its new home, located in the previous church’s parking lot. Its congregation numbers about 30 to 35 people, Marker said.
The church hosts weekly services at 9 a.m., followed by Sunday school, and also runs a program for community youth.
Peton said the church’s perseverance has been “a testament to faith” – both in God, and in the community church. The parishioners there are “hard workers, never complaining, but putting whatever God has gifted them into action,” he said.
“I think it’s something that is a testament to the Christian walk,” Peton said. “Even in small churches, big things happen for the kingdom of God.”
Marker agreed.
“We’re a community church,” he said. “We’re not in a big town, anything like that. I mean, we’re in Allison No. 2, And we’re still here.”