FORTVILLE — Gifts at Christmastime when money is tight. Food when a cupboard is growing bare. School supplies after a home fire.
They all trace back to Fortville Christian Church.
“Our goal is to not be a church that cares about itself,” said Matt Dugan, family pastor of the congregation. “We want to be a resource to our community for meeting needs, both physical and spiritual.”
Fortville Christian Church will celebrate 150 years of ministry with an Aug. 21 community carnival, with a former pastor speaking in services Aug. 22, and with a Bible-reading marathon that begins after services Sunday.
The celebration is called “Rooted.” People of the church will be mindful of being “rooted in the Word,” the Bible, as they read it aloud in the church lobby over several days. They’ll honor many years of being rooted in the Fortville community with a carnival for the community.
“I think it’s really important to remember those who came before us, whose shoulders we stand on,” said church elder Tim Flick. “People put in blood, sweat and tears, and money and time, to make it happen.”
The first people putting in all of those were several families who met Aug. 23, 1871, to discuss starting a new church. Fortville had been incorporated as a town six years before and, according to a town history, had about 240 people.
Two days later, a two-week series of evangelistic meetings began at the Levi Thomas Grove. At the end of that time, the new church had 45 members.
Church history also records that the whole community came together to frame the structure that would be the church’s first building. It was dedicated in 1872.
Growth led to the construction of a brick building around 1900. Years later, Bev Burns would attend Sunday School there when she was 5 years old.
She remembers the classroom with its sandbox on legs, filled with white sand that sifted through her fingers.
“I remember how welcome I felt,” said Burns, one of the organizers of the anniversary celebration.
Others found welcome at the church, too — so many so that after several additions, the church built again in the 1960s at 9450 N. County Road 200W.
Flick remembers when he and his wife, Erin, started attending there about 15 years ago.
“We went for the kids’ programming … a lot of fun things for them,” he said. “It’s been great for my whole family. Our faith has really grown.”
He remembers a Saturday morning years ago when about 20 people leading various ministries at the church gathered to talk about whether to buy land near the church property.
“It felt like sitting around the kitchen table with the family, trying to make a decision,” he said.
He describes that family as authentic, accepting and generous. He thinks of the annual Be the Gift event before Christmastime, when church members take tags in the church lobby with requested gifts to be turned back in. Over the years, baskets of personal care items for food pantry clients, a slow cooker of soup to a home in a low-income neighborhood, or gift cards for a family in need in the Mt. Vernon school district have been among the gifts offered.
“Every time we ask for help from our church family, they step up,” Flick said. “Every single time.”
Burns has noticed that spirit of giving and serving, too.
“There are good people in this place who are always looking for growth — for ways to reach out to people,” she said.
Dugan said it might be an expected answer, but still one he finds very true: He said the church’s longevity is “by the grace of God.”
“It’s not because we’ve done everything right,” he said. “God has, for whatever purpose, allowed this congregation to continue to serve this community. It’s not about us … it’s about Jesus Christ.”
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Fortville Christian Church’s 150th anniversary celebration, “Rooted,” includes a community carnival from 4 to 8 p.m. Aug. 21 at the church, 9450 N. County Road 200W, Fortville. It will feature bounce houses, carnival games, food trucks and live entertainment by Dove Award-winning singer Doug Anderson. Former and present pastors will be among those taking a turn in the dunk tank.
On Aug. 22, a former senior minister of Fortville Christian, Dr. Dale Holzbauer, will speak in celebration services at 9 and 10:30 a.m. A dinner catered by Jonathan Byrd’s follows the second service, with tables set up both inside and outside. There will also be a prize walk and a display of church history.
The initial phase of the celebration is an around-the-clock reading of the entire Bible, out loud in the church’s lobby. People of the congregation have been signing up for time slots, with the first reader starting in Genesis after church on Sunday (Aug. 15). Organizers estimate the last reader will finish Revelation around midday on Wednesday.
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1871: A group of families meet to discuss starting a new church. Two days later, two weeks of evangelistic meetings begin.
1872: The church dedicates a frame structure, costing $1,400, on June 3.
1900: A brick building at 10 W. Church St. is built. It is later expanded in 1926, 1943 and 1959.
1966: Mary Rushton and her family donate six acres south of Fortville.
1966: Susana Jones and Jerry Breckinridge are married Christmas Eve in a new church building at 9450 N. County Road 200W.
1967: Services begin in the new 22,000-square-foot building, which cost $250,000, on Jan. 1.
2000: The building is remodeled, and children’s classrooms and offices added, for $1.6 million.
2011: The first Be the Gift takes place as the church presents a Christmas musical at a nursing facility. Various annual Be the Gift projects have included a Christmas party for at-risk youth and Christmas gifts for families in need in the Mt. Vernon school district.
2012: The church buys 33 acres next to its current property.
2017: The church’s first Harvest of Talents raises more than $11,300 for feeding programs through International Disaster Emergency Service. The event has continued annually; this year’s Harvest of Talents is set for Sept. 11.
2020: The church partners with several other churches also supporting the food pantry at Fortville Christian Church to establish FARM, Fortville Area Resource Mission.
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