A Story Of Two Churches – And People
By Ilene Murray (1981)
At the corner of Custer and Park Streets in Mackay, Idaho
there’s an old-fashioned wooden church bulletin board saying MACKAY COMMUNITY
CHURCH.
The same sign when years after the Community Church
words faded.
Alongside is a little white church with a tall steeple and
bell tower. Though the doors are closed now, it holds fond memories for the
people of the valley.
Just a few feet away there is a larger, more modern building
– not white, but a friendly brown to blend in with the lawn and trees
surrounding.
Strangers to the town might wonder “How come?”
In the old town of Houston, four miles from Mackay, various
traveling evangelists held services in the valley in 1896; in 1898 a Reverend
T.D. Saffel was appointed by the Methodist Church and served intermittently for
a couple of years.
In 1901 Reverend J.L. Kendall was assigned to this field.
The 1903-1904 Yearbook of the First Methodist Episcopal Church has this report:
“Rev. J.L. Kendall was assigned to this barren field a year
ago. He went like Abraham of old, in at least two senses, viz., not knowing
whither he went, and with horses and camp outfit. He found Houston on Saturday
morning at 10 o’clock. His wife cooked dinner for the family over a campfire
while he went in search of feed for his horses. That night they had secured an
old house in which to live, had procured a hall in which to worship, and put up
notices for services the next day, and thus began a most successful year…….”
“The following year Brother Kendall, following the rush of
the new town of Mackay, four miles away, secured six fine lots from the
promoters of the town, and erected a neat and commodious church, at a cost of
$1,600.00. He had already bought a small house and moved it onto the lot
adjoining the church as a home for the pastor. This was the second dwelling
house in Mackay.
All the indebtedness, save $196.00, was cleared of during
Brother Kendall’s pastorate. His work, however, was not wholly along material
lines. He ministered faithfully, assisted by his good wife, to the spiritual
needs of the people. The membership grew from 4 to 33, the pastor’s salary from
nothing to $600.00. The present church property is a monument to their faithful
endurance.”
The little white church has served the community well
through the three quarters of a century since it was built. Many times there
was no pastor available, but the Ladies Aid and the few faithful members
remaining kept the Sunday School active and the church buildings maintained. By
1973 the congregation had so shrunk with the town that it was evident help was
necessary to keep the church open.
The Village Missions was contacted and in June of that year
Pastor Harold McGinnis was assigned by Village Missions Church Society to serve
the church at Mackay. He and Joan, his wife, and the three children arrived
that same month.
Transfer of ownership of the church property from the
Methodist Church to Village Missions was completed in the summer of 1977.
Having an active, full-time pastorate at the church soon
began to have a decided effect on the activities and membership. It began to be
overcrowded. In 1977, after ownership was acquired, the idea for building a new
church was germinated, and in November, 1980, the new church was completed and
dedicated.
The old church will be left standing for the time being; it
is one of the remaining landmarks in the town.
I wanted to learn the story of how the church outgrew the
little white building and was replaced by the new building, which has an
attractive vestibule, Sunday School rooms, a study, and full basement, as well
as a much larger room for worship services; I had also learned they (Pastor
McGinnis and wife, Joan) were moving soon to Beaver, Oregon.
I found Pastor McGinnis and his wife in the cheery study of
the church, surrounded by packing boxes, books, and files which they were
sorting.
Pastor Harold and Lois McGinnis. From the Challis
Messenger October 8, 1981
I expressed my regret at their leaving, and asked if it
wasn’t hard to leave their newly completed church. They did have mixed
emotions, they said. However, they had asked to be moved nearer to his parents,
who are getting old and both in poor health. He has had to leave several times
in the past year to help them, and felt he should be closer. They are leaving
many good associations here.
“What was your first impression of Mackay?” I asked.
He smiled. “I almost thought of going back. It was early
spring. Everything was dirty and depressing, right after the snow melted. Joan
didn’t come with me that first trip. The country was quite a change from
Washington and Oregon, where we’d spent most of the past 18 years.”
“Then I talked with some of the people in town. They were
friendly and said we could repair the parsonage, which they knew was in bad
shape. I decided to unload the furniture and look it over.”
I asked Joan what her first impressions of her new home
were.
“I was pleasantly surprised, “ she said. “Harold had painted
quite a grim picture, but I didn’t think it was all that bad.”
They spent the first six months working on the parsonage.
The upstairs was completely rebuilt. When they began it was quite a sight, with
wood floors with the paint worn off; the ceiling was cheesecloth with wallpaper
over it which had then been painted and repainted several times and was torn
and hanging. This was the first project.
After that the rest of the whole parsonage has been redone.
Electric baseboard heating was installed instead of the old wood stove; then a
modern wood stove was added, as well as carpeting and storm windows. Joan has a
decided knack for decorating, and the little old house is now very attractive
as well as comfortable.
It was interesting to see how the church itself changed.
Records showed that average attendance the previous year was 18. The church
board agreed to give a portion of the salary, and Village Missions would
supplement with $185.00 a month. The offering the first few months averaged
$130.00, but before very long attendance and giving increased and in two and a
half years the church became self-supporting and has remained so.
Bible Study groups were initiated for men and women. After a
while attendance at these was sometimes greater than church attendance.
Sunday School didn’t grow quite so fast, but did increase,
as did the Bible School and Youth Camps.
Three intern pastors have been trained; Chuck Barnett, who
had been a member of the youth group in their church at Sumner Park, Washington
and is now Pastor at the Challis Church; Jim Knight, who came from California
and is now assigned to a church in Washington; and Darrell Jessup, now at his
own church at Cottonwood, Idaho.
Several people from Arco had been coming to the Mackay
church, and they asked if services could not be held there. Now Sunday evening
services are held in the Episcopal Church Building in Arco, twenty eight miles
away.
As the attendance and activities grew, the little church
began to overflow. The children’s nursery was too close and disrupting
sometimes; and there was no place for church dinners or other social
activities. The pastor began toying with the idea of a new church in 1977. He
got various plans and discussed building on to the old one. He was advised this
would not be practical. He “doodled” for a month, talked with a
draftsman-architect, and finally brought the subject before the Church Board of
Directors. Their first reaction was “No way can we come up with a new building.
Let’s not even think about it”…But think about it they did, Marvin Goddard
agreed to be project chairman, and a basic plan was developed.
In July of 1978 ground was broken for the church and on
November 9, 1980 the church was dedicated. “We now have a building worth about
$300,000.00 which will cost only $110,000.00 or $115,000.00 when completed,”
McGinnis said. “Only the shell was purchased, the rest was built as we had the
money. We have never been broke, though we were down to $8.00 in the building
fund one day. Miraculously, more money came in for the fund.”
A group of teenager volunteers came from Washington and
spent two weeks working on the church. They boys did cement work and the girls
did insulating. They paid their own expenses. They brought $25.00, which they
all donated to the building fund when they left.
Later a group of retired men called Missionary Assistants
came to help. These were carpenters, painters, and other craftsmen. They came
from Washington and spent several days on finish work. The only work we had to
hire done was sheet rocking. Mondays and Saturdays were workdays. Lunches were
furnished by the ladies of the church.
“In retrospect, it sounds so easy”, the pastor said. “But
there was a lot of thought, planning, and worry, especially the building
committee. It could not have been done without the cooperation and dedication
of those committee members, the Board, and all the members. People who were not
members even helped with the work.”
“Joan, I know you haven’t been sitting idly by all these
years,” I said. “What about your activities?”
“I’ve been church secretary and have quit or been fired
several times but always went back to work in five minutes. It’s quite a heavy
load, and I’ve tried to keep the church people always informed or what’s going
on. I’ve been in charge of the music program. One of my biggest jobs is what I
call coffee cup counseling. The women of the church often come to me with
problems and I try to find answers for them in the Bible, over a cup of coffee
or tea.”
“Our four children have pretty much grown up while we’ve
been at Mackay. Eddie is at Vancouver, Washington, Larry and his wife at Salem,
Oregon, Jeff at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Joy is still at home with us.”
“Even though we thought the country looked desolate when we
first came, we have grown to love it and the people in it, “ the Pastor said.
“The mountains are beautiful and the people are the best of anywhere in the
world.”
“Yes”, Joan said. “One thing stands out especially. When
Jeff had his accident, there was a time when I had to be at the hospital with
him. Church officials were coming for a meeting. When I came home tired and
wondering how I could get things ready in time, the ladies of the church had
cleaned my house, put clean sheets on the beds, and filled stove and
refrigerator with food. I’ll never forget it.”
As I prepared to leave, I said “Do you have any more
thought?”
“Yes,” the Pastor’s eyes twinkled. “I wish I could take this
new study with me. It’s the best I’ve ever had in my years of ministry!”
By Ilene Murray with liberal use of 1903-1904 Yearbook of the Epsicopal-Methodist Church in Mackay, Idaho.
No comments:
Post a Comment