To commemorate the denomination's Missouri bicentennial, the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 1601 N. Main St., Poplar Bluff, is adding the members of the first congregation to its rolls for the next year. Nov. 22, 1817, The First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) added 13 new members and a new minister, none of whom will ever physically worship with the congregation. The new members and the minister were the 14 people who worshipped Nov. 22, 1817 at the Salt Creek Christian Church in Howard County, the first Christian Church in Missouri, and the preacher who led them. The original "Book of Minutes" of the Salt Creek congregation shows only minister Thomas McBride and one of the 13 charter members could write. The other 12 signed the page by marking an "X" between their first and last names.
"These 13 were part of the great frontier movement that left the man-made structures defining church membership behind when they crossed the Alleghenies to the frontiers of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio," said Senior Minister Rev. Frank Chlastak, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Poplar Bluff.
"They sought freedom to use their own minds to respond to the mind of God," he continued. "We continue to walk in their spiritual footsteps today as members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
"As a denomination without creeds that define belief, we follow the message of one of our founders, Thomas Campbell, who said in 1809, 'Where the scriptures speak, we speak; where the scriptures are silent, we are silent."
Rev. Chlastak added, "We think the 14 people who worshipped at Salt Creek Church 200 years ago are our cloud of witnesses who 'let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,' and lets us 'run with perseverance the race marked out for us."'
He concluded, "We welcome all who seek that kind of worship experience."
Two centuries ago, The Salt Creek Congregation worshipped in a l6 x 24-foot hand-hewn log church built by members of the congregation east of the present town of Franklin.
Members sat on backless split log pews. The floor was dirt at first, later hewed timbers.
The First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) came to the Bootheel 55 years later when the first presentation of a Bible basis for the union of believers was made in Poplar Bluff on or about the year 1872, by the Reverend S. Tulley, of Evansville, Ind.
In September 1886, 69 years after the first congregation came to Missouri, G. A. Hoffman, State Evangelist for the Church of Christ of Missouri, was sent to help organize the congregation and set apart its Elders and Deacons. The First Christian Church in Poplar Bluff was founded September 1886, at the corner of Main and Oak. At this initial meeting in September of 1886 Isaac M. Davidson donated a lot measuring 40 x 70 feet at the corner of Main and Oak which was to become the home of the Church for the next 20 years.
The original building was constructed within one year of the organizational meeting and was dedicated debt free. It was a neat, white frame structure which could seat 150 people.
Since its early beginnings the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)) in Poplar Bluff has been a vital partner in the community, promoting the gospel with other churches.
Each year the church has a winter coat and shoe drive for the community, a "Fill the Fire Truck Food Drive" for St. Vincent de Paul Society Food Bank and Child Concern Center, makes monthly food donations to the Nutrition Center, and many more outreach projects beyond the local church.
In the spring the church has a day of Mission and Service for the community.
Last year the church hosted a meal for the firefighters, state, county, and local police officers, county and state of Missouri troopers and first responders.
Rev. Frank Chlastak has been the senior minister since September 2015. First Christian Church celebrates open communion each Sunday, during morning worship at 10:30 a.m. and Sunday School at 9:30 a.m.