DONIPHAN — On Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021, the joyful members of the First Church of God in Doniphan burned the mortgage to their church building.
The ceremony was held at its location on Highway 142.
This church building is the fourth one occupied by the congregation in a history that goes back over a 100 years, according to compiled church history.
The first church was erected in 1912. It was a stately wooden building with a tall tower at the entrance and bright white walls. It had few amenities, but the congregation moved in and began service immediately.
During winter revival services in January 1938, a fire from the furnace broke out. With a surprising calmness the parishioners gathered all they could — pews, hymnals, anything handy — an evacuated, according to the history. The building could not be saved.
Construction of the next church began right after the fire and was completed in the same year. That church was made of stone and known locally as the rock church.
It served the congregation for over three decades until the growth of the congregation required a larger building.
A newer, updated building was built and on Sunday, April 28, 1974, pastors led the congregation out of the rock church and into the new church.
That church was a broad expansive structure with a sweeping steepled roof. It served the congregation for 43 years until the historic flood of 2017 filled it full of Current River water.
When the waters receded, the interior walls of the church had come down. The drywall had come apart and spilled insulation on the waterlogged floors. The building was a complete loss.
Construction of the newest church on a lot farther uphill began in April 2020. On March 21, 2021, the congregation held its first service in the new church.
“It was bittersweet to leave the old property,” said Terry Slayton, chairman of the church’s board of trustees.
He had attended the old church since 1995. It was his hand that touched the fire to the mortgage paper. He wants no credit for that act though.
“I was only standing in the gap of the many who took part in the building of the new church facility,” he said.
Sale of the old church property and generous donations from the congregation, the citizens of Doniphan and other sister churches allowed Doniphan’s First Church of God to pay off the mortgage in a very short time.
“We have nothing but a positive outlook,” Slayton said of the congregation. “This whole move gave us a chance to grow as a congregation.”
The First Church of God in Doniphan has endured many changes in its more than century-long history.
Slayton credits “the many honorable and Godly people to come before my generation to make this congregation what it is today.”