College Church was started in 1895 as a result of revival meetings that were held at the park near the intersection of 38th & Washington in Marion, Indiana. The preachers at the revival were Cyrus Billheimer & Anna Linville. We have noted that from our start as a congregation women in ministry have had an impact, a value we continue to share as a Church. The new congregation formed with 16 members, and as near as we can tell, about a third of them appear to have been single adults. The name they chose was “The South Marion Wesleyan Methodist Church.” This name didn’t stick long (as we shall see), but it was a church in South Marion and was a part of the Wesleyan Methodist denomination.

The church immediately built a building for itself on Boots Street in 1896, meeting there for more than two decades. These were vibrant early years where the church grew large enough that it could no longer meet in its first building by 1920. That year newly formed Marion College, which would become Indiana Wesleyan University, purchased the Normal College facilities in south Marion. Since our church had outgrown our facilities and our denomination had begun this new college, they graciously allowed our growing church to meet in their College Chapel auditorium in the administration building. This was the beginning of the informal but very special relationship our church has had to the students and employees of Indiana Wesleyan University through the years. Our church has been adjacent to the school for most of it’s history, at times being confused as being the same thing. In fact, while we share our denominational connection, College Church and IWU are governed by separate boards and are in every way separate institutions—we just happen to have a great deal of overlap in mission and in relationships.

There was some concern by the last 1930s that perhaps the identity of the church was too mixed in with that of the “Marion College.” The church had also continued to grow, and it was again time for a move. In order to distinguish itself as a separate entity again, the church built a building on Washington Street in 1938, adjacent to the location of the original revival meetings that started the church. The church was still known as the “South Marion Wesleyan Methodist Church” at this time but a year later in 1939 the people acknowledged that “College Church” is what everyone called the church, so they voted to change their name to College Wesleyan Methodist Church, and of course everyone still shortened it to “College Church when they referred to us.

Here we note that while the church was establishing it’s own identity apart from the school, it’s identity was in many ways still tied to ministering to college students, not merely those who lived in Marion. This has always been one of the great passions of our church—to invest in the next generation. Most of those who go to college in Grant County, even at our other local colleges (Taylor & Ivy Tech) do not end up living in the County after graduation. However, as a church we have the constant opportunity to invest in these students and send them out for the mission God has for their lives. In our 110+ year history we have been able to send out thousands and thousands of those in the next generation carrying a theology informed by our preaching, relationships sparked by our community, and hearts that are broken by the things that break God’s heart.

The church continued to grow after World War II so that in 1964 the church built again on Selby Street—one street over. These new facilities featured one of the largest sanctuaries in the area and one of the largest at the time in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. By 1969 College Church’s average attendance was 484 for the year, making it more than even a mid-sized church. We have struggled through the years in becoming a truly large church for our area—while still being small enough for people to connect to one another. As always, smaller groups of people have been the key, with Sunday School classes, and now even small groups in homes, repeatedly being cited as “the way to connect” in our church. We have found that people find their tighter-knit relationships in these settings, and encourage everyone to spend at least one hour a week connecting with a smaller group of some kind either on Sunday mornings in a class, or other times in the week.

One of the threads in our history that has shown itself true is our passion for reaching outside our walls. Already in 1957 the church voted to begin paying the entire salary of a missionary sent from the church. In our records we find the consistent (and denominationally, some of the highest) levels of giving to missions and outreach throughout our history. In the last decade, we have drastically increased our commitment levels in giving to outreach and have increased our focus as well—partnering in large ways in fewer places to make not only a wide but deep difference as a church. In 2010 a key moment arrived as our church board voted to begin a new What If outreach campaign. We began to ask ourselves questions like: “What if we gave again at the same kind of levels that we did to build our current building—and gave all that money away.” We sense this is a key season in outreach for College Church.

Perhaps as much as any thread in our history, the priority of the next generation has been most noticeable. Yes, the college community is important, but we’ve given time, money & most of all our prayers to the under-18 portion of the next generation as well. Our children’s ministry, now known as Splash, is a center-piece of our church, with many notable seasons of ministry to children in our past. Many adults that now attend our church (and even some staff members) cite days in our church’s children’s ministry when they received Christ as savior. Likewise, our youth ministry is known in our community for a sustained focus on the next generation. Known as “JCBodyshop” (the J. C. stands for Jesus Christ), our youth ministry is often known in the local middle and high-schools even by those kids that haven’t heard of our church. The youth ministry has it’s own youth center located on Selby Street adjacent to our primary church facilities.

We have had our high points, as you can see from the above. God has blessed us. Of course, there have been low times as well, where College Church was not what it could have been for the community, or where we missed opportunities, as any church might. But we have seen God restore us for the future he plans in our community, and we see his fingerprints on thousands of stories we hear and live out daily in Grant County. We continue to be a Bible-preaching inclusive worshipping community that makes the next-generation it’s priority. Come restore the future with God and us!