A firm foundation
175th anniversary celebration set for Marshall County’s oldest, longest-running church on Sunday
T-R PHOTOS BY ROBERT MAHARRY Several longtime members of Bethel Grove Church — from left to right, Denise Bogan, Marilyn Brandt, Sarah Baker, Karen Chesick, Bonita Wunn, Valorie Bonk and JoAnn Castell — pose for a photo inside the sanctuary on Wednesday as they prepare to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Marshall County’s oldest and longest-running organized church on Sunday. Bethel Grove is located at 1409 Knapp Ave. south of Liscomb.
A pair of quilts adorning the walls in the fellowship hall at Bethel Grove mark the church’s rich history dating back to 1851, less than five years after Iowa became the U.S.’s 29th state.
A sign in front of the church shows the worship and fellowship times, and Bethel Grove has been under the leadership of Pastor Scott Hand since 2015.
T-R PHOTOS BY ROBERT MAHARRY Several longtime members of Bethel Grove Church — from left to right, Denise Bogan, Marilyn Brandt, Sarah Baker, Karen Chesick, Bonita Wunn, Valorie Bonk and JoAnn Castell — pose for a photo inside the sanctuary on Wednesday as they prepare to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Marshall County’s oldest and longest-running organized church on Sunday. Bethel Grove is located at 1409 Knapp Ave. south of Liscomb.
A pair of quilts adorning the walls in the fellowship hall at Bethel Grove mark the church’s rich history dating back to 1851, less than five years after Iowa became the U.S.’s 29th state.
A sign in front of the church shows the worship and fellowship times, and Bethel Grove has been under the leadership of Pastor Scott Hand since 2015.
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LISCOMB -- In 1851, a group of Moravian settlers who came west from Owen County, Indiana, planted their roots in northern Marshall County and launched the county's first organized church on land just east of the Iowa River between Liscomb and Albion. The Bethel Grove Church still stands 175 years later -- albeit about a mile down the road from its original location -- and members both past and present will be celebrating the milestone with a special service to be held this Sunday, Sept. 6.
On Wednesday afternoon, a small group of those members -- there are still over 100 total -- sat down with the T-R as one pointed out that almost all of them have connections to past generations of their own families who attended. Karen Chesick of Marshalltown, for example, is a direct descendant of the founders.
"It's just a church that has survived simply because of the faith of our pioneers and settlers that came over from Owen County, Indiana," Church Secretary Sarah Baker said.
About five years after it was founded at the corner of 140th Street and Lafayette Avenue, the church moved a mile west to its current address at 1409 Knapp Ave., with the congregation purchasing the land for $1.25 an acre. An extensive history of the church was published in a 1997 edition of the T-R's "Marshalltimes" magazine in a piece written by Mae McKibben.
Since then, the church has been housed out of four different buildings, with the most recent new sanctuary completed in 2018. Bethel Grove has been an independent community church since the early 2000s, when it separated from the Disciples of Christ denomination, and it's also known as a "Beehive Church" because its members have gone on to start other churches in Marshall and Hardin counties.
It's no secret that times have been tough for rural churches in recent years with closures across the country -- and at least two in Marshall County between the former Albion Presbyterian Church and the Minerva Wesley Chapel -- but the men and women of Bethel Grove are proud to be pushing forward under the leadership of Pastor Scott Hand, who has served the congregation since 2015 and is not shared with any other churches. Before him, Cynthia Moore served as pastor from 1993 to 2015, and she is expected to return for the celebratory service on Sunday.
"We're very fortunate to have a pastor like (Hand) because he preaches the word and tells us what we need," Chesick said.
Hand, who has preached in multiple states during a career that has now spanned over 35 years, knew Bethel Grove was a "loving and kind" church where "people actually liked each other" from the first time he visited. When Moore decided to step aside after the loss of her husband, he made the decision to apply for the position, and he hasn't looked back since then.
He was happy to see the construction of a new sanctuary, which was built by Bracy Construction, and as of last year, the mortgage is already paid off in full.
"It was hard on some people because their church of decades or their family church was being torn down, but it had structural issues. It had to be torn down," Hand said.
What continues to amaze Hand in his second decade with Bethel Grove is just how far the small church on a gravel road in rural Liscomb reaches across the state, the country and the world, with money going toward causes like flood relief in North Carolina and missionary work at an orphanage in Honduras.
Hand, a father of five and grandfather of one, joked that he has too many kids to retire anytime soon, and he plans to continue growing the ministry and making an impact on the broader world for as long as he serves as the pastor at Bethel Grove. Earlier this year, he spent time researching the settlers who founded the church and the religious persecution they faced in the modern-day Czech Republic, impressed by the fact that they weren't focused on minor details but rather "the major things."
"They have brought us to this point today, and we just want to continue that legacy of focusing on the major things, not the minor things, but continuing to impact the world around us with the power and the love of God," he said.
The schedule of events for the 175th anniversary celebration on Sunday is as follows:
9 a.m. -- Coffee and visiting
9:30 a.m. -- Traditional worship
11:30 a.m. -- Lunch
1 p.m. -- Picture for history file
2 p.m. -- Memories time
3 p.m. -- Homemade ice cream and cake
Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.