Christian Church

The Christian Church of Strasburg was organized January 19, 1956, J. A. Cowgill and John Pirkey presiding.  John Pirkey and Obed Funk were elected elders, Noah Funk and John W. Strosnider, deacons.  The charter members numbered eleven.  They met for worship in the old Grammar School building at the corner of Holiday and High Streets.  J. A. Cowgill was employed as an itinerant.  The first resident pastor was John Pirkey, who was succeeded by C. W. Harvey, in a short pastorate of less than two years.  J. A. Spencer, of Henry County, Virginia, followed in a ministry of some five years.  He was succeeded by the present incumbent, J. D. Hamaker, who is not rounding out the 30th year of his ministry.

The congregation, so small at the beginning, has at this time an enrollment of more than 400 members, with a church building worth $8,000, and a parsonage valued at $2,000.  This sixty years since the date of organization, and the church has the enviable distinction of having had only four resident pastors during that time, two of them having served fifty-three of the sixty years.  It has also the unusual record of contributing for missions, benevolence, education, etc., as much as it uses in home interest, expenses, etc., etc.  The church is still growing, alive to every interest of the community and responsive to the various calls of the great brotherhood which whom it stands identified in the field of missions and other benevolent and educational works.  The church officers at the present time are O. F. Pirkey,  C. W. Spangler and F. D. Maphis, elders; W. P. Stover,  C. F. Funk, C. W. Strosnider, J. W. Copp, A. M. Funk, D. F. Finley and F. M. Stover, deacons; A. C. Stickley, clerk and treasurer.  In the Sunday School the officers are C. W. Spangler, Superintendent, O. F. Pirkey, Assistant Superintendent, A. M. Sonner, Secretary, O. P. Stickley, Treasurer, who have an excellent body of teachers and an enrollment of 175 students.

Under the auspices of the Doreas Sewing Circle, a live organization of the women of the congregation, the church is being re-touched, at a cost of some $400 or $500, the work including painting, papering, putting in of hardwood floors, et., all of which speaks of vital interest in the church affairs.

Copied from the Strasburg News by Calvin Sonner