A family can have a variety of compositions - parents and children, a married couple without children, a single parent and children, among others. More important than their physical make-up, families are about a spirit of oneness. It is a spirit produced through love and desire, laughter and tears, shared joys and sorrows, mutual struggles and respect, faith and faithfulness, and a common pursuit of objectives.
As a church family, we at Harper Christian have four clear objectives:
To exalt God in worship.
To evangelize, bringing people to a saving knowledge of Christ, with an attitude that strives to be outward oriented rather than self centered.
To edify, taking new Christians and maturing them in the faith.
To extend, reaching out into the community to meet physical, spiritual, relational, and emotional needs.
However the Lord chooses to use us, our ultimate goal is to please Him by serving Him and serving others. There is no greater privilege than this.
As a part of our church family, I encourage you to look diligently for ways to invest yourself in His church and to love it the way He loves it. He loves the church deeply, so much that He gave His life for it. (Ephesians 5:25)
Who We Are The church began in June 1879 with a meeting held at the J.B. Brodnix residence to organize a congregation of Christians for the purpose of holding worship services. The original charter of the church was drawn by trustees W.G. Mahen, L.K. Sitter, A.G. Patton, J.L. Garner, Zack C. Thompson and J.C. Houser and filed with the Secretary of State on July 14, 1884.
In January of 1883, the lot on which the present building is located was purchased. By October of 1884 the erection of a 32x48 frame building on a foundation of dressed stone was begun. The building was damaged by a tornado on May 27, 1892. With some remodeling, this frame building served the congregation until 1917. The present building was constructed from 1917-1918 under the leadership of W.E. Kelly, the minister at that time. The dedication of this new building took place January 27, 1918 while a blizzard raged. The building has undergone several upgrades and remodeling over the years to include a sound and video system, an elevator and an updated kitchen.
The Harper Christian Church has been blessed with the ability to assist in establishing a Christian camp in Arkansas City, Kansas. The Church has an organized youth program and provides a fun learning environment.
In addition to the Sunday School classes, the church provides additional mid-week evening Bible studies from early Fall to late Spring.
The missionary work of the church started through the United Missionary Society of Cincinnati, Ohio and State Missionary Society at Topeka, Kansas. The church has been blessed to continue supporting missionaries from Europe to South America to Africa as well as here at home.