Bunker Hill Church of God celebrates 150 years

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BUDA — More than 300 people met Sunday morning at the Bunker Hill Church of God in Buda to celebrate the church’s 150th anniversary.

Rev. Fred Criminger, pastor of the church for the past 14 years, said Sunday morning’s combined worship service was followed by a catered banquet and an afternoon service where the congregation heard from people from the church who have gone into various ministries and mission positions. Sunday was a great day of celebration, the pastor said.

In looking at the history and growth of the church, Criminger said the Bunker Hill Church, which averages about 230 people on a typical Sunday, has been blessed through the years. Any church is as strong as its people, and Bunker Hill has some great people in it, he said.

The church has strong leadership from the congregation and also has a strong youth ministry, which has more than 100 young people attending Wednesday evening youth programs. The church is also blessed musically, with two separate praise bands for the two Sunday morning services.

The Bunker Hill congregation is also wanting to positively impact its community. In addition to its youth group outreach, the church has also started an after-school Gear Up program for children and also volunteers twice a month at the homeless shelter in Peru. Small groups within the church have also started a program to help low-income families.

Within the church, the congregation has a strong Sunday School and Christian education program, Criminger said. Recent studies, in addition to Bible studies, have focused on finances and parenting. A new leadership study will begin this fall.

Criminger said the church family is God’s design for people.

“God never intended us to live our Christian lives in isolation,” Criminger said. “We live in a very privatized society, but we really do need other people. The church can be one of the ways to meet that need.”

Sidebar:

The following are highlights of the history of the Bunker Hill Church of God, as provided by the church:

• In 1851, three missionaries with the Church of God denomination were sent to Illinois from Eastern Pennsylvania to start churches in various parts of the state. In 1854, several families moved from Pennsylvania to the Bunker Hill area in western Bureau County.

• Families met for worship in homes for the first two years, with Elder Charles Cain licensed and appointed to preach to the Bunker Hill believers in 1856.

• The group became an organized congregation with 26 charter members in February 1859. A large number of the new members were baptized in Silver Creek. At that time of year, they may well have had to break the ice to perform the baptisms. John Carper was elected elder. Mark Anderson was elected as deacon.

• The new congregation met in the Walnut Grove School and later in the Bunker Hill country school.

• The first church building, or bethel, was built in the early 1860s.

• In 1909, the congregation of Bunker Hill celebrated its jubilee with a series of meetings. A torrential downpour made a complete failure of the first evening’s meeting. But by the following afternoon, the service was nearly filled with people in spite of the bad weather.

• Forty years later, the congregation decided to build a new bethel and returned to holding their worship services in the Bunker Hill School until the old bethel could be torn down and a new one built.

• On June 4, 1950, the new church building was dedicated, debt free.

• In 1959, the congregation celebrated the church’s centennial year, with 140 members. The church replaced its old parsonage, bought in 1900, with a new ranch-style home on the same Buda lot.

• In 1990, the congregation appointed a building committee and started a building fund, with plans to build an addition to the west side of their rural Buda bethel. The fundraising goal was to reach $150,000. However after the goal was reached and groundbreaking ceremony held, experienced builders convinced the building committee of structural problems with the building plans.

• In 1999, the congregation voted to buy property north of the Bureau Valley School on the north edge of Buda and to build the current church facility at that site.

• The deacon board recommended no money be borrowed for a new church building. The church council also mandated that at least 75 percent of the membership approve the building plan.

• The building committee recommended a building plan which included a Sunday School wing, fellowship hall and sanctuary, but only if the congregation could raise $50,000 in one month. The Lord blessed and the money came in. Once construction started, the funds came in as needed.

• The new building was ready for the congregation on Aug. 6, 2000, debt free. The total cost of the building for materials, land and paid labor was $465,000. The majority of work was done by volunteer labor by church members and friends of the church. Some work was hired done by professionals when the work needed to meet building codes, etc.

• In 2004, the church decided more Sunday School room was needed, resulting in the addition of a two-story education wing, again without having to borrow money.

• The Bunker Hill congregation now worships and learns in a building estimated in value at $1.35 million, with a total cash outlay of $615,000.

• The Rev. Fred Criminger has pastored the church since 1995. The church averages about 230 people on Sundays and has a strong youth ministry and educational program. The church also has strong leadership from the congregation and is musically blessed, the pastor said.

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