150 Years of Grace

(written by member Audrey J. Bartell, for Grace Church’s Sesquicentennial Celebration)

We celebrate through time and space
150 years of Grace,
And many buildings served the years
To see us through the laughter, tears.
But buildings are a tool – no more
It’s “people” who form the Church’s core.
The people teach each Sunday class
And generation to generation pass
The fire of the living Word
Of wondrous things that have occurred
On to their children so they may grow
To love the God their parents know.
Through 150 years of Grace
Our Church is “people”, not the place.

In May of Eighteen Forty-Three
(Beaver Dam was Grubville then, you see)
Rev. Moses Ordway came to preach
In settlers’ cabins he did teach.
The Mackie’s home on North Spring Street
Where eight adults and nine children meet
To pool their ideas the best they can
That’s how the First Presbyterian Church began.
They built a building on North Spring
To worship in and their hymns to sing.
They built two more on Park Ave. sites
As the membership grew; so the historian writes.
Through 150 years of Grace
Our Church is “people”, not the place.

In Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-Three
The Assembly Presbyterian Church came to be.
So both the churches thrived anew
And the Word of God just spread and grew,
Until in Nineteen Twenty-Nine
Among much talk and prayer divine,
The congregations found it right
For the two old churches to unite.
Grace Presbyterian Church was now the name
But the people worshipped just the same.
That old brick church was very dear
To many families for many a year.
It was modernized to better serve
God’s work and word, and to preserve
The fellowship of trust and love
That was granted by our Lord above.
Through 150 years of Grace
Our Church is “people”, not the place.

Now to Gould Street we arrive
Laid the Cornerstone in Sixty-Five.
First worship was in Fellowship Hall
We celebrated each finished wall.
Until Palm Sunday the following year
When we dedicated the Sanctuary we hold so dear.
A new pipe organ in Eighty-One
And recently expansion work was done
To make more room to teach God’s Word
The Church’s work shouldn’t be deterred.
Down through the years our Church was blessed.
With pastors who have been the best.
Each one unique in his own way
to lead our Church from day to day.
Through 150 years of Grace
Our Church is “people”, not the place.

Through all those years to present days
With choirs, bells and serious plays,
We’ve changed our ways, our faith renewed,
Our fellowship with love was glued.
We’ve gone to prisons, fed the poor
Served “Meals on Wheels” from door to door.
We’ve worked with PAVE, and Hospice too
Visited the sick, their hope to renew.
We strive the environment to save,
For Peace and World prayer we gladly gave.

Although the future’s never sure
With faith and love we shall endure
For 150 years of Grace
Our Church is “people”, not the place.