HISTORY
The Church of Israel under different names has been in continuous existence in Missouri since 1941, when several Christian families from Colorado, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Michigan, Rhode Island, and other states gathered in rural Vernon County to establish a church/community. Children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren descended from original church members continue to be numbered in the congregation.
The founding fathers of the church include Leo Gayman, Jesse F. Cruse, Elmer Long, Gerald Hall, Wilbur McCumber, Herbert Johnson, James Hedrick, Gaius Reinbold, and others. The founders of the church purchased a 511-acre tract of land and built a modest assembly hall and several private homes. A sawmill operated by a steam engine was used to mill the lumber that built the first sanctuary and the small, wooden framed, oak homes. These families planted gardens and plowed the fields. Equipment in 1941 was mostly horse drawn so horses were very important to the Church-Community in the early 40s.
Many of the original families were self-sustaining, growing most of their own food. There was no electricity here until 1953, and little if any indoor plumbing in the houses. Life was difficult and travel to Nevada, some twenty miles distant, rare. A journey to Kansas City or Springfield was considered a major undertaking. The train that could be boarded in Schell City was the major means of transportation since very few families owned vehicles.
The war years took their toll on the congregation, with most of the men being drafted into the military service at various times following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The congregation struggled through the difficult years of the war and in the post World War II years from 1946-1960. The congregation remained small through the 1950s, without any growth. About 1960, second generation children had grown into young adults and brought a resurgence to the fledgling church.
They erected another church building along with other support buildings and began holding three annual conferences during the 1960s. These conferences became known as festivals in the 1970s. The annual Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles have been featured events for the past four decades.
The Church of Israel is currently attended by people from many different Christian denominations, including Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Baptist, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, Latter Day Saints, and assorted other denominations. These people have all dropped their denominational labels and have united around the doctrinal standard outlined in this website.
Everyone in our congregation lives on privately owned farms or ranches south of the festival grounds or in town, each in their privately owned or rented home. Church families make up the majority of the population in Blue Mound Township, rural Vernon County. They are surrounded to the south by Mennonites, the southeast by Amish farms, and to the west by a 15,000-acre white tail deer and turkey reserve owned and operated by the Missouri Conservation Commission.
