Short History of Faith Presbyterian Church
- In the Spring of 1964 Reverend Ken Edelman was sent to gather a congregation on the west side of West Lafayette. Ken and his wife, Sandy, basically went knocking door to door in an attempt to start a congregation.
- The first service was held on December 20, 1964, in the old, dirt floored, Quonset hut “barn” that was on the property. Margaret Rogler and Jim and Shirley Bosler were part of the initial group that are still with us.
- The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and Synod provided funds and loans to purchase a manse in Green Meadows Subdivision and the present 5 acres with the Quonset hut. The Quonset hut had previously been used for, among other things, storage of grain and storage of vending machines.
- On May 14, 1967 the church was officially recognized with 75 charter members.
- On October 15, 1971, Ken Edelman accepted a call to an Illinois church. There were 104 members at that time. At this time the church seriously considered closing its doors. We were a small congregation and had not grown in size as originally hoped. With the support of its members, we decided to go on, even without a pastor.
- On May 7, 1972, Reverend Hughes ‘Scoti’ Old accepted the call to become our second minister. About a year later the session of Faith Church asked the Wabash Valley Presbytery to appoint a task force to evaluate the future of Faith Church. The task force decided that our church did have a real mission in the community and recommended that strong support be given to bring the church to maturity. Central and Covenant Presbyterian Churches made sizable contributions to help build a new building. Additional loans were made by the General Assembly, Synod and Presbytery in addition to pledges by the congregation towards a building fund.
- On December 4, 1977, a snowy Sunday morning, the ground was broken for a new building. The building was dedicated on November 5, 1978.
- In 1980 it was decided that Faith Presbyterian Church had the resources, present and potential, to become self-supporting.
- Reverend Old accepted a position at the The Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey in June, 1985. Our second addition to the building (fellowship hall and Christian Education rooms) was dedicated November 24,1985.
- Reverend Stuart Robertson became our third pastor on August 1, 1986.
- The manse was sold on December 30,1986.
- The church grounds have been made available for many years to soccer and softball leagues of the community.