HISTORY & TRADITION
This church was first know as the First Christian Church of Warren, Indiana, and was organized on October 22, 1871, by the Rev. David W. Fowler and Mr. George Abott, who were leaders in the Eel River Christian Conference.
The first meetings of the church were held in an old unused church building which stood near the site of the Farmers Exchange Elevator. In March, 1877, the matter of a permanent home was taken up, and William McCoy, who was a member of the congregation donated the lot where the church now stands. In the month of June 1879, the new church home was dedicated.
This church served the congregation until 1902, when it was torn down to make room for the present commodious structure, and in the year of 1920, the parish House and Parsonage were constructed. The church was admitted to membership in the Eel River Conference on August 1872.
The Sunday School was organized in October, 1873, and has continued as a part of the church program from the time of its organization.
After the Christian and Congregational Churches united into on denomination in the year of 1930, the church voted to become a member of this union, and in the year 1935 adopted the name, Congregational Christian Church of Warren, Indiana. We thus became members of the Northern Association of the Indiana Conference of the Congregational Christian Church.
When the merger between the Congregational and Christian Churches and the Evangelical Reformed Church was discussed, the Warren Church followed its traditional affirmative stand on Church Union. The Uniting Synod, authored by these two bodies, met in Cleveland, Ohio, June 25-27, 1957. The highest authorized group of each denomination: the Council of Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical Reformed Synod functioned separately during the early integration period, and until the Fifth General Synod met in Chicago, Illinois, July 1-7, 1965. We are therefore members of the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ.
On September 10th of 2023 the Warren United Church of Christ congregation unanimously voted to disaffiliate from the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ. It was then agreed for our name to return to the original name of First Christian Church of Warren as it shows in the stained glass window over the door.
