Hucrest Community Church of God was founded in 1938 in Roseburg, Oregon by a small group of men and women desiring to bring the message of unity in Jesus Christ to a small lumber company nestled in a valley near the confluence of the North and South Umpqua Rivers.
Three families came to Roseburg, Oregon from Ulysses, Kansas, arriving between 1934 and 1936. They included the Charles Holcomb family, the Wallace Hand family, and the Earl Pope family. They had attended and helped start the Church of God in Ulysses in 1930.
In 1937, Charles Holcomb and Earl Pope attended campmeeting in Woodburn, Oregon. They met a family there by the name of Perry who lived in Sutherlin, Oregon and another Church of God family, Brother Olson, who felt called to preach. The five families started having services in their homes and planned to start the church in Roseburg.
They started looking for a place to build. They located three lots on Garden Valley Road that were being sold for taxes and made the purchase, paying $350 for them. Brother Olson worked for a lumber yard and they promised to let the men buy the material and pay by the month. They also bought cement blocks from a building being demolished. Some of the men who had jobs gave money and others worked on putting the building up. It was started in the spring of 1938 and finished that fall. The first services in the church building were held in October of 1938.
Pastors during this period were: Joe Kernutt, 1939 from Eugene; Brother Sponcel followed, coming from back East; then came Brother Evans from Oklahoma; and finally Brother Schlatter.
Second Church Building
By this time the church needed to expand so they began looking for a location where they would have more land to build on. Brother Selmer Hutchens had some land which fronted the street on the south end of the acreage behind the church. He offered it at a reasonable price and the church bought it. They put a basement on the property and moved the church onto the basement.
The pastors who served during this time included: Brother Baker of Warner Pacific College and Brother Leverett, also a graduate of Warner.
Third Churc
h Building
Brother Shaffer was the seventh pastor. During his ministry, the church again needed more room. Because the church needed more room and they weren’t allowed to build more on that property, a new location had to be found and another building – their third church – built. A lovely location was found and the church intended to buy it, but the owners decided not to sell at that time. However, they later decided to sell the property to the church at a lower price than originally offered. The Lord must have been working! The new church was built from 1976 to 1978.
Today the congregation numbers approximately 350 in regular attendance in two Sunday morning worship services. During the past 15 years the nearby community has expanded by 25% and the church itself has grown by approximately 50%.
The pastors who have served at the current building include: Earl Shaffer, Ken Hershberger, Roger Chamberlain, Paul Kendall, Richard Watson, and Jon Nutter. Adapted from a story by Grace Pope dated May 1988.
