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Nazarene church is celebrating 100 years in Indian Head
New pastor plans ‘blowout’ event
Friday, July 18, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GARY SMITH
The Rev. Ralph Clark has been the pastor at Indian Head Church of the Nazarene for about a year.
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It was about a year ago, when he and his wife, Gayle, moved from Indiana – leaving behind four grown sons and half a dozen grandchildren to move to Maryland when Clark was offered a job at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
‘‘My life is being a preacher,” Clark said. ‘‘I work just for the [health] insurance.”
After much prayer, the couple made the move with Clark believing he would find a preaching position.
Even if he couldn’t get a position as a pastor, he would find a church that needed his help.
‘‘Pastors are a rare breed. We give up everything and preach,” he said.
He came to Indian Head Church of the Nazarene on Raymond Avenue (a sign, surely, Clark felt, as his youngest son’s name is Raymond) and found a home there.
It wasn’t a month before the church’s pastor, the Rev. John Burnham, had to step down due to health concerns and Clark took the reins.
(Another sign came when Clark, having left Bicknell, Ind., learned that the church’s cemetery was on Bicknell Road in Marbury.)
The church, which began as the Chicamuxen Circuit Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1905, is celebrating its 100th anniversary Sunday. By 1908, the church was officially documented as having 35 members and 25 Sunday school participants, according to a church history written in 1993 by Virginia Goode and edited by Bruce Maysmith.
It was also during 1908 that the Church of the Nazarene was founded in Pilot Point, Texas.
‘‘This has to be one of the oldest [Nazarene] churches,” Clark figured.
In the beginning members met in their homes before finding a location at an unfinished building that was slated to be a saloon. The death of the owner left the red, would-be tavern incomplete.
Church members, under the Rev. Daniel Sweeney’s direction, rented and renovated the building which became known as ‘‘the little red holiness church.”
In time, another building, one with a white stucco exterior and stained-glass windows, would house the congregation.
The current church building in Indian Head was built in 1931 on land donated by Vivian and Catharine Milstead, who contributed time, money and other gifts to the church, including serving in leadership positions, Goode wrote.
A contractor was hired and men from the congregation donated time and services to build the new church, which was constructed from bricks from the nearby U.S. Navy base, according to Goode.
A lot has changed in 100 years, including preaching styles and tools used to get messages across.
Clark, who was brought up surrounded by an evangelistic style of preaching, continues the tradition at the Church of the Nazarene, where his style differs from some of the congregations used to bells and whistles and PowerPoint presentations on the pulpit.
‘‘We don’t want to take anyone away from another [church],” he said.
‘‘There are people out there who miss that evangelistic style of preaching. But we are not turning over rocks, sitting down and preaching,” Clark clarified.
They must be doing something right, having reached the church’s centennial.
Celebrating a 100 years is a ‘‘milestone” in a church’s history, Clark said.
Planning for a ‘‘blowout” event, which will feature three previous pastors and a performance by Indiana-based gospel group The Woodsmen Quartet (of which Clark’s son, Raymond, is a member), has been about seven months in the making, according to Barb Wheeler, the church treasurer and the centennial celebration chairwoman. Born and raised Catholic, Wheeler was introduced to the church by her husband, Jim, who grew up in the Nazarene faith.
‘‘Jim and I were searching for a church,” said Wheeler, who came to like the denomination after seeing how well it cared for her late mother-in-law, with pastors coming to visit her in a nursing home. ‘‘There is a sense of family here. It was something I was looking for. It’s nice to come home to a small church; everyone knows your name. It’s a very welcoming place.”
Clark said that the church, which has a congregation of about 30 or so regulars, has started some outreach programs in the community, including fundraising for a Christmas program that will benefit about five low-income families.
‘‘From a pastor’s point of view, we’re at a turning point,” he said.
If you go
The 100th anniversary celebration at Indian Head Church of the Nazarene will be from 1-4 p.m. Sunday, July 20, at the church at 35 Raymond Ave. in Indian Head. Following the service, which will include a concert from the Indiana-based quartet The Woodsmen, dinner will be served at the Indian Head Village Green Pavilion.
Call Barb Wheeler at 301-743-5768.
