A Brief History of Our Church

The Union United Church of Christ, Bascom, Ohio, was originally formed by a Lutheran pastor of German Lutheran and German Reformed ethnic and religious background. The Church was organized January 1, 1852 as the German Reformed Congregation of Bascom. A frame building was erected the same year. It was named “Hiob’s  Kirche” Job’s Church. The frame building was moved, and the present main part of the building, The “Brick Church, was constructed and dedicated in 1886.

In 1934 the Evangelical Synod of North America and the Reformed Church in the U.S. merged to form the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bascom.

In 1831 several Methodist families met to organize a Bible study. The Methodist Episcopal Church, “White Church”, was built in 1882 at the corner of County Road 7 known as Beech Street and Oak Street. 

In 1945 the Bascom Church was involved in another merger of significance to the local congregation. The congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Bascom united with the congregation of the Evangelical and Reformed Church of Bascom to become Union Evangelical and Reformed Church of Bascom. After the merger, the White Church stood as a monument until it was destroyed by fire in 1968.

The Evangelical and Reformed Church in America in 1957 merged with the congregational Christian Church in the United States to form a new denomination, the United Church of Christ. We in Bascom became the Union United Church of Christ. 

At the annual meeting, December 1947, we voted to have a building project. Groundbreaking took place on March 5, 1953. The new building addition included a new chancel for the sanctuary, departmental rooms for the children’s Sunday school, a pastor study and choir room. Those rooms in 2016 are used for the pastor, secretary & WSOS preschool. The basement was made larger for a fellowship room, kitchen, boiler room and restrooms.

In 2017 our church will be celebrating 165 years in our community, 131st year of the Brick Church, 64th of the building addition, and the 60th year of Union United Church of Christ. The Union United Church of Christ has a unique history as it has grown from both the Reformed Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church and has found a way for expressing important parts of the heritages of each of these denominations. The history has been an important part of its strength of commitment in being a people of faith.