The history of the church of Christ stretches back to the first
century. The Lord Jesus Christ promises to build, and did build, only one church (Matthew 16:18-19, Acts 2:47, Col. 1:18,
Ephesians 4:4). This He did through the inspired preaching of the apostles in Jerusalem in 30 A.D. on the first Pentecost
after His resurrection from the dead (Acts 2). The Lord's church in Pacific, Missouri, however, was established in July 1955
by brother S.W. Bell and other dedicated Christians. Over the years, the congregation has seen many interesting changes in
the membership and in the meeting places.
The first meeting place was in an upstairs room over a pool hall located at 201 East St. Louis
Street. In January 1961 the church began meeting in their own building at the corner of Elm and Orleans. The Lord blessed
the church with growth and it was not long before the building proved too small. They built an addition that would accomodate
100 people. Later the facility was enlarged again. It then had eight classrooms and the auditorium could seat 150 people.
A persistent problem over the years has been the danger of flooding. Once in 1982 the church
was forced to remodel their building because of flood damage. It was decided to move out of the flood plain and in November
1991 a new church building was purchased at 112 North Payne Street. After extensive remodeling, the brethren began worshipping
at the new location in 1992.
The church has seen many people come and go. We have had our share of successes and failures.
There are still many people who worship with the church today who have been with us for many years. However, sister Esma Horton
holds the record for membership in the congregation; she and her family began worshipping with Pacific church of Christ in
1960 when the brethren were still meeting above the pool hall. Presently, we have an active membership of 90 with an average
Sunday morning attendance of 100.
For most its history, the church has employed part-time preachers. In 1984, the congregation
hired Leamon Stewart as its first full-time evangelist. He served until 1994 and was followed by Johnnie Scaggs, Jr., who
served until 1996. Travis L. Quertermous and his family came to us in August of 1996 and served until April of 2005.
In June of 2005, we were able to hire Kendall Fox as our full-time preacher. Kendall comes to us from the Overland church
of Christ and we look forward to working with him for years to come.
