Louisville, Kentucky
This page is being written in Louisville, Kentucky, where the writer is engaged in a short meeting with the Wendell Avenue Church, which has but recently entered their new building pictured herewith. First unit of the building has been completed, and is being used as an auditorium, pending erection of the larger unit which will be accomplished after the church grows a bit. The present structure has an auditorium with a maximum seating capacity of 250, six class-rooms, nursery, baptistry and dressing rooms, and a study. It is located at 2222 Wendell Avenue, just one block east of Bardstown Road at the Watterson Expressway cloverleaf.
It was just twenty-five years ago last Spring that we first came to Louisville to preach for the Bardstown Road Church of Christ. At that time there were only four or five churches in the city and county which had not succumbed to the destructive heresies of Brother R. H. Boll while there were probably twenty churches in the area in sympathy with Boll's teaching. Within this quarter century the condition has pretty well reversed itself. The premillennial congregations seem to have grown progressively weaker, while the faithful congregations have increased greatly both in number and in strength. Indicative of the vigor and aggressiveness of the faithful congregations is the fact that at this very moment three new buildings are in process of erection by them. Wendell Avenue congregation entered into the building pictured here the first Sunday in October. Valley Station congregation where James E. Cooper preaches expects to be using their attractive new brick structure (seating about 350) within a matter of three or four weeks. And South End Church, where Charles M. Campbell preaches, will be in their beautiful new stone building, seating perhaps 500, about the first of the year. In addition to that the Taylor Boulevard congregation, which has had to hold two services on Sunday morning for many months, will shortly erect an auditorium to seat about 800 people, and the St. Matthews congregation has only this past week purchased a splendid four-acre tract for a building site in that fast growing sub-division. Brother Grover Stephens and Brother Harold Hazelip labor with the Taylor Boulevard brethren, and Brother James Brasher preaches for St. Matthews.
Wendell Avenue congregation, the newest in the city, is made up of the brethren who formerly worshipped at 2010 Bardstown Road, but who by a series of unfortunate and tragic circumstances were forced to leave this location last year. Some fifty or sixty members remained at the Bardstown location, and are still using the old property; but so far as we could learn they are not recognized by the other faithful congregations in the city. No doubt in time these difficulties will be straightened out, and friendly relations will again exist between this group and the faithful congregations in the area.
Starting off with approximately 100 members the Wendell Avenue brethren met for eighteen months in a school building in the neighborhood, and were known as the Seneca Church of Christ. When they moved into their new building, however, the name was changed to Wendell Avenue Church of Christ. The house is located on one of the most beautiful lots in the city, in the very heart of a fast growing residential area. The first unit of their plant has been erected at a cost of $37,000.00. The other unit will probably cost about twice or three times that amount.
Last year this congregation appointed three elders and five deacons. Robert C. Welch has been preaching for them for nearly three years now, the first twelve months at the 2010 Bardstown Road location and the remainder of the time in the school building and at the new location. The congregation now numbers about 120 members, with an average attendance of about 135. There have been four baptized and six to place membership in the four weeks they have met in their new location.