Our Mission

The mission of the First Christian Church is to minister to our present members, to reach out to future members, welcoming and including them in our fellowship, and to affect our community and world in a positive way, meeting needs and healing broken lives.

A Brief History

     On August 4, 1872, as Parsons, Kansas was just coming into its own as a thriving railroad community, a Sunday School and Bible study class was formed.  This class met in homes and at business locations until the class was formally established as a congregation – the First Christian Church – in 1878.

     For many years, this congregation was located in downtown Parsons, and was known as Central Avenue Christian Church.  In 1977, a fire completely destroyed the church building.  After a transition time, in which First Baptist Church graciously shared their facilities with the Central Avenue congregation, the church broke ground on a new church, in a different location.  In January, 1981, the first services were held in the new building at 29th Street and Southern Boulevard.  The name of the congregation was officially changed to First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). 

Our Beliefs

• Open Communion. 
  The Lord’s Supper or communion is celebrated in weekly worship. On the basis of Jesus’ example and invitation, all who believe in Christ as well as all who are simply hungry to have a direct relationship with God are invited to join in communion.
   
• Freedom of Belief. 
  Disciples are called together around one essential of faith: trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Persons are not only free, but are expected to follow their consciences in clarifying their theological and ethical beliefs.  In doing this we can be confident of the guidance and support we can receive from the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the traditional teachings of the church, from study and prayer and from the feedback we get from other Christians. Disciples are expected to exercise such freedom for themselves and extend it to all.
   
• Baptism by Immersion. 
  This is our understanding of how Jesus was baptized – by going fully into the water, and then emerging from the water.  This symbolizes, as the apostle Paul explains in Romans, the dying of our old self, and then being raised to new life in the likeness of Christ.
   
• The Ministry of Believers. 
  Men, women and children along with our ordained ministers lead in worship, service and spiritual growth.

• The Unity of the Body of Christ

From our very beginnings, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has maintained that all Christians belong to the same Body, which is Christ.  We have always been a leader in the ecumenical movement, striving for ways to bring Christians together in our efforts to serve Christ, and to work for the reconciliation of people and the Church.

Our Symbol

The symbol of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a red chalice bearing the cross of St. Andrew on the left side of the bowl.  Long associated with the Disciples of Christ as a symbol, the chalice points to the centrality of the Lord's Supper in the life and worship of the Disciples who celebrate communion each Sunday.

The Lord's Supper, open to Christians of all persuasions, has been characteristic of the church from it's beginnings in the early nineteenth century.  The cross of St. Andrew, the national cross of Scotland, focuses attention on the Presbyterian roots of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  The color red signifies vitality, spirit, and sacrifice.