1924-2024
100 Years of Ministry
Fort Smith First Church of the Nazarene
Our church currently sits at 4813 North O Street on the north side of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Since 1976, the current building and location have housed the Church of the Nazarene. In 1924, the Blair Ave Church of the Nazarene was organized with 9 charter members. Born out of a tent revival held on the corner of North and Blair, services were held in a house across the street until a church building was built. The first Pastor was Rev. Ethel Barham who pastored for 3 years. There were two pastoral couples in our history as well. There have been 29 pastors of our church with the length of ministry time increasing in the last 3 decades.
In 1967, a new church building was built on Kelley Highway. In 1970, Central Church of the Nazarene merged back into the congregation and the name was changed to Faith Church of the Nazarene. In 1975, by a near unanimous vote, the congregation voted to change the name to Fort Smith First. The congregation was also growing out of the facility on Kelley Highway and they broke ground on the current building. According to current members, both buildings – Kelley Highway and North O – were built by members themselves. Our families have put themselves into the very bricks of the buildings and their hearts into the ministry. In 1989, Northside Church of the Nazarene merged with First Church. In addition to the mergers, First Church has helped start several churches in our area. Bluff Avenue (Southside), Crawford Memorial (Trinity/River Valley), Van Buren First, Central Church and Greenwood.
As our congregation continued to grow and feel the need to minister to our community, we expanded our current location with a large Family Life Center dedicated on October 12, 1997. We have reached out to our community in many ways including our Live Nativity, Fall Festivals and Vacation Bible school. We have an active bus ministry that brings kids in from the same neighborhoods that surround Blair Ave today. We provide not only a Bible lesson, but hugs and a warm meal as well. For several years, the whole church would participate in presenting a Live Nativity to the surrounding area. Not only did this require many hours of set up and preparation, the number of people it required for production was incredible. People provided food for the cast and crew. Costumes were made. Sets were painted. The camaraderie that developed among our people was phenomenal.
Another part of our legacy is a commitment to Work and Witness. We have sent teams to Mexico multiple times. Today there is a small church in a village outside of Iquitos, Peru that has a place to worship as a result of our finances and sweat equity. We love Jesus and we want the world to know him.
We are alive and moving forward. We are looking to the future and how best to be a church that the people who live around us will miss. We were planted on North O for such a time as this. We cannot wait to see where God leads us.
If you would like to submit pictures from the past history of the church for our celebrations in 2024 and to be included in the slide show below, email them to shelly.hosier@att.net
