Antioch Christian Church (Antioch Community Church)

Antioch Community Church dates back to 1853 when nationally-known Disciples of Church minister, evangelist, and writer Moses E. Lard founded a small congregation that met at a nearby farm and schoolhouse. In 1859, a few years after Lard departed for other opportunities, the congregation built the now-historic church building that still stands today. The congregation is named after Antioch in Syria, where the apostle Paul spent part of his early ministry. The church built a new sanctuary in the 1950s, but the historic building continues to be utilized for special events. The wood-frame building serves as a reminder of Kansas City's growth as this building once served a rural congregation far removed from the city that now surrounds the structure.

The Antioch Christian Church, located in Kansas City's North District, is one of the oldest in the area. The nationally-known minister and writer Moses E. Lard founded the church (Disciples of Christ) in 1853, with the historic church building opening in 1859. The church, which once served a rural community far removed from a city, reorganized during the 1930s as a nondenominational church when urban sprawl and financial hardships related to the Great Depression changed the community.

Lard was the pastor of the First Christian Church at Liberty, Missouri, and he organized this congregation on September 4, 1853. On that day, a group of local citizens met for the first time at a campground on the Winn farm. The group named the church after Antioch in Syria, where the apostle Paul spent part of his early ministry, according to the New Testament of the Bible. The congregation held monthly meetings at the farm site during the summer months and in a schoolhouse on the same property during the winter. However, Lard's stay proved short, as his career as a minister would take him to more prominent roles. 

Lard, a native of Tennessee, moved to Missouri in 1832 with his father, an avid hunter attracted to the wild game of Western Missouri. When he was 12 years old, Lard's father died. So, in his early teens, Lard apprenticed at a tailor in Liberty. Years later, in his late teens, he taught himself to write and then received reading and writing help from a young lawyer named Alexander Doniphan, who eventually sponsored him at Bethany College, West Virginia. After founding the Antioch Church, Lard rose in the ministry, evolving into a well-known Reformation Movement (Campbellite) preacher. Lard gained national attention when he published in 1857 a reply to the book "Campelism Explained" at the request of Disciples of Christ founder Alexander Campbell. His notoriety grew during the 1860s with his magazine, "Lard's Quarterly," which consisted of religious doctrine intertwined with his accounts of pioneer life as a youth in Missouri. Thus, the once illiterate teenager matured into a lauded orator, Greek scholar, and prolific writer.

As a result of his growing success, Lard served as the minister of the church he founded for only two years, leaving before the congregation constructed the now-historic church structure in 1859. The church building, which stood in the deep woods, opened its doors on October 15, 1859, serving the rural community. Church membership amounted to roughly 100 to 150 people in its early years. Although Lard purported himself as an advocate of women's rights (Lard had served as President of the nearby Camden Point Female Academy), the church he left behind designed its new building to segregate men and women with separate entrances and a wood rail running down the center aisle.

Various part-time ministers served the rural congregation for nearly half a century following Lard's departure, but the church developed into an integral component of the community's social culture. For instance, the church hosted concerts, musicals, and literary readings during the 1880s and 1890s. And, in 1885, under the auspices of the Women's Council of the Church, the members held its first annual Antioch Strawberry Festival, which became a Clay County tradition that continued into the twenty-first century. 

In 1908, Frederick V. Loos became the first full-time minister since Lard's departure, and he arrived at a time when the country increasingly transitioned into an urban nation. Indeed, only one-in-five people lived in a city after the Civil War. But, by 1900, roughly 40 percent of Americans lived in cities, and the move to cities from rural locations was accelerating, eclipsing 50 percent by the 1920s. Kansas City also experienced rapid growth after the Civil War, climbing from 4,400 in 1860 to more than 32,000 by 1870 and then reaching nearly 325,000 by 1920. Kansas City also expanded its physical size, encroaching upon the once-rural community served by Antioch Church. 

Thus, by the late 1920s, church membership had reached its lowest point as rural populations declined, made worse by the economic downturns of the 1890s, which accelerated the shift from rural to urban. The church nearly ceased to exist by the start of the Great Depression, notably after Loos died in 1930. But, long-time members called a meeting and invited J.B. Iden, a North Kansas City News editor, to speak. He implored the congregation to serve a new role as a spiritual anchor for what had grown into a suburban community; the members voted to continue the church as a nondenominational community church.

The congregation raised funds to build a Sunday School during the 1930s. Choosing not to go into debt, the church members only constructed what they could afford, one step at a time. As a result, the school building project took years to complete and was not complete until 1940. The historic main church building continued to host services during this period until Easter Sunday, 1957 when the congregation celebrated the completion of the brick sanctuary located next to the historic wood-frame church.

Antioch Community Church Historical Society was created in 1964 and subsequently moved the church to a new foundation and restored the building to its original condition (including removing links to the Sunday School addition). The Historical Society disbanded in 1977 and turned the operation of the historic church building to the Heritage Committee of the Antioch Community Church Board.

Today, Antioch Road and Antioch Middle School demonstrate the church's influence on the local community and the church continues to serve the community while the historic building is still used for weddings and other special functions. While the chapel directly reflects the church's history and its founder Moses E. Lard, it also serves as a reminder of the area's transition into an urban society as what was once a rural church is now part of Kansas City, Missouri. 

Fisher, William. "Antioch Church." The Historical Marker Database. HMdb.org. August 2, 2015. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=86636

Monkkonen, Eric H. America Becomes Urban: The Development of U.S. Cities and Towns, 1780–1980. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2018.

Piland, Sherry. "Nomination Form: ntioch Christian Church." National Register of Historic Places. nps.gov. 1978. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Antioch%20Christian%20Church.pdf.