Othello Nazarene Church History

 Originally, the Gathering Place was named because fellowship is one of our top priorities. In 1994 we hired Dan Simpson as contractor to build us a fellowship hall. It was dedicated by our District Superintendent, Steve "Fletch" Fletcher in 1995. We enjoyed the fun of using the new building for those times, but the sanctuary could no longer hold the growing worship services. To quote from the May, 1996, newsletter: "After 5 weeks of our six week experiment of worshipping in the "Gathering Place", our morning worship attendance as averaged 248 compared to 224 during these same 5 Sundays a year ago." We continued worshipping in the fellowship hall and added three services in the sanctuary -- counting Children's Church. We now averaged 350 on Sunday mornings.

 In 2000 we purchased the house on the corner of Ash and 8th and had it renovated to accomodate offices. The kitchen and laundry room we outfitted to serve as the reception area and a work room. Closets were taken out and bedrooms became offices. When we moved to our new facility, in 2013, we reversed that process to sell it as a residence.

In the picture above Pastor Bob Luhn is standing in the reception area. The "living room" to his right was used as an office and conference room. 

The garage/shop on the property was used for storage and supplies. We had a food pantry there for our Helping Hands ministry.

It was in November of 1954 when two families (Orville, Neva, Marie & Janie Fender and Leon, Terry, Dennis & Claudia Dobson) met in the Dobson home Sunday afternoons with Rev. and Mrs. Wilbur Morgan (pastor in Moses Lake). The Morgans would bring at least two car loads of their people. When Mr. Snyder (from the Moses Lake church) was called to preach, he began preaching in Othello on Sunday mornings until God opened a marvelous way for him to go to school at Nampa. A Rev. Henderson (a retired minister from Pasco) preached here until Rev Earl Browning accepted the call to come pastor the Othello church. He had had Othello on his heart for two years. His wife, Leona, wrote of the early days in Othello: "The conditions in Othello were not easy. The town was growing faster than the building facilities could keep up with. By September, 1955, they had three schools and a new Junior High planned for 1956 or 1957.

The farmers out on the units had nothing but small garages or very small shacks to live in. The wells had not been dug and they had to live without (domestic) water. Every drop they used had to be hauled. It was nothing to see a small trailer tied to the back of a new car drive up to the public water hose and fill their big barrels or large cream cans.

None of the streets were oiled -- just gravel or plain dirt -- with big chuck holes. No sidewalks either. The stores got so much dust on windy days it laid piled 1/2 inch thick in front of the doors and just inside the doors. Nothing could be kept from dust. 

The church met in the Hiawatha school for several months then changed to the Lutacaga school. We paid $5 a meeting for rent. We are looking forward to the day we can build a church and parsonage. We run about 16 in Sunday School now." 

Leona Browning herself became a regular contributor to 'The Standard' (a Nazarene Sunday School publication available to every church in the United States). The Brownings served in Othello from May, 1955 to June, 1957

The Othello Nazarene Church was officially organized in April, 1955, when Earl Browning was called to be the pastor. They gathered wherever they could meet -- homes, schools, and the old Presbyterian Church 

(now the Othello Museum) -- 

until they could build.

The Brownings were able to purchase land on the corner of 8th & Ash and they erected a concrete block building in 1956. Six years later they build a chapel (building on the left) which included restrooms, a furnace, and a nursery. The third building phase (in 1969) connected the two buildings and included two Sunday School rooms.

These buildings still stand as part of the building which houses the Oasis High School.