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The church has an early pioneer-like history. It was in the fall of 1896 that a young man named Ed Bailey trudged down County Line Road looking for work and distributing literature from the Gospel Trumpet Company of Anderson, Indiana. The company’s message was a passionate one of calling people out of their denominations and divisions to holiness and unity in the Body of Christ. Ed met two farmers in the woods along the road, brothers David and Eli Gerig, who hired him to help cut wood and do chores.
Ed spoke passionately about the need to genuinely follow God. He soon sent for an evangelist and arranged a revival meeting in the Brush College School on the Garman Road. Evangelist C. E. Orr from Federalsburg, Maryland preached in the schoolhouse a few nights and there were several conversions. Meetings continued for two more weeks before the trustee of the school closed the door to any further preaching. Services were then moved to the Amstutz Schoolhouse two miles east, where Charles Orr continued his powerful message.
In the summer of 1897, the meetings were moved to a wooded grove just east of Brush College School, which belonged to one of the new converts, Alex Warner. This was a brush arbor meeting where branches were laid across erected poles to provide a roof. People sat on boards laid across logs. John Freehafer, a man described as “full of the joy of the Lord and wisdom of God,” traveled by buggy from his home in Huntington to teach and instruct new converts. Soon Eli Gerig, who lived just west of the present church buildings, opened his home for services conducted by Brother Freehafer. The group held Sunday services and midweek prayer meetings in the large parlor of the Gerig home. At the time, the community often referred to the congregation as the “Saints’ Church.” In 1903, a meeting house was built on the current site with lumber cut from the property.