Our Story

Around the year 1880 a man named Daniel Sydney Warner came under conviction that the church of his day was not representing the church he read about in the New Testament. One of his specific pain points was with how the body of Christ appeared so divided by the numerous church groups: Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.…. What Brother Warner saw in the scripture was that God had one church, and he simply wanted to be a part of that church. As a result of that conviction, he and some of his colleagues left the group they had joined and began a movement to bring God’s people together apart from manmade creeds and ecclesiastical structures.
About 20 years after that, some who believed this message came to southern West Virginia sharing this message. Some heard what they had to say and scoffed, but for others it resonated in their hearts. One of the latter was a lady named Rachel Rawlinson. She was a believer attending a church in the area and got the burden to start a congregation of the Church of God in Princeton. That church would become the first Church of God congregation in this area.

Those early days had people gathering under tents and brush arbors for revival meetings. When the weather wouldn’t allow such accommodations, people opened their homes to hold services. In time, a store front was rented for these believers to worship in. Then, 21 years after the start of this group of believers, they built their first church building. That structure was renovated some years later to handle the growth of the congregation, but they reached a point where more room was needed than Straley Ave. would allow. So, in 1970 construction began on a building on the edge of the city limits. That structure still stands at 301 Mahood Ave. and is where we worship now.
From 1900 up to now, the First Church of God on Mahood Ave. in Princeton has been served by at least 23 lead pastors. The congregation has been blessed to have various Youth Pastors, Worship Pastors, Associate Pastors, Administrative Staff, and at least one Children’s Pastor.
These numbers tell some of the story of this congregation’s 125-year history, but the most important numbers we cannot accurately calculate are the salvation decisions and baptisms have happened in that time. What can safely be said is that Heaven has more people in it because of the work of this church. To God be the glory!

It is our privilege to celebrate over 125 years of ministry for the First Church of God. The greatest honor we can pay to this past is to faithfully move forward into the future. May God help us continue making more and better disciples for Him!