110-year-old church shares the Gospel one last time

LEXINGTON, KY. — In a building nestled in a quiet neighborhood, the 110-year-old Cramer and Hanover Church of Christ gathered one last time. 

“Oh, if these walls could talk,” visiting speaker Earl Mullins said to the small group of believers. “If we could hear the echoes of the lessons, the biblical truths preached in this place, what wonders we would hear. But the time of biblical teaching at Cramer and Hanover for this congregation is coming to an end.”

The last few years were hard on the a cappella congregation.

Members and visitors fill the pews on the last Sunday at the Lexington, Ky., church building.

The aging membership dwindled in size, with a regular Sunday attendance of about 15. Financial challenges prompted the sale of the building. With no minister or elders, the remaining members decided to disband. 

These are common causes of church closures nationally, said Stan Granberg, a founder and board member of the Heritage21 ministry that offers consultations for struggling churches.

“Churches tend to have a life span about that of a person, so when they are older than 50 years, there is a natural entropy that occurs,” Granberg said. “The energy levels diminish, members become older, and they lose the ability to connect with new people. Churches can renew for new life, but often churches miss the time frame for renewal and so continue on the path of aging out.”

But during this final service, the pews of Cramer and Hanover were filled one last time by visitors — church members’ families and Christians from surrounding congregations who came to say farewell.

Mullins, an attorney in Louisville, Ky., who knew the congregation’s late minister Bennie Hill, helped facilitate the building’s sale. However, on this recent Lord’s Day, he joined the congregation not just as legal counsel but also spiritual. 

“What will next week look like? What would it feel like?” Mullins asked, referencing John 14:1. “At a moment of incredible change came those words, ‘Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me.’

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“Jesus wants his disciples of this age to experience peace rather than troubled hearts — even when a congregation of Christ-followers bring their time together to an end, those words of Jesus surely are to be heard and experienced,” added Mullins, the former executive pastor for Northside Christian Church in New Albany, Ind.

Adele Hill listened to his words from her familiar pew on the second row. 

“It’s not just the Sunday morning worship but just the building itself,” Hill said of what she’ll miss. “The memories, that’s what brings me back.”

Adele Hill sings hymns alongside her family.

A lifetime at Cramer and Hanover

Hill’s whole life is intertwined with the legacy of Cramer and Hanover. The church building — erected in the 1930s — feels like home. 

Her grandfather Homer Rutherford became the preacher in 1932 and served until 1970. She remembers holding her first daughter as a baby at Rutherford’s retirement party.  

Five years later, Hill’s husband, Bennie, became the preacher. Over the next 45 years, the Hills hosted numerous church potlucks, oversaw holiday celebrations and shared the Gospel each Sunday. 

Members of the Cramer and Hanover Church of Christ gather on the church building’s steps in an undated photo.

Then in 2020, Bennie Hill didn’t come home from the office.

The week before the congregation stopped meeting due to COVID-19, Bennie Hill, 74, died alone on St. Patrick’s Day while working in the church’s basement. 

“He didn’t come home like he normally would,” Adele Hill recalled. “I called, and I was in a silly mood. I remember singing, ‘Come home, come home.’”

After hours of unreturned calls, she drove to the church.  

“I found him,” she said. “He had already died in the basement. He was here, yes, right here, and he had such a peaceful expression on his face. It just gave me such peace, because I knew where he was.”

It only makes leaving the church to find a new place for worship that much harder. 

“I even still have the church keys,” Hill said. “I feel a closeness to Ben here.

“It’s scary,” Hill added. “The Lord, he’s going to give us the strength, and he’s the way, he’s the wisdom, and I know I’ll have peace.”

“It’s scary. The Lord, he’s going to give us the strength, and he’s the way, he’s the wisdom, and I know I’ll have peace.”

Commitment to the Gospel despite uncertainty

The question of where to go next weighs on all the remaining members. 

“It’s very emotional,” said Tim Smith, the Cramer and Hanover church treasurer who presided over the final communion. Smith began attending the Kentucky congregation 40 years ago as a college student. 

Smith was involved in the decision to sell the church building. He hopes the buyer, who has yet to determine a use for the building, might maintain it for worship or ministry purposes. 

A woman clasps her hands behind her back during the closing prayer of the Cramer and Hanover Church of Christ’s final service.

“As far as the group, we’ve talked about finding a church that we can all go to, but … we don’t want to go in and take somebody’s pew away from them,” Smith said. 

He might even make the 75-mile trek northwest to Louisville to visit a few congregations he hasn’t seen in years, he added. 

Yet despite the uncertainty, the band of Christians plans to continue seeing each other outside of their familiar building. 

The last Sunday morning bulletin reminded members of the upcoming annual Christmas party on Dec. 9 — location still to be decided. 

Church of Christ World Wide — the church’s 49-year-old ministry that financially supports missionaries around the world — will continue to operate remotely through the support of other congregations. 

It is a part of the same Gospel charge that the Cramer and Hanover church has supported since its founding in 1915. 

Mullins preached that Gospel for a final time to the Cramer and Hanover members on this recent Sunday.

Before the members dispersed from their final service, he reminded them:

“It’s not nearly as important that the name of Cramer and Hanover Church of Christ be remembered as it is the name of Jesus.”

“It’s not nearly as important that the name of Cramer and Hanover Church of Christ be remembered as it is the name of Jesus.”

Earl Mullins preaches the Gospel to the members and visitors at the Cramer and Hanover Church of Christ.

AUDREY JACKSON is a correspondent based in Louisville, Ky. Reach her at [email protected].

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