About West Side

The beginnings of West Side Church date back to 1917 when Dr. Charles E. West, a Sunday School Class leader from Decatur First Church, became burdened for a work on the West side of Decatur. Sunday School classes and regular service were held until July 18, 1918, when West Side Church of the Nazarene was organized with a total of 24 charter members. The founding pastor was Rev. Mrs. Edna Wells Hoke, the wife of Rev. J. O. Hoke, pastor of Decatur First.

The church met from 1918-1922 in a small church building on the corner of W. Macon and S Haworth Streets. It was purchased from the Presbyterian Church for $2000.

One day, Pastor H. B. Garvin rode his bicycle past a beautiful, vacant church building on the corner of W. Eldorado and N. Monroe Streets. The Lord impressed upon Pastor Garvin that He wanted West Side Church to have that building. So the Church made the purchase and moved into the new building. These were some challenging days financially for the church. The building was large and the church was running at about 50 in attendance. Some of the Nazarene denominational leaders thought buying the building was a mistake. They derided the building as "The white elephant of the District." But through ardent prayer, hard work and aggressive, innovative pastoral leadership, the church began to grow.

Under the leadership of Rev. H. B. Jensen, the church began a weekly radio broadcast, which made the church well-known in the community. He also contracted with the city to rent the city buses and drivers on Sundays to go throughout the community to bring people to Sunday School. This led to major growth in the church. The Sunday School had highs of over 1200 in attendance in the late 20s and early 30s. West Side had, at that time, the largest Sunday School in the denomination.

During the 1940s and 50s Decatur began to grow in population as local factories expanded to meet the material demands of World War I and the post-war economic boom. West Side Church planted three new churches in Decatur in one decade: South Side (now Trinity) Church in 1942; East Side (later known as Parkway) Church in 1950; and, Oak Grove Church in 1951. In the late 1950s, it became time for the church to move. There were plans to expand Eldorado Street to accommodate increased traffic on Route 36. In addition, Mueller Company had a desire to purchase the church property in order to build a new office building. So, a new piece of property was purchased at 1224 W. Grand and a new church building was built. The first Sunday in the new church was April 14, 1957. A nice fellowship hall building was added in 1969.

The Grand Avenue building served the church well for 58 years. In 2014, Akorn Inc. wanted to buy the church property to expand its pharmaceutical plant. The church purchased a spacious, well-located, commercial building at 788 N. Sunnyside Road. After extensive renovation by a great group of volunteers, West Side Church dedicated the new facility on March 15, 2015.

West Side Church has flourished over the years under the capable leadership of godly Pastors and Associate Ministers. The Church has been known for years to have very good music ministries under many outstanding lay leaders as well as gifted Ministers of Music, including Terry Lambright, Jim High, and Russ Burch.

West Side has raised up and sent out many missionaries over the years. Dr. Charles West, who was instrumental in the planting of West Side, was sent to Africa in 1921 and later to China. Anna Lee Cox served in Africa for 20 years and also worked with Native Americans at the Twin Butte Navajo Mission. Miss Geraldine Chappell was appointed to serve in India in 1941. However, she was jailed in the Philippines for several years during WWII. She arrived in India in 1945 and served until 1980. Rev. & Mrs. W. C. Vaughters served in Guatemala from 1945-1954. Rev. Arlen and Joyce Jakobitz served as missionaries to India for 30 years beginning in 1974. Rev. Mark and Kris Ryan were appointed in 1985 and served in Columbia, Chili, Ecuador, and Guatemala. 

The fires of evangelism, missions, and effective ministry have been fueled over the years by the prayers of the people of West Side Church. An excerpt from a letter written by Milton Jensen, son of Pastor H. B. Jensen, is telling:

"I used to get up on top of a chair that was in the classroom that was our bedroom (the Jensens lived in the church building at the time), I'd look out through a little window and watch what was going on around the altar. On Saturday nights, it wasn't uncommon to see ninety-plus people kneeling around the altar praying. I don't mean for an hour or two, but all night. I can still remember Dr. Jenkins, a missionary from Africa, tell my Dad at our Sunday dinner, The Spirit of God that was in the morning service is what Heaven is going to be like.’”