About LeGrand Friends Church

Our Church StaffAlan Mullikin is our Pastor. He grew up near Fairfield, Iowa. He had lived in Texas and Colorado before being called to come to LeGrand Friends. With his wife Sheryl, they have 4 children.
Charlotte Stangeland is our Church SecretaryPhil Rush is our Church Treasurer.Nick Grossman is the Clerk of Monthly Meeting.Denise Phipps is the Recording Clerk.

About FriendsA Simple Faith
Friends have no creeds - no official words can substitute for a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. These unofficial statements give a general sense of Friends' faith.
+God is love and wants to communicate inwardly with everyone who is willing.+Worship is spiritual and must be Spirit-led.+All people are equal before God and may minister as they are led by God.+Jesus Christ is our present Teacher and Lord, and we seek to conduct church affairs in unity under his guidance.+The Spirit of God gives guidance that is consistent with the Bible.As people respond to the Light of Christ within, their lives begin to reflect Jesus' peace, integrity, simplicity and moral purity.
For more information click here to go to Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends website.
Click here to go to the Friends United Meeting Website.

A Brief History of LeGrand Friends Church

LeGrand Friends Church is affiliated with Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends The Beginning of Friends Friends, also called Quakers, had their origin in seventeenth-century England. As a young man, George Fox longed for a genuine faith which he did not find in the cold, legalistic church of his time. He looked in vain for human help, and studied the Bible so thoroughly that he learned much of it by memory. After four years of searching, he found inner peace through trusting Jesus Christ as his Savior. Soon he began to tell others about the Gospel of Christ as God's way to free people from sin. As Fox shared the reality he had found, others responded and joined him in spreading the good news of salvation. Thus a movement of Christian renewal was born in 1647 which was to become known in time as the Friends Church, or Society of Friends. A rapid period of growth began in June, 1652, in northern England. The Message of Friends Fox and early Quakers declared that salvation is a personal matter between the individual and God. No human mediator or outward ordinance is necessary. Therefore the Friends message with its clear, spiritual interpretation of the Gospel was a logical conclusion of the Protestant Reformation. With its emphasis on spiritual reality and without dependence on outward rites, Quakerism fulfilled the development of doctrine begun over a century earlier by Martin Luther. Friends endeavored to rediscover New Testament doctrine in its threefold nature of knowing about Jesus Christ historically, knowing Him personally in religious experience, and following His pattern of life. They recognized the role of the Holy Spirit in revealing sin and leading people to new life in Christ. Rather than merely dispensing with all outward ordinances, they taught positively that true baptism is that of Christ's Spirit within, and real communion takes place in fellowship with the Bread of life. Friends as a Church The dynamic message of Friends attracted thousands of people, and the early Quaker movement grew rapidly; some have called it an "explosion". They are thought to have taken the name "Friends" from the statement of Jesus in John 15:14 that "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you". They also called themselves "Friends of Truth" or "Publishers of Truth". The term "Quaker" was originally a derisive nickname. For legal reasons it became necessary in England to use the name "Society of Friends" as English law recognized only one established Church. Many consider the word "church" belongs to the total invisible body of believers. Therefore some Friends hesitate to use the word to refer to any one part of the body of Christ (as a certain denomination) or to the building used as a place of worship. In a spiritual sense Fox and his followers did use "church" freely when referring to the group of believers to whom they ministered. Today, many Friends congregations call themselves the Friends Church. Others are careful to use the term "meeting" for a group of believers and "meetinghouse" for the place of worship. Friends began arriving in Iowa in the early 1800’s. The first established meeting of Friends was in the southeast part of the state in Salem Iowa. That meeting was established in 1835. Friends continued to move in as well as new believers becoming convinced of God and the Friends meeting spread through the south and central parts of Iowa. The new meetings were established under Indiana Yearly Meeting until the churches requested to withdraw from that body to form their own yearly meeting. Iowa Yearly Meeting was formally established in 1863 LeGrand Friends History The first Friends meeting here in LeGrand was organized in 1855 by settlers coming from Ohio and other eastern Quaker settlements and was called the Westland meeting. It was set up under the supervision of Indiana Yearly Meeting. It was renamed LeGrand meeting in 1861. The first worship services were held in homes and an elder responsible for pastoral care was a lady by the name of Julia Ann McCool. The first meeting house was erected in 1856 on the north end of the current LeGrand Friends cemetery at the cost of $160.00. That building was enlarged in 1860 at a cost of $226.00. Eight years later the meeting had grown rapidly as more folks moved into the area and a new building was built in 1868 just west of the cemetery at a cost of $23,485.04. In 1900, the building was moved into town to the existing site and remodeled. That cost $12,000. Part of the remodel was installing electric lights and modern pews. In 1913 the church was given a basement. $1,000 was spent on the basement and dividing it for Sunday School use. Music was not allowed in the church until 1896. In 1951 construction began for the present church building at a cost of $93,121.22. The building was dedicated in 1952 and then six rooms were added on the east side in 1965. In 2005, a renovation was completed with an addition to the south. It provided the church with improved handicap accessibility, more parking close to the church, new entrances to the church, additional usable space, a gathering area, and a new steel roof on the whole building. The congregation here at LeGrand has been very active in the community and concerned about education. In 1873 they established an academy initially in the church building and then later moved the school into a two story brick building. While enrollment varied, the academy attendance hit a high mark of 103 in 1877-78. During the 32 years they had a music department, Bible training, and commercial courses. With each successive generation, LeGrand Friends Church has sought to share the gospel and minister the community. We pray that God will continue to use us in this way for many generations to come. A Brief Timeline of LeGrand Friends Church 1855 No building, Met in Homes as Westland Meet 1856 Built First Church North of Current LeGrand Friends Cemetery Cost: $160 1860 Church Enlarged Cost: $226 1868 Built New Church West of Current LeGrand Friends Cemetery Cost: $3,485 1878 Painted the Church 1900 Building Moved into Town and Remodeled Cost: $12,000 1913 Basement Dug Cost: $1,000 1929 Building Redecorated and Repaired, New Steel Ceiling 1949 Plans Begun for Present Church 1951 Cornerstone Laid in June 1952 Current Building Dedicated Cost: $93,121 1965 Six Rooms Added on East Side 1989 Padded Pews and New Carpeting Cost: $15,500 1991 Roof on Main Building Cost: $30,800 1995 New Furnace and Air Conditioning 1998 Purchased Property East of Parsonage Cost: $9,500 1999 Coat Room and Handicap Restrooms added on Main Level 2000 Purchased Property East of the Church Cost: $45,000 2001 Renovation of Nursery and Lower Sunday School Rooms ("Adopt a Room") 2003 Plans Begin for Handicap Accessibility and Expansion 2005 Celebrated Sesquicentennial of LeGrand Friends Church 2006 Handicap Accessibility/Expansion Project Completed (also includes new steel roof, parking lot, sidewalks) Cost: $289,500 2008 Wee-Friends Preschool closes Due to the East Marshall Community School District beginning a free Preschool program to all district patrons beginning in the fall of 2007, Wee Friends Preschool was discontinued after the 2007-2008 school year. Wee Friends provided a rich pre-kindergarten experience in a Christian atmosphere. Its aim was to bring children together from surrounding areas to share a year or two of social and academic experience. Operated in conjunction with LeGrand Friends Church, Wee Friends was a state-certified preschool with excellent ratings and had been in operation for 31 years. The teachers worked closely with area kindergarten teachers to achieve kindergarten readiness. Pastors of LeGrand Friends Church 1890 to Present C. C. Reynolds (1890) Joseph L. Beane (1890-91) John H. Hadley (1891-97) Edgar P. Ellyson (1897-1900) Fred Comfort (1900-01) John H. Hadley (1901-05) Ezra Pearson (1905-09) George Deshler (1909-11) Alfred Hanson (1911-15) John Wright (1915-19) Frank Ashba (1919-21) Guy Harvey (1921-25) Homer Biddlecum (1925-27) Taylor Guthrie (1927-36) Floyd Hinshaw (1936-38) Leonard Wines (1938-41) Roy Thompson (1941-43) John Hadley (1943-45) Vernard Cox (1945-46) Lewis D. & Esther Savage (1946-51) Edward & Irma Morris (1951-54) William Rodney & Elsa Abram (1954-58) Wayne & Ruth Conant (1958-74) Donald & Rita Mays (1974-75) Richard & Iva Hartman (1975-77) Stephen & Gwen Main (1977-82) Charles & Carla Neifert (1982-86) Ron & Joyce Bryan (1986-2003) Alan & Sheryl Mullikin (2003-present)