Photo by Jim Muchlinski The Christ United church building sold for $175,000. It will be owned by the Karen Baptist Church, which previously rented the church for Sunday services

MARSHALL — One of Marshall’s most historic churches will soon have a new owner.

Christ United Presbyterian Church on West Lyon Street is being sold to the Karen Baptist Church. A closing date is set for Tuesday. The final Christ United service in their church will be held April 30.

Services will continue on Sundays at the Presbyterian Church in Russell. Pastor Anne Veldhuisen serves both parishes. She said Christ United is looking for a rental option in Marshall.

“Going to Russell will give us time to find a rental option that works,” Veldhuisen said. “We don’t plan to rent indefinitely. We’re hoping to have a permanent home within about a year.”

She said several Marshall properties have been considered, including Marshall’s historic Masonic Lodge on West Main Street. The lodge option wasn’t pursued since it would have required church members to climb steps and since it would have needed extensive remodeling.

Christ United received two offers for the church. Karen Baptist will pay $175,000, which equals the building’s appraised value.

Veldhuisen said the option to build a new church has not been ruled out. It’s expected that any new space will be smaller and less costly than the West Lyon Street church.

“It’s difficult to say goodbye to the church, but it’s also an opportunity,” she said. “We didn’t want things to get to the point that the building would become our mission. There are other parts of ministry that we’ll continue to explore. For 150 years God has guided us, and we trust that He has a plan.”

Christ United began in the early 1870s as the first church ever founded in Marshall. The first Sunday services were held in a tent which during the week served as the city’s saloon.

The current church was built shortly after a 1929 fire destroyed the former Federated Church. The Marshall School Disitrct, which owned the neighboring Lyon Street School and was in the process of building a new school on North 4th Street, offered $17,500 for the vacant lot. The offer was rejected since church members wanted to rebuild on the same site.

For many years the Presbyterian Church had close ties with Marshall’s Congregational Church. The name Christ United originated in the early 1960s when the Congregational Church dissolved.

In the 1960s and 1970s Christ United had about 400 members. Its Sunday school classes filled the religious education center which had been added onto the church. Members also invested in a new pipe organ, which is included in the sale.

Vedhuisen said membership has steadily declined to a current total of 80 active members. Christ United member Dave Kabes, who joined the church when he and his wife Sharon moved to Marshall in 2003, said he wasn’t surprised by the decision six months ago to put the church on the market.

“There was talk of selling it back when we joined,” Kabes said. “We decided last year that the time had come. The decline in membership and the operating costs finally caught up with us.”

Christ United has remained debt free, but was drawing on savings accounts to meet expenses. The church also has a need for future improvements, including a boiler replacement and improved handicapped accessibility.

Dan Williams, a Marshall real estate agent and a Christ United member, is representing Christ United in the sale. He said two of his main selling points were the downtown location and the well-preserved condition.

“The building pretty much spoke for itself,” Williams said. “It’s been carefully maintained over the years. We were hoping another church would buy it. That was the ideal solution.”

Church member Faye Sterler was baptized in 1928 in the former church before the 1929 fire. The current Lyon Street church has always been an important part of her life.

“I feel like an orphan,’ Sterler said. “At least for now, we won’t have our own home. The good thing is that we’ll still have each other, and we’ll have God.”

She expects that the bonds formed over many years of church membership will help in withstanding the upcoming transition.

“My congregation is very important to me,” she said. “We’re like a family. We care about each other. We pray for each other.”

Lois Whitcomb, a Christ United member since 1968, joined when she and her husband Bob came to Marshall for his job as a college music professor. She especially remembers the early 1970s pipe organ purchase and the establishment of a garden at the back of the church.

Christ United member Mary Thielke said she’ll remember the beautiful music performed in the church, as well as how it became a site for a wide range of community organizations. Groups who currently use the church include the Esther’s Kitchen meal site, the Broadmoor Valley trailer park residents council, Marshall’s Boy Scout troop and Narcotics Anonymous. It has also been rented by Karen Baptist Church, which began as part of First Baptist Church before forming its own congregation.

“We’re a small group, and we’re an aging group that can no longer do things like mission trips,” Thielke said. “One thing we’ve always been able to offer was our building. We wanted the community to use it.”

Christ United member Al Greig said he looks forward to the day when Christ United again has its own place to worship and to enjoy church activities.

“I’m confident that we’ll have our own place,” Greig said. “We just have to be patient. It will happen sooner or later. It’s just a matter of time.”