A formerly nondenominational church in Solon, Our Lord’s Church, has joined with an international Christian church called the Christian Church Disciples of Christ. The church was founded July 11, 2004 to provide a local church home for various Christians who belonged to denominations outside of Solon’s two main churches.
“Solon only had two churches, Methodist and Catholic,” said Larry Meister, head trustee and one of the original founders of Our Lord’s Church. “We assumed a lot of people were going to other communities or Iowa City to look for their particular church of choice. We opened as a nondenominational church, figuring anybody who wanted to come could be from any denomination. It took off better than we thought and it was interesting to talk to people who were raised in other churches.”
The church quickly established itself as a community-focused group, choosing to make Solon their priority with such events as free Christmas and Thanksgiving meals and a soup ministry, all of which came to an end due to either losing contributing members or the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meister said, “When we started as a church, we decided our mission was going to be the community of Solon. Right off the bat, we started doing things for the community… We loved doing it. Rather than raising money for people in another country, our mission was Solon.”
The church’s population rose and fell over the years until a steady decline began around 2014.
“At a point, it just stopped and new people didn’t come,” said Meister. “We didn’t know it was a sign of the times, and possibly the word ‘nondenominational’ was throwing them off as opposed to helping us because some might not understand what it means.”
Meister said the decline in church population was due to the increased secularization of the world as more events like children’s sports and bike riding became commonplace on Sundays to replace church, as well as an aging and dying congregation that wasn’t replenishing its membership.
Dennis Arnold, pastor of Our Lord’s Church, agreed, saying, “It was attrition by death and the secularization of society. All churches are suffering the same thing. Since I was a kid, there’s been a decline in attendance.”
It was in the wake of these losses in membership that the church decided to drop the title of “nondenominational” and join the larger church.
“I was commissioned by the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, which is an internationally recognized denomination,” said Arnold. “It’s been a good fit for this church because, even though we call ourselves nondenominational, I’ve conducted worship as if we were a Christian Church Disciples of Christ congregation. It’s been accepted and the tenets of the Christian Church align perfectly with the tenets we have espoused since 2004.”
Arnold said the pandemic had changed the face of the church with online worship and, since they were already making that transition, joining the Disciples would provide them with a new branding and increased resources.
“We’re going to be the same but different,” he said. “We want to partner with the Disciples because it is a larger church that can give us guidance on how to grow the church. With them, we’re treating this as a starter church. We’ll ask them for advice on how to grow, programming perhaps, they will provide educational opportunities for the congregation and for me, workshops, and other opportunities we were previously left up to our devices to come up with. It’s a symbiotic deal called a covenant relationship. They help us and we, in turn, help support the international church.”
While the church is changing in an official capacity, Arnold said their focus is still the community of Solon. Additionally, nothing is being changed regarding the church’s teachings or theology due to the hands-off approach from the Christian Church Disciples of Christ as a whole.
“We thought a larger population might relate better to a denominational than a nondenominational church. That’s the one thing we’re hoping for… The fact that we called ourselves nondenominational resonated with the Disciples because they are a non-credal church. The one creed they have is Christ. We have a policy by the congregation. We don’t necessarily have to go along with what the larger church dictates.”

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Daniel Charland • Staff Photo

From left, Head Trustee Larry Meister and Pastor Denis Arnold at Our Lord’s Church in Solon.