Los Alamos Church of Christ
In 1947 a few members of the Church of Christ began to meet in Olive Ritter’s home. Soon they grew out of her home and moved into the “Big House” on Sunday afternoon. This was a hall used for a variety of purposes. But it was soon torn down. So the small group began to meet in the Chapel on Sunday afternoon. At this time Los Alamo was a “closed community” much like a military base. A preacher would come up on Sundays to preach.
Towards the end of 1947 the congregation moved to Canyon School and worshipped there until 1951. Brother Nunn was the first fulltime minister to work with the church. Other ministers during this time included J.D. Taylor, Elbert Barnhart and Luther Norman. The congregation grew to about 60 members. But there was a constant turnover of people. The congregation moved in 1951 from the school to an old barracks on 19th and Nectar near the current Pizza Hut were it stayed until in moved to the present site.
The building on our present site was just a shell that had been vandalized. The windows and doors were boarded up. In the fall and winter of 1956 the building was refurbished. A concrete floor was poured. Heating, plumbing and lights were upgraded. A baptistery was installed and 3 classrooms were built. The “new” building was opened in the spring of 1957. T.A. Grice was the preacher. He served until 1960. Rene Woody and Max Love preached here until about 1965.
At that time the average age of the entire community was 29 so there were lots of kids around and very few classrooms. So, in 1962 an annex building was purchased and moved into position behind the building. In 1965 Don Fair became the local minister and under his direction the congregation was able to use the extra classrooms for its first Vacation Bible School! In 1967 the congregation went into debt to build the present parsonage for the Fair family. They borrowed a mind boggling $29,000.
As the congregation continued to grow there was need for more space. It was decided the best course of action was to remodel the building. An upstairs, a kitchen and more classrooms were added. Because of the debt on the house the congregation had to finance the new construction by selling bonds. While the building was remodel the church met in the Aspen Elementary School. The annex building was given to the Albuquerque Christian Children’s Home. The “new” building was completed in 1969.
In 1979 JB Harrington came to work with the congregation. The congregation’s kids became teenagers so Larry Posten was hired as the first youth minister in 1983. Since then the congregation has had four additional fulltime youth ministers; Marty Chamberlain, Tim Stidham, Wade Spaulding and Deanna Cromwell. Tim came as youth minister in 1987 and move to preacher in 1992.
In 1997 a group of about 10 families became dissatisfied with the direction of the congregation and started a new congregation. The Pajarito Church of Christ began to meet in White Rock.
The congregation has gone through its ups and downs but has continued to be faithful and serve the Lord for over 60 years in Los Alamos!
To discover more about the history of the Church of Christ the following links are helpful:
