The History of the Pitman Church of Christ

Summer/Fall 1959

During the summer of 1959, about a dozen Christians who had been traveling thirty to forty minutes to attend other congregations in the greater Philadelphia area began meeting in homes in the Pitman area. Most of these Christians had been attending the Collingswood Church of Christ, about 30 minutes away. During home meetings in the summer and fall of 1958 the vision, faith, dedication and courage of a core group of Christians sparked a plan to launch a new congregation.

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November 1959

The Pitman VFW Hall housed the first official Sunday meeting of the Pitman Church of Christ on November 1, 1959. The baby church started with seventeen (17) members. For three years the church met comfortably in Pitman VFW Hall. During those formative years, the church hired Marlin Connelly to become the first full-time minister in 1960.

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Year 1960

The church purchased four building lots for $6,000; and monies were contributed, raised and borrowed to erect a building shell.

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Years 1963-1965

The church began meeting in the basement in the fall of 1963. In 1964 a parsonage was built (for $12,000). Both properties were landscaped. By the summer of 1965, the upstairs auditorium was completed. The church began using the auditorium for worship and the basement was divided into classrooms (at a cost of $65,000).

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Years 1965-1973

The church grew rapidly. Records were kept with meticulous detail during Paul Cantrell’s ministry (1965-1973). Between 1965 and 1973, 158 people placed membership with the church. During Cantrell’s tenure Owen Olbricht brought three Campaigns Northeast teams to Pitman. From those three campaigns, a total of 73 people were baptized. Between November, 1959 and August, 1973 the Pitman Church of Christ baptized a total of 214 people into Christ.
This visionary evangelist, Paul Cantrell (with general support from the church but also some skepticism), developed a plan to plant three new churches in South Jersey over a ten-year period. The first part of this plan was realized when the Pitman church hired Glynn Durham in 1971 to serve as the key man to plant a new congregation in Vineland (a forty minute drive from Pitman).
Vineland was selected as the site for the church planting because it was the largest city of a tri-city area (Vineland, Millville, and Bridgeton with combined populations of 150,000) in a county where there was no congregation. When the Vineland Church of Christ first met on Sept. 10, 1972 at the local YMCA, forty people gathered for the worship. Most of that number was from the Pitman church; therefore Pitman’s membership dropped to 123.
After the Vineland planting, efforts were made to rebuild the Pitman congregation; but, according to a historical overview of the Pitman church written by Paul Cantrell, "progress was slow and hard." Adding to the difficulty of losing between 30 and 40 people as the Vineland church was birthed, Paul Cantrell moved; so the Pitman church absorbed two major losses. This was an early time of transition, reevaluation and adjustment.

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Years 1973-1979

Jack Nadeau replaced Paul Cantrell as the pulpit minister, but his tenure was short (Sept. ’73 to May ’75). Danny Rhodes became the full-time minister in 1975. By 1976 the church began growing again and appointed its first official leaders: five elders and five deacons. Growth continued; and in 1979, Glynn Durham was once again hired to help plant another new congregation.

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Year 1982

The Laurelwood congregation was planted in 1982. Just as the Vineland church planting had taken an emotional, spiritual and physical toll on the Pitman church in 1972, the Laurelwood church planting once again took a serious toll. During and immediately after the Laurelwood church planting, the full-time minister, Danny Rhodes, was coping with the stress of a seriously ill child, and he was completing an advanced seminary degree. The church hit another valley in 1984 when Danny Rhodes resigned, and subsequently accepted a position at a Christian college

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Years 1984-2004

On the church's 25th anniversary, Dan Cooper began his work with the Pitman church of Christ on the first Sunday of November 1984. Attendance had declined during the later days of Danny Rhodes’ tenure. By 1984, while no accurate records were kept, the best guess is that attendance bottomed out with an average Sunday morning attendance of about 100. The average Sunday morning worship attendance for January, 1985 was 107, which is documented. By God’s grace, Dan and Katherine Cooper and their four children helped to spark an evangelistic revival and a enewal of purpose.
The Coopers helped to inspire a transformation of perspective. Rather than continuing to view the church plantings of 1972 and 1982 only as a loss of financial stability, membership, and talent, the Pitman church was ultimately able to re-frame those plantings. Despair and discouragement over the state of the church was replaced by a degree of healthy pride. We had “birthed” two new congregations, both of which had full-time preachers and were relatively stable. One had even become fully self-supporting. While there was the sense of loneliness and loss; our unselfish sacrifices had led to the spread of the universal kingdom.
Many dedicated and hard-working Christians had transferred membership from the Pitman church to help with one of the church plants, while other key members had been transferred, retired and/or moved away in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. It was understandable that the Pitman church would struggle and the struggle had to be reframed. Those struggles ultimately lead to the re-clarification of goals and a recommitment to growth.
From the start of the Cooper’s tenure in 1984, Dan and the three elders worked well together. The original five deacons were still in place and worked very well with Dan. A renewed sense of unity, optimism, hope and evangelism permeated the church family.
Church attendance and membership grew steadily for the first five years of Cooper’s tenure (1984-1989). Attendance grew by sixty percent in five years, from an average Sunday attendance in 1984 of about 100, to an average Sunday attendance of 166 in 1989. Between 1989 and 1994 membership grew by 40%, from 129 to 180. Many adherents were added to the body between 1989 and 1994, but the church was not reaching the unchurched.

Personal “spirituality” took on new meaning as there was a church-wide emphasis to read through the Bible in 1995. Personal prayer was emphasized and a men’s prayer group began. The introduction of the first small group led to a congregation-wide desire for increased candor, openness, and increased spiritual discussion between members. Finally, there was a renewed emphasis on deep and meaningful “interpersonal relationship.” Small groups were finally sanctioned and in lieu of the traditional Sunday night assembly at the church building. Not only that, a church-wide emphasis was made to encourage the entire congregation to join a LIFE Group. The look and the feel of the Pitman Church of Christ was gradually changing. There was an evolutionary transformation of the organizational system. While the doctrinal tenants and the restoration pleas were essentially the same, the way church looked and worked was different.

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