About Elk Grove Congregational Church
-
Elk Grove Congregational Church was begun in 1923 when 12 German immigrant farm families of Elk Grove resolved to establish a Congregational Church. Elk Grove was nearly 75 years old at that time and well settled into farming and cattle raising after beginning in 1850 as a stagecoach stop.
A delegation was sent to Ebenezer Congregational Church in Lodi, and they loaned us their pastor one Sunday a month. In 1923, our church was formally organized and given the name Hoffnungsfeld (Field of Hope) Congregational Church. Services were held in a member’s kitchen while the church was being built.
The original church building was dedicated in 1926. Between 1946 and 1949, services were gradually changed from exclusively German to predominantly English. In 1950, the name was changed to First Congregational Church of Elk Grove, and our current sanctuary was dedicated. The Fellowship Hall was built eight years later.
The United Church of Christ (our denomination) was founded in 1957 from four predecessor denominations (Congregational, Christian, Evangelical, and Reformed). The United Church of Christ consists of over 2000 diverse and unique congregations across America. Though the UCC officially is a young church, it carries on the rich heritage of justice and compassion found in its ancestral denominations whose roots trace back to the founding of our country.
