A City Church: The First Century of Service

A City Church: The First Century of Service is the history of Country Club Christian Church, a Disciples of Christ congregation in Kansas City, Missouri that emerged from the 19th Century Restoration Movement. The account examines the Church's story throughout the 20th century in the context of the larger social, cultural, and economic currents present in the city and nation throughout its existence. The stately Gothic revival building, built during an era of suburbanization, has been an anchor and locus of discussion and action for such community issues as Pendergast-era machine politics, racial crisis, and urban change. Through the years the Church, as an institution and a community of faith, intersected with wars, Civil Rights and racial conflict, and the evolving role of women. As a religious institution that has continued to thrive in a time of declining church presence in American society, the saga of Country Club Christian Church considers how it has affirmed tradition while changing in a way that allows it to "be church" in a contemporary world.