Endicott church closes

ENDICOTT — The Endicott Seventh Day Adventist Church has closed, holding it’s last official Sabbath on Saturday, March 2, due to a lack of members.

The church building is located at 101 Banta Street in Endicott, Washington, and is owned by the Upper Columbia Conference of Seventh Day Adventists.

Congregation member Chuck Jordan’s father helped to build the building in the 50s, which was dedicated in 1958.

“In the beginning it was about 80 members strong, and over the years as families moved on and retired it just got to be a small congregation,” Jordan said.

Jordan said that the church got to where there weren’t any kids, “When you don’t have kids, you really don’t have much of a future,” he said.

Upper Columbia Conference Director of Communications Dustin Jones said that the members of the church decided to close their church. “They’ve had fairly low attendance over the past couple years,” he said, adding that they’ve been averaging about five members in attendance.

Jones said that the building and the land is owned by the conference and those will be sold. “I think the members, I don’t know what decision they’ve made, but they’ll probably select other churches in cities nearby to worship at,” he said.

Money obtained from selling the church will be decided by church members where to redirect to the funds to other church projects, Jones said, “The members really decide the way forward for that church,” he said.

“All the furnishing are for sale,” Jordan said, adding that the church members can allocated the funds to the congregation. “We’re going to donate it to different other churches,” he said, noting that it has to be in the Seventh Day Adventist church. “We’re also going to giving some to the food bank,” he said, which the church used to house.

There’s no requirement for the number of members, Jones said, adding that the churches are supported by members. “It gets difficult to support the church if the number of people attending are quite limited,” he said.

The Upper Columbia Conference covers the north part of Idaho, all of Eastern Washington, and the northeast portion of Oregon. “So across the conference there is very small communities, and so some of these churches struggle because there is not a lot of people available to attend,” Jones said.

Jordan said that two other churches in Endicott are going through the same problems. “Not that many people out there,” he said, adding that Endicott is down to a grocery store with a deli in it.

To keep the church functional, Jordan said it was $800 a month. “We’ve always had good support from members who have moved on,” he said, adding that they’ve put on a new roof and fixed all the internal issues in the building.

“Hate seeing all this happen. Grew up there,” Jordan said, adding that the building was built by donated labor. All built by donated labor. “My dad dug the basement,” he said.

“One of the unique things about that church is that by the time it was built it was paid for,” Jordan said.

Jordan said that the church in Endicott was built, because there was a Seventh Day church in Winona that they wanted to expand.

Jones said that some of the small community churches in the conference are flourishing, and some are working with other churches. “Some have decided it’s best to close the church and help other communities build their churches,” he said.

The Endicott Seventh Day Adventist Church is having their last sale of items from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 31.