This month, the Nittany Valley Alliance Church celebrates a century and a half of faith, service and resilience.

From Sunday school

to sanctuary

Formally organized as an independent, non-denominational congregation on March 31, 1968, under the name Hecla Union Church, the church’s ministry predates its formal establishment by nearly a century.

PHOTO PROVIDED A photograph of the Nittany Valley Alliance Church taken in the mid 1970s. The view is from Highway 64.

“It was a Sunday school a lot longer than it’s been a church with a formal pastor and some of the other things you traditionally see in a church,” said the current pastor of the Nittany Valley Alliance Church, Ryan Miller.

According to historical documents, the church traces its roots to the Hecla Sabbath School, which opened around 1832 — 193 years ago — just across Walizer Road from the church’s present site.

“Reading, writing, arithmetic and Bible were taught all day on Sundays,” wrote Rev. Thomas Wright in a supplement on the church’s past for a history of Walker Township.

At a time when the public education system in the United States was not yet fully developed, the Sunday school provided many children with their only formal education outside the home.

Around 1871, a public school was established, and the Sabbath School transitioned into a traditional Sunday school as it is understood today. The two schools shared a building for several years, but when the structure was refitted exclusively as a schoolhouse, it became clear that each needed its own space.

HUNTER SMITH/THE EXPRESS Bob Rightnour, left, who has been part of the church’s congregation since the 1970s, and Pastor Ryan Miller, right, stand in front of the pulpit in the Nittany Valley Alliance Church’s sanctuary on Sept 5.

In 1875, a half-acre of land across the road was donated for that purpose. This September marks the 150th anniversary of that gift.

“We were just kind of carved out of this farm that you see out here,” said Pastor Miller.

In 1890, members of the congregation began building what was then called Christ’s Union Church.

The original structure still makes up the rear two-thirds of the sanctuary. At the time it was built, it was only a single room with three sections of pews divided by two aisles.

During World War II, gasoline rationing led the Sunday school to launch an evening “Young People’s Church,” with services led by laypersons and visiting pastors. From this arrangement Hecla Union Church was born.

HUNTER SMITH/THE EXPRESS The interior of Nittany Valley Alliance Church is shown above.

“That’s when we got their first full-time pastor — Jim Wills,” said Miller.

Though modernized with oil heat, electricity and other minor renovations, the building remained much the same until 1972, when a basement was dug beneath it and an addition on the east-side was built to include classrooms, restrooms and a study.

“Most of the work that’s been done here has been by men of the church,” Miller said.

Bob Rightnour, a member since the early 1970s, recalled that time.

“The men of the church got together, we hired a contractor with the bulldozer, and we literally built the basement under the church,” he said.

HUNTER SMITH/THE EXPRESS Pictured is the site of the Nittany Valley Alliance Church’s new pavilion, which will be dedicated on Sept. 21, following their special 150th anniversary sermon. The pavilion sits on the site of the original Hecla Sabbath School, which the church originated from.

Work on the basement was underway when Hurricane Agnes devastated the region in June 1972. By what parishioners saw as divine intervention, the excavation, which was open and exposed, escaped the devastating flooding.

“We took it as an everyday miracle,” Rightnour said.

After Pastor Wills left, he encouraged the church to affiliate. In 1975 it joined the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical Protestant denomination with more than 2,000 U.S. churches. Renovations continued through the 80s, when more classrooms were added and the current entrance, bearing the Christian and Missionary Alliance logo, was built. In 1994, the church adopted its current name to reflect that affiliation.

“Even the work that’s being done now… a lot of it is being done by some of the same people that were doing it back then,” Rightnour said.

Serving the community

Through the storms and tribulations of the past century, the congregation has remained rooted in its simple mission of loving and serving others.

“Everytime they saw a need they addressed it,” said Rightnour, of the church community.

In the beginning, that work focused on education, but as the church and community have grown, their outreach has only expanded.

Today, Pastor Miller says their efforts center on finding ways to address the community’s childcare needs.

The church also partners with other area congregations in the Nittany Valley Fellowship to provide individualized assistance, such as a night in a hotel or help with heating bills.

Over the years, they have also taken part in programs like Operation Christmas Shoebox and hurricane relief efforts, though most of their support stays close to home.

“The 150th is looking back with real thankfulness for what God has done through the church and for the church, but we’re also looking forward to what we can do in the future,” Pastor Miller said.

Miller emphasizes that the church has always remained true to itself, doing what good it can with the resources at hand.

“We are not trying to be a mega church. We are a small church in the community that has been here faithfully for almost 193 years, and we just want to continue to love and serve our neighbors,” Miller said. “We want to serve Christ and reflect him well and find creative ways to reach out into the community.”

According to Rightnour, that mission has always been at the heart of their fellowship.

“This is a Christ-centered church,” he said. “We are just a church that cares about people — no matter who they are.”

That welcoming spirit is reflected in the congregation, which is unusually diverse for the area.

“People come in and they feel welcome. They feel like they’re going to be part of something,” Miller said.

Celebrating 150 years of faith and fellowship

Nittany Valley Alliance Church will celebrate its 150th anniversary with a special service on Sunday, Sept. 21, at 10:30 a.m. Several former pastors will return, and Superintendent of the Eastern PA District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Nate Howard, will be the guest speaker.

The church choir–made up of parishioners ranging in age from 14 to their 70s–will also take part in the service.

The celebration will conclude with the dedication of the church’s new pavilion, which leaders hope will be a place of fellowship and outreach. Fittingly, it stands on the very ground where the original Sunday school once met, bringing the church’s history full circle.