The first organization of the Central Congregational Church was formed by nine members in July 1814 at the home of Lemual Kimball.

Rev. Hyde was ordained in August of 1819 and the church moved to a hall on the northwest corner of Middle Ridge and Hubbard Roads. The Congregational and Baptist congregations both used this building as a meeting place until 1830. At this time twenty-four members of First Congregational split the growing church to form the Second Congregational, later becoming Central Congregational.  It used the log town hall building, which was also used as a schoolhouse, on the northwest corner of what is now the village square. Madison was known as Centerville at that time.

As with most of our early churches, the pastorates were short and the salary meager to that until 1841 there was little progress. Rev. Reuben Tinker, a former well-liked pastor who had been a missionary in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) for ten years, returned to accept a second call to become the pastor from 1841-1845. Under his leadership, divisions within the church were healed and membership grew. It is interesting to note that much of the division came among church membership in the late 1830s and early 1840s was over slavery. Central was part of the larger Grand River Presbytery, who did not take a strong stand against slavery. Central left the Presbytery and joined the Grand River Conference of the Congregational Church, who staunchly protested slavery. It was also under Rev. Tinker’s tenure that our present sanctuary was built.

The church grew in membership and in 1853 became part of the Plymouth Rock Conference. Another time of great growth was during Rev. Fraser pastorate from 1878-1887 when church roll swelled to 185.

Another milestone came in 1913 when our magnificent pipe organ was installed, has been well maintained and still filling our sanctuary with beautiful, rich music. The old organ was sold to Claridon Congregational Church. Coincidently,  Rev. Huetter was a pastor at Clairdon before pastoring at Central from 1942-1969.

After serving Central from 1916-1919, Rev. Dutton and his family moved to China where he and his wife spent many fruitful year as missionaries.

One Sunday morning as Rev. Metcalf (1919-1934) was preaching his sermon, word came that the parsonage was on fire. He kept on preaching as the fire department put out the fire, but the damage was extensive. The house to next to and south of the church was then built and from then on served as our parsonage.

There are many other chapters to our history that are rich and beloved. We welcome you to be future chapters of our church life.

Won’t you join us? You are welcome…without exception!