After six years of meeting in the Dow Leadership Center, Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church finally has its own building.
The old train depot on Monroe Street used to be a doctor’s office, but now it houses the growing congregation of Hillsdale OPC.
“The mission is to provide a place of faithful worship, a place where the Gospel is clearly proclaimed and God’s word is faithfully expounded,” the Rev. Everett Henes said. “For the students, we’d really like to provide a community of believers that they can be around and get to know.”
Henes said that Hillsdale OPC has been looking for a building since August 2012.
“Some were too small, some were too far away from the college,” he said. “The train depot and the building attached to it had both the size and the proximity to the campus we were looking for.”
While looking at a different building downtown, Hillsdale OPC saw a “for lease” sign on the old train depot and asked whether or not it was for sale.
“It was really just an inquiry, because it wasn’t for sale,” Henes said. “The more we saw it, the more we liked it. We’re going from having a church with no presence in the community except for some folding signs we put out on Sunday, to having one of the most visible buildings in the entire downtown area.”
Senior Schuyler Dugle, who has attended Hillsdale OPC since his freshman year, approves of the new building.
“It is odd, but great. It’s a train depot with an aircraft hangar stuck on it,” Dugle said. “It’s kind of this ugly building on the 
outside, but on the inside, it’s fine. We cleaned up the floors and it looked quite nice.”
Henes writes a weekly column for the Hillsdale Daily News on a variety of theological topics. Associate Professor of History Richard Gamble has attended Hillsdale OPC since its conception. He said Henes’ articles are a very useful advertising tool.
“Every Saturday there’s an article by the pastor. It’s almost a short sermon. He’s been able to talk about the new facility there as well,” Gamble said.
Hillsdale OPC was born when a group of Hillsdale College students led by David Landow, `08, and three professors petitioned the OPC denomination to start a new church. The first service was held in the Dow Center over Parents’ Weekend in October of 2007. In May of 2008, Henes was installed as pastor.
“David knew there wasn’t a conservative, reformed church in the area, and it was a burden for him. He’d been praying about it for a long time,” Gamble said.
Six years later, OPC boasts its own building and more than 100 regular attendees. Members expect OPC will continue to grow and expand.
“One of the big concerns was for the church to have its own identity apart from the college. The college community is so important to the church — both students and faculty,” Gamble said. “Students are important, but we also wanted the church to have a visible presence in the community. On Sunday we had three visitors from the community who had never come before.”
Henes hopes the church will become more than a house to worship God, but also a place for the study and theological teaching.
“There is a real desire to eventually turn the train depot side into a study center where students can come and have a theological library for studying,” Henes said. “Maybe even have some opportunity for further education for people interested in theology.”