Pray for Those in Authority: Marion County

Capital in Salem, Marion County, OR

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. I Timothy 2:1-2

Named after Francis Marion, the South Carolina Revolutionary War hero also known as The Swamp Fox, Marion County has been in existence since 1843 when it was known as the Champooick District. As one of the original four districts in Oregon, it was huge. It didn’t reach it present smaller size (1,194 square miles) until 1856. Marion County is now the 5^th largest in the state by population.

The county seat is Salem, which is, of course, also the state capital. Pray for the government leaders in Salem, both on the state and the county level. For this [praying for all men] is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  I Timothy 2:3.

Governor Tina Kotek was sworn in on January 9th, as the 39th governor of Oregon. Her plans include declaring a state of emergency for the homeless situation, and to visit every county in the state over the next year to foster unity in Oregon. 

In 1855, four years before Oregon became a state, two Reformation ministers organized a small group of believers in Salem. This was one of the four earliest churches established in Salem, and at first met at the Court House, then moved to the Masonic Hall, then the Little Central School. Finally, they hired Peter R. Burnett as pastor, and built a church known as the Little Brick Church in 1867. By 1868 they had 100 members.

One of the two circuit riding ministers who established the original congregation in Salem was John Rigdon, born in Pennsylvania in 1796.

Alexander Campbell is closely associated with the Reformation movement that produced the Christian Church, Church of Christ, and Disciples of Christ. They were also (disrespectfully) known as the Campbellites. John Rigdon was a member of a Baptist congregation near where Alexander Campbell lived. While his church disapproved of Campbell’s beliefs, Alexander, John, and John’s cousin, Sidney, knew each other socially.

The Second Great Awakening, 1795 to 1835, revived the established churches of America, but also produced new groups including the Reformation Movement led by Campbell that sought to break away from the established denominations to reform, or purify, the church. Other groups and sects also sprang up, including the Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, during the 1830’s. John Rigdon and his cousin Sidney were brought up in the Baptist church. John was trained to preach and moved west to Ohio, establishing a church there and marrying his first wife. By 1824, however, he had shifted to the Campbell movement. The Baptist organization suspended him on a charge of heresy. He quickly established a Disciples of Christ church in Ohio.  

His cousin Sidney Rigdon, however, affiliated with the Mormons and became a famous leader in that group. The two cousins remained friends, but with differing theological views.

A sad period of John’s life came in the mid-1830’s when his wife died. He remarried a year later, but that wife died after giving birth to their first child, who also died before he was a year old. Left with seven children, John married again, studied at Alexander Campbell’s training college, then began moving, first to Iowa. When he and his family left Iowa for Oregon, they were part of an “Oregon Fever” movement among the Reformation group that inspired entire congregations to immigrate to Oregon or California.

In 1853, in Oregon, John was appointed to be an evangelist charged with establishing churches from Jacksonville in southern Oregon to Washington Territory. In 1855 he teamed up with another well-known minister, Alexander McCarty, to establish the Little Brick Church in Salem.

He continued to plant churches in Oregon until his sudden death in 1859 when he, it is rumored, drank some poisoned water from a well in Salem.

Pray for all the new state officials in Salem. Tina Kotek.

Marion County is governed by a three-person Board of Commissioners. They are elected for four-year terms. Pray for Kevin Cameron, Danielle Bethell, and Colm Willis.

The County Sheriff is Joe Kast. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office is involved with community projects such as the Annual Community Dinner at Thanksgiving in Stayton where they helped prepare Thanksgiving dinners with a local café. They also have a Shop with a Cop event that partners with local non-profits to take youth shopping around the holidays. Pray for Sheriff Joe Kast.

Pray for the seeds sown by the early pioneer missionaries, circuit riders, and pastors in the earliest days of Oregon. Pray their sacrifices will bear fruit, even generations later.