ARLINGTON — “It’s not about whatever building is called the ‘Gospel Hall,’” said Ed Rollins, one of the elders of the Arlington Gospel Hall. “A church is about the people who gather there, and the point of it is to gather to the person of Jesus Christ.”

The Arlington Gospel Hall has changed buildings several times since its founding in 1908, but it’s retained a congregation for the past 100 years by staying focused on such basic guiding precepts.

In celebration of its century of history, Rollins has invited community members to share their memories of the church at a Sept. 14 barbecue at the current Gospel Hall building, at 323 Stillaguamish Ave., starting at 12:30 p.m. and followed a 2 p.m. slide show, a special speaker at 3 p.m. and dessert at 3:30 p.m.

John Kroeze is only a few months younger than the Gospel Hall, since he turns 100 later this year, and as a member of one of the church’s founding families he’s been a part of it literally his entire life.

“My father and mother helped start it,” Kroeze said. “Those were the horse and buggy days.”

The Kroeze, Klein and Kazen families comprised the majority of the church’s early assembly and they had been inspired by gospel meetings in evangelists’ tents. Their first meeting in an assembly capacity was held in the Klein home in the fall of 1908, but the assembly then went to the home of the Hoy family, also members of the church, followed by a tire store on Olympic Avenue, before moving in 1913 into a building on 324 N. Olympic Ave, which later became a bakery.

“I have good memories of it,” said Kroeze, who rode his bicycle to church as a child and remembers both the tire store and the bakery. “I was raised there and I stayed there, because they went according to the Bible and never changed.”

The church’s message remained the same, but its location changed yet again when a growing assembly inspired them to rent the Baptists’ building, at Third Street and McLeod Avenue, in 1920. Three years later, when the Gospel Hall assembly wanted to buy the building but didn’t have the money, Harry Fletcher purchased it and the assembly rented it from him, ultimately buying it from him in 1946.

As the assembly has continued to grow, Rollins explained that it’s split off into other area gospel halls, to maintain the relatively small size of their own assembly. The Arlington Gospel Hall assembly currently includes roughly 100 members and Rollins deemed 150-180 members as the point at which the church would look at starting another gospel hall.

“We don’t consider ourselves denominational,” Rollins said. “All of our churches run themselves, with only loose ties between them. There’s no controlling organization. We don’t hire pastors. We have elders, not dictators. His word is our sole guide.”

Rollins came to the church through his parents in the 1950s, when the former Baptist building on Third and McLeod was already starting to become overcrowded. Like Kroeze, he was attracted to its simple, egalitarian approach to worship, in which each individual church was “governed by God” and every member was recognized as capable of contributing.

Nearly every member did contribute when the current Gospel Hall building was constructed, between 1969-1970. Rollins cited it as an entirely volunteer effort, designed and built by and for the assembly, with auditorium seating for 300, balcony seating for 100 and seating for an additional 300 in the west wing. Rollins added that the cafeteria kitchen can serve 500 in half an hour, during the annual Labor Day Bible conferences hosted by the church.

Still, both Rollins and Kroeze agree that the message and the fellowship are the real reasons why the Arlington Gospel Hall has not only endured, but grown over the years.

“I’ve lived in a good time,” Kroeze said. “It’s different today, but the preaching hasn’t changed.”