The oldest record books of the Perryville Christian Church show that by 1840 there were at least 32 members in the fellowship. It isn't known when they separated from the old meeting house, but they did have a strong evangelistic bent established and, although they probably had no building in which to meet, they added to their membership yearly:

1840—32 members

1841—19 members

1842—12 members

1843—5 members

1844—11 members

1845—7 members

In 1845, Sarah Rochester sold the lot on which the church now stands to the trustees of the Perryville Christian Church (Samuel Hocker, Parker C. Gregory, William Toomey, and Jacob Carpenter) for the sum of $45.00 to be paid by the note of Moses Parks and Samuel Hocker. Many of the present members of the church believe that prior to this sale the congregation was meeting in the Rochester home for Sunday School and were being served by Circuit-Riding ministers. Surely Jacob Cozatt was one of them.

That there was cooperative work going on is hardly to be denied. The November 9, 1850 issue of the Ecclesiastical Reformer reports that there were two representatives from the Perryville Christian Church at a district meeting in Hustonville. The representatives were Samuel Hocker (the trustee) and B.L. Despain. They presented letters at the meeting which do not appear in the College of the Bible Library's copy, pages 702-707 being missing.

Missionary work for the Disciples of Christ had started as early as 1832, when two men (Sam Rogers and John T. Johnson) were appointed state missionaries under the support of a small group of churches in the North-central part of Kentucky. It is possible that Johnson visited Perryville quite early in the life of our church. In the biography of Elder John T. Johnson by John Rogers, Johnson's letter of September 4, 1840 to Alexander Campbell mentions having spoken at an annual meeting about five miles from Danville. At this same time Thomas Smith, Begg,and James Shannon (the President of Bacon College in Harrodsburg) also spoke. One is tempted to conjecture the possibility that Johnson may well have started our church on this trip, especially since it coincides with the earliest date in our oldest record book. He might well have been one of those who spoke at the home of Sarah Rochester.

It has been noted above that missionary work was going on in the state after 1832 and the Ecclesiastical Reformer of June 1, 1852 records that John R. White and W.B. Stivers spent 13 days on the Salt and Chaplin Rivers. Could it be that these were also two visiting preachers to our fellowship? By 1852 the Perryville Christian Church was a thriving fellowship. Apparently there was much zeal among the members and a general missionary spirit prevailed among them if one is to judge by the records kept by the clerk of the board.

The first Perryville Christian Church building was a frame structure of commodious dimensions, built on the old Akron Plan with theater seats. Many pictures of the structure are extant among the members today. It was used during the Civil War's Battle of Perryville as a hospital which attests to its existence prior to October 2, 1862. Our guess, until we have more complete information, is that the church was built 1846-1847.

In the Millennial Harbinger, Vol. X, p. 231, we find the following statement: “The war, with all of its disastrous consequences, did not cause the work to stop nor was there a failure to meet annually.” The state missionary work went on. J.B. Briney, who appears on our minister list, was appointed State Corresponding Secretary for the Christian Churches of Kentucky in 1863. His job was to raise money for the support of the missionary work and no doubt, when he became too old to advance this strenuous work he became the minister for our little flock.