10/06/2025
Another Week; Another Spotlight!
We’re proud to announce a new partnership between the Ida County Courier and the Ida Grove Chamber of Commerce to bring you Chamber Spotlights — featured weekly in the local paper and across social media!
📣 Each week, we’ll highlight a Chamber Business that helps make our community thrive.
Brought to you by the Ida County Courier and the Ida Grove Chamber, these spotlights celebrate the people, passion, and progress behind our local businesses.
This week's business is Christiansen Van Houten Funeral Home!
Van Houtens serving area communities with compassion and dignity
By Brent Harm
Joshua and Christie Van Houten have owned and operated the Christensen-Van Houten Funeral Homes and Monuments since August of 2013. Both natives of the area, Josh grew up in rural Battle Creek, while Christe grew up in Ida Grove and Odebolt.
The funeral home was originally started in 1908 by the Moore Brothers, and still sits in the area where it first began.
“Over the last 115 years, there have only been six owners.” stated Josh. “We have continued the legacy of tradition and excellence with a family-owned and operated business. Offering personalized full-service, along with honoring an individual’s final wishes. Services we offer are traditional, cremation, and memorial services, along with pre-planning, memorials and monuments.”
The Christensen-Van Houten Funeral Homes has locations in downtown Ida Grove, Odebolt across from the OABCIG school, and in Battle Creek across from the community park.
Being in funeral service for around 25 years, Josh shared where it all began.
“I actually started in this funeral home the day I turned 16,” he stated. “I started as a high school student mowing yards, washing cars, helping with visitations and working funerals. The reason that I got into this profession was a dear family friend we worked for as farm hands was hit and killed by a drunk driver. I took this very hard. When I was at church, I was discussing my feelings of loss with our minister and Sunday School teacher, expressing how I wouldn’t mind working for a funeral home to help better understand death. The next day I received a phone call from the previous owners of the funeral home asking if I would like to come in for an interview.”
“This profession is truly a calling,” stated Josh, who went on to further his education, graduating from Kansas City, Kansas Community College with a degree in Mortuary Science. He returned to Sioux City, Iowa, where he completed his internship and worked for the largest family-owned and operated funeral home in Sioux City for about 10 years.
Josh stated, “It’s almost 15 years to the day when I started in funeral service to when Christie and I returned to purchase our hometown funeral homes.”
The Van Houtens take pride in serving their hometowns.
“It’s really unique that we have ties to the communities that we serve,” stated Josh. “We really feel that when a family loses a loved one, they’re inviting us in at one of the most difficult times of their life, to be there for guidance and support.”
“Every funeral is completely different,” added Christie. “Each individual’s life has its own story to tell. It’s nice to learn the accomplishments that they had, or what they did. We are here to serve everyone. There is a lot of rich heritage in our communities.”
“Some of the changes and most difficult times were during the pandemic,” stated Josh. “COVID really changed our profession. It’s coming back to what it once was, but that’s one of the hardest times we’ve ever had to go through. We started offering Facebook Live and streaming services, to help those who were not able to travel or be in attendance. That is something that was not offered before, but we continue to offer today,” stated Josh.
“We tailor every funeral service,” said Christie, “to be a personal reflection of the individual and families we are serving.”
Other services offered through the funeral home are pre-planning monuments and memorials.
“We offer monuments, cemetery restoration, including going into the cemeteries and replacing foundations under headstones, and cleaning monuments that might not be legible anymore,” stated Josh.
“Besides just monuments, we can also assist with granite memorial benches and bronze plaques as well. We assisted the Ida Grove Fire Department with a memorial to commemorate the bell located in uptown Ida Grove, along with the columbarium and veteran’s memorial that are placed at the Ida Grove Cemetery.”
Josh also spoke about helping with planning ahead by pre-planning.
“A lot of people want to get their final affairs in order,” said Josh, “so we will sit down with a family and assist them with pre-arrangements. That can be as simple as putting their wishes down on paper, putting together a cost estimate to pre-funding those services, so their family has plans in place for the future.”
“It’s peace of mind for families,” added Christie. “The sooner you start a program like this for yourself, you’ll actually have your money working for you, to help take care of your final expenses. It’s a tough topic, but we prepare for everything in life. We prepare if someone’s going to be born, or we prepare for a graduation or a wedding. Preparing for this step in your life brings peace of mind to your family, to your children, and having your wishes down can also offer peace of mind to yourself, too.”
“Finding a healthy work-home life balance can be tricky,” stated Van Houten. “We are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he explained. The Van Houtens acknowledge that they have a dedicated, compassionate and caring work staff to help round out their business.
“We could not do it without them,” said Josh.
Finally, Josh summarized, “We are beyond blessed to be in the communities that we are in, and to have the honor of caring for our friends, family and community.”
