Wednesday, March 17, 2004
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Wednesday, March 17, 2004 |
| Quilt honors 1st Baptist at 175 By J. FRANK LYNCH Nearly 200 families at Fayetteville First Baptist Church have made heartfelt contributions to a lasting reminder of the church’s heritage in celebration of its 175th anniversary this month. Two huge banners, each 16 feet high and 11 feet wide, have been quilted with 192 individual squares personalized by families in the church. Volunteers with First Baptist’s Banner Ministry spent hours hand-stuffing each of the squares, and then stitching them in perfect place on the two banners. With the start of a week-long 175th anniversary celebration this Sunday, the quilts will hang permanently on the north wall of the church’s Ministry & Worship Center, a constant reminder of the rich heritage found at First Baptist, one of Fayette County’s oldest churches. Studying the names, faces and memories included in the squares is like a history lesson in Fayette County itself. The church, founded in 1828 as Shiloh Baptist Church and relocated to its present site just off the courthouse square in 1842, has played a vital role in the community for years. Many of the families instrumental in building First Baptist were prominent in early Fayette County as well, families like the Blalocks, Murphys, Thameses, Kirbys, Arnalls, McElroys, Ingrams, Burks and Allens. Each of the four corners formed by the two banners features a photo of the church buildings as the campus grew, starting with the earliest known picture of the congregation, a group photo taken outdoors sometime in the 1880s. The fuzzy, black and white image shows a simple clapboard church building, with two front doors, one for women, and one for men, church historians believe. Amazingly, that building remains, bricked over in the early part of the last century. Standing at the far left of the current church facilities, it served as the church’s sanctuary until 1966 when a modern auditorium was completed. Youth now use the original building, the “old” chapel area, for Bible study, praise and worship. The 1966 sanctuary is now known as the Jack Overton Chapel, in memory of longtime Pastor Emeritus Jack H. Overton, who retired in 1985 and passed away in 2002. As if marching closer to the old Fayette County Courthouse with each new generation, the latest and most prominent building on the First Baptist campus today is the Ministry & Worship Center, a 60,000-square-foot facility providing space for worship, recreation, music, education and dining. The Ministry Center will be the focus of the week-long 175th Anniversary Celebration, culminating in “Glory Day” Saturday, March 27, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday services were held in the Ministry Center for the first time on Easter 2002. Fayetteville First Baptist was original known as Shiloh Baptist, founded around 1828 about five miles south of Fayetteville, near where Redwine and Ebenezer Church roads intersect today. Around 1842, the church moved to its present site, the result of a split among members who disagreed about the importance of missions. To this day, First Baptist maintains a reputation for being focused on missions near and far. Often referred to as the “Mother Church” of Fayette County’s Baptist churches, it launched at least three missions within Fayette County that today are thriving churches in their own right: First Baptist of Peachtree City, Harp’s Crossing Baptist and Rolling Hills Baptist. Each of those congregations has gone on to establish mission churches of their own. Today, the combined membership of First Baptist and its “offspring” churches in Fayette is estimated at close to 10,000, or about 10 percent of the county’s population. Several years ago, First Baptist launched one of South Metro Atlanta’s first Korean outreach programs, and today a large and growing Korean segment of the congregation worships each Sunday in their native tongue in the Overton Chapel, while the membership at large gathers in the Ministry Center. Through the North American Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the church sponsors a full-time ministry in Briarwood, Queens, N.Y. Since 1998 the ministry group travels each summer to spend up to three weeks in various outreach ministries in New York City. It has done similar work in Hazen, N.D. A number of members have also journeyed annually to a remote village in Ethiopia. The Rusty Wood family just returned from two years of service in that remote, arid region. Though steeped in history and tradition, First Baptist Church today is clearly focused on the future, said the Rev. Ellis. Sunday services are non-traditional, with multimedia presentations, a mix of favorite Baptist hymns and modern praise and worship music, and an expectant atmosphere that’s welcoming to all people. As a result, the face of First Baptist’s membership continues to evolve: Young and old, black and white, Korean and Hispanic, it still reflects the face of Fayette County after 175 years.
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