Travels in Baptist History-Well that wasn’t quite what I expected…….. by Jim Curran

Jim Curran Admin 06/24/21 (4) Facebook

Travels in Baptist History- 23 Well that wasn’t quite what I expected……..

Seeing Baptist history sites can be a real mixed bag. Sometimes you come across an early building that preserved. But that is a fairly rare occurrence. If a secular history site is significant it is generally but not always preserved. Sometimes it is even reconstructed if it has been lost (a large portion of Colonial Williamsburg is that way.) Baptist history on the other hand is far more fluid and churches are not static through time. For every well preserved Sandy Creek there are a hundred churches that upgraded their facilities. (Even at that Sandy Creek’s original building burned down in the 1700’s.) Time is not static and often takes a toll. This is especially true if a church closes. When this happens the only thing often left is the cemetery. Even that is not immune though- I have seen some where even that was obliterated by a careless farmer. So when we go to these places how do we avoid being disillusioned?

1. Go with the story already. A couple of times I went to a site and I did not have the stories down. I had no context of what happened there and the significant people. Since the prominent men that had pastored were not buried there I was even more out of context. When we know the story of how a church was founded and things that the Lord did there we have a better sense of place even if everything has changed. Even though I am a very visual person I find knowing the story helps me immensely even if there is little to see left.
2. Have an idea of what is there and where you are going. Some sites are simply unaccessible or hard to find. Look it up. In addition many folks will have no opportunity to travel to a place in person- but there are tools that make it almost like you are there. Google Earth and Streetview are excellent in seeing places that you may never get to. They are also great in locating places that you might have issues with a GPS in finding (Cemeteries do not have addresses for example.)
3. Cemeteries are often the key. Even when a church is gone in most all cases the cemetery is left. This can be a valuable tool in research. It was because of an obscure reference in a county history book and the cemetery that I found the location of Wabash which was the second oldest Baptist church in Indiana. The Find a Grave website is your absolute best tool for this. You can find where cemeteries as well as individuals are. They even help with biographies, family trees, birthplaces etc. As a note generally if there is not a photo of the marker (at least in the US) there is a good possibility there is not one. There are many men that have done so much for the Lord that are buried in an unmarked grave known only unto God.
4. There is often a lesson in what remains, sometimes a sad one. Where Obadiah Holmes was beaten stands a liquor store! The pioneer preacher John Taylor had a “family life center” built over his grave and those of others. Now the church has even removed Baptist. The things that we see may sadden us but we learn from them and use them to warn ourselves and others.

So go out there and explore- it may not be what was expected but we learn from both the good and the bad. I find no substitute to standing where history happened even of everything else has changed.(The pic is all that remains of the Bethel Baptist Church- one of the oldest churches in Indiana)

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