Spring Hill Baptist Church at Cobbs Creek will celebrate its 150th anniversary on Sunday with an 11 a.m. service, followed by a catered lunch.
Dana Brown, chair of the homecoming committee that has organized the celebration, said the service will have a number of memorable features. The choir will sing an anthem, “A Legacy of Faith,” for which Julie Davis, wife of pastor Ross Davis, has composed the music and lyrics.
The Rev. Chuck McDaniel, pastor of Spring Hill for 24 years until his retirement in 2020 and now its pastor emeritus, will speak. Also during the service, members of the mission Team Ruth from Spring Hill to Tanzania (a 21-day trip in 2016), will speak and present music.
According to a church history which will be distributed along with a brass ornament to all attending, Spring Hill, which calls itself “The small church with a big heart,” was constituted Aug. 19, 1874. The first elders were James G. Council, W. W. Wood, and Richard A. Fox. They appointed Washington B. Callis and William I. Estes as the first deacons. Spring Hill is a daughter church of Mathews Baptist.
The history notes “the present site of the church was formerly the site of a school in which Elder J. G. Council taught. He also held a singing school on certain evenings of the week in which people of nearby communities as well as of this community participated.” Services were held at the school house until the church building was erected.
Spring Hill took root and grew, and in the past century and a half has increased and improved its church buildings considerably, ministered to its congregants and the community, and sent seven of its members to answer their call into the ministry.
The highly detailed church history includes many excerpts from minutes and special programs, and illustrations from the earliest days to the present, to bring congregants in touch with its long outreach.
Sunday School records, names of pastors, those called to ministry, deacons past and present, and church officers, all are recorded in the history. Photos of pastors, organizations, choirs and buildings are all part of the record.
The history concludes, “May the inspiration from this century and a half of service to God and man be accepted as a challenge to all of its members to act in the fear (meaning reverence) of God, to have a sincere desire to promote His glory, and to rely upon His guidance and protection, while being his stewards in His Spring Hill Baptist Church.”
