{"id":2952,"date":"2023-12-16T15:47:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T15:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/?page_id=2952"},"modified":"2024-01-16T19:47:06","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T19:47:06","slug":"church-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/church-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Church History"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The History of Bethlehem Baptist Church of Shady Grove, Arkansas<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

On April 25, 1891, a small group of prominent Christians met at the Wofford Schoolhouse in Wooster, Arkansas for the purpose of organizing a Baptist church in the area.\u00a0 Beginning on May 24, 1891, at the Lance schoolhouse an assembly of people gathered and formally began the humble beginnings of Bethlehem Baptist Church.\u00a0 On that Sunday morning, Brother Elder P.H. Glover preached from I Corinthians 3:11, \u201cFor other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ\u201d.\u00a0 Bethlehem Baptist Church began with forty-two charter members and called Brother G.W. Ford as pastor.\u00a0 Soon after, coming from Pleasant Valley Church, Brother J.B. Davis was accepted as a deacon, and T.F. Clements was elected and ordained.\u00a0 Together they instituted the first leaders of our church.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

The first church building was a white plank one-room building.\u00a0 Services were held on the second Sunday of every month and on the Saturday before that regular meeting time.\u00a0 Baptismal services were held in a small stream, Greenbrier Creek and at other churches until a baptistery was completed in 1971.\u00a0 The first baptismal service at Bethlehem was January 24, 1971.\u00a0 Brother Lyndel Allison was the first to be baptized in the new baptistery.\u00a0 From Brother G.W. Ford to Dr. Martin Jameson the church has had thirty-five pastors in service.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

In 1960, a new church building was built.\u00a0 It was a concrete block auditorium with three Sunday school rooms.\u00a0 The church building was dedicated on the second Sunday in June of 1961, the date of Bethlehem\u2019s annual homecoming.\u00a0 In 1968 an east wing was added to the building, and in 1974 the west wing was added.\u00a0 In 1981 three acres across the street and a mobile home were purchased for use as a parsonage.\u00a0 Prior to 1991 Bethlehem added the fellowship hall, kitchen, nursery and additional bathrooms.\u00a0 Due to growth in attendance and membership, on February 17, 1999 the church voted and approved unanimously in favor of building a new worship sanctuary.\u00a0 A year later on February 13, 2000, a dedication service was held in the new facility.<\/p>

Groundbreaking on a Family Life Center was held January 18, 2004 and has since been finished.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Bethlehem belonged to the ABA until 1950 when she became a member of the NABA which now is the BMAA.\u00a0 From it\u2019s humble beginning to present, Bethlehem\u2019s ultimate goal has been to reach the lost, to teach the saints, and to remain a true beacon of light in the community.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The History of Bethlehem Baptist Church of Shady Grove, Arkansas \u00a0 On April 25, 1891, a small group of prominent Christians met at the Wofford Schoolhouse in Wooster, Arkansas for the purpose of organizing a Baptist church in the area.\u00a0 Beginning on May 24, 1891, at the Lance schoolhouse an assembly of people gathered and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2952","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2952"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3398,"href":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2952\/revisions\/3398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethlehembaptistchurch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}