South Point church to celebrate 200th anniversary

Published 1:24 pm Friday, October 13, 2023

SOUTH POINT — A church is South Point is marking two centuries of history this weekend.

First Baptist Church of South Point will host a celebration of the milestone on Sunday.

The church, located at the corner of Solida Road and Fourth streets, will host a morning service at 10:30 a.m., followed by a meal, then an afternoon service, beginning at 1:30 p.m., Jerry Matt, the church’s pastor said.

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For the morning service, he said the church’s former music director will be returning to lead the singing and the choir, while, for the afternoon service, Matt Dillon, pastor of Freedom Baptist Church, who grew up in the South Point church, will be preaching.

Matt said there will be also be a pictorial history of the church presented during the services, by Joy (Ferguson) McComas, who is the great-great-great-granddaughter of the founder of South Point.

He said the church will also be ringing their bell, which has been down from the building and mounted in the churchyard since 1968, before the services.

“It’s from 1868, so it’s a 155-year-old bell,” Matt said. “It was one of the signals for the community to come and gather.”

First Baptist Church of South Point was founded in 1823, when villagers and farmers began meeting in a rock cave shelter on Solid Creek near the Ballard home.

That church’s planner, the Rev. John lee, established both Solida Baptist Church and its offshoot, First Baptist Church (Solida Baptist also marked their 200th anniversary this year).

The church has had multiple locations over its history and has been at its current building since 1964.

The public is welcome and invited to attend the celebration on Sunday.