I awoke with a tune stuck in my head. It was a catchy tune but I couldn’t figure it out. Where had I heard it? And then the words came. I remembered. It was the hymn which had been sung two days earlier at Emmaus Baptist Church in New Kent, Va., where I had visited for its 235th anniversary service. The hymn was written by a former pastor, John Hamilton, and the tune was “Freely, Freely.”
Emmaus in New Kent (and another church, Emmaus in Poquoson) is pronounced by the locals as “Emmy-us.” And so the tune was supplied with words and it kept repeating in my head: “We are Emmaus (remember to say “Emmy-us”), Emmaus, God’s family, Emmaus — people who care! Emmaus, Emmaus, dear to our heart, beautiful house of prayer.” And so Emmy-us has been stuck in my mind.
The church is as old as the Republic and its stories began a long, long time ago. It was planted as the Charles City Church in 1776 during the itinerant preaching of Elijah Baker, one of the heroes out of the struggle for religious liberty.
It has a place forever in the annals of missions history because one of its sons, Samuel Clopton, was the first missionary to be appointed by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. For at least four straight generations, Clopton men were Baptist ministers, beginning with William, who was baptized by Elijah Baker and became pastor of Emmaus about 1808. It was near the end of his life that the missionary movement began among Baptists in America and William was pro-missions. Little did he realize that his grandson would become a pioneer foreign missionary. In a sense, William’s son, James, was a missionary since he made preaching tours in the territory between the York and the James.
By 1834 the church became known as Emmaus and had moved from Charles City County to New Kent. And there its little jewel box of a brick building still sits where it was erected in 1852. It is nestled by large shade trees and backed by old gravestones. The one-room building with all the trappings of an old worship site stands by itself. At a respectful distance are later additions of an educational building with a fellowship hall, which includes the baptistery.
Some things have changed across the years and there are fresh expressions of God’s grace. In what was an isolated rural landscape, the world passes with a constant din of motors and tires traveling busy I-64. Just across the interstate from Emmaus is an expansive new housing development known as The Vineyard. There is a potential new population of “come heres” to be reached.
At present Emmaus is a small congregation with a large supply of love and concern for one another. Since 2000 it has been led by Vallerie Faye King. She is the church’s first full-time pastor in its 235-year history. When I met with the pastor and deacons for the pre-service prayer time, a two-page closely-typed list of prayer concerns covered the gamut of the human dilemma. As we bowed for prayer, the pastor reflected: “Lots and lots of sadness.” She cares deeply for each one on and off the prayer list.
Vallerie King earned her master’s degree in divinity from Southern Seminary in 1985. While a seminarian, she won the prestigious Clyde Francisco Preaching Award. A native of the part of Maryland just outside the District, she served in other states until her call to Emmaus.
As she explains, she literally knocked on doors, introducing herself to directors of missions. “I would tell them, ‘I am Vallerie King and I feel called to be a pastor.’ Someone sent her résumé to the search committee which already had been through a pack of résumés. When they saw hers, they felt this was the one.
“I know God put us together,” says Vallerie. “It strictly was a Holy Spirit connection; and numerous things along the way have pointed to it.”
Another old church with fresh expressions is Nomini Baptist Church near Montross in Westmoreland County. The first of August a married couple, Jessica and Darren Williams, began their pastorate. Natives of North Carolina, they are graduates of McAfee School of Theology in Georgia. They previously were schoolteachers; and after seminary, they served on a church staff in South Carolina. Jessica says that they “felt God calling to serve as co-pastors.” They arrived at the church just as it was celebrating its 225th anniversary. Excited about their first pastorate and wanting to learn about Nomini, they studied the church’s history and included several of its historical personages within a responsive reading for the anniversary.
Among the persons mentioned in the reading was Cupid, the male slave of Samuel Templeman. The story is worth knowing. Samuel Templeman hated the Baptist preacher, Henry Toler, and was livid that Cupid had been baptized. He intended to whip Cupid; but when he confronted the slave, Cupid began to witness to his master about the new life in Christ Jesus. Templeman dropped the whip and later attributed his own conversion to the testimony of his slave; and Templeman became a Christian, a Baptist and, in time, the pastor of Nomini.
Others mentioned in the responsive reading included Sarah Pierce, who opened her home for Baptist preaching before a Baptist church was constituted in her county; Hannah Lee of the famous Lee family of Virginia who courageously became a Baptist during the time when the state church predominated; and the 17 charter members “who stepped out on faith and mission.” Nomini quickly grew in the early years; and in 1809 Nomini became the largest church in Virginia with some 875 members. By the time of the Civil War, blacks comprised 75 percent of the membership. To this day Baptists, black and white, are a significant part of religious life on the Neck.
Like “Emmy-us” with its peculiar pronunciation, Nomini has an unusual name which is a place name in its area. Nomini Hall was the manor house of Councillor Robert Carter, the wealthiest man in Virginia in his day and, at least for awhile, a Baptist. Nomini Creek is near the church. In the old days the records show at least seven different spellings for Nom-i-ni. Both churches are full of old stories yet abounding in fresh expressions of God’s love.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies, located on the campus of the University of Richmond. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.
caption: Nomini Church (above, left) and its new co-pastors, Jessica and Darren Williams. Above, Emmaus Church on a misty morning.