Heritage column for Nov. 18
The little auditorium of Flint Hill Baptist Church in Rappahannock County was packed recently for the church's 150th anniversary. Nevermind the fact that the anniversary number should be reduced by 28 to take into account the number of years when the old church was closed. Its magnificent Tiffany-like windows were boarded up. Its door was locked. Its lights were out.
The church's history records: “1969-Sunday School sessions ended in August and the church doors were closed.” No sadder words were written. The downward spiral had hit the bottom.
Flint Hill was never a large church. It began in 1854 with 24 charter members. By 1900, there were 61 members. By 1940, the number had doubled. By the late ‘60s, other churches “on the field” had called their own pastor and services ceased “due to the inability to support a minister.”
Flint Hill was dead. The trustees held onto the property. A few held onto hope. In 1991 thirteen Baptists of the Flint Hill faithful held a meeting to consider what was best for the historic building as well as what was best for the church.
“We decided to do something and reopen because if we didn't before we passed on, there would be nobody to start the church again,” recalled Arland Welch in a newspaper interview. The stained-glass windows once again were revealed in their beauty. The floors swept. The woodwork cleaned. The churchyard mowed. In May 1996 Lanny Horton, director of missions for the Shiloh Association, preached at the first service held in the old church in 28 years. More than 175 persons were in attendance.
People came. Several area ministers filled the pulpit. Robert Goff, a lay preacher from Luray, faithfully made the trip to Flint Hill and today John S. Farrar, pastor emeritus of Culpeper Baptist Church, serves as pastor. People are being drawn back to serve as church to one another.
There are other signs of revival: a new furnace, air-conditioning, organ, Bibles and hymnals. And even more important, the first restroom was added. Flint Hill has come back!
The church building has been placed on both the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors are usually told the story of Albert G. Willis, a Confederate hero who is buried in the churchyard. His story is a classic in Civil War literature. Briefly stated, Willis, a ministerial student, was captured along with another Confederate. The Union soldiers decided to hang one of the men in reprisal for the murder of Union soldiers by Mosby's Rangers. Willis offered to be the one who was hanged. Sometimes the story goes that he offered because he was a Christian and knew his future was secure. Sometimes the story goes that he offered because he was single and the other man was married. Whatever, the boy became a hero.
Across the years numerous ministers served as pastor of Flint Hill including Barnett Grimsley- who had a voice like a trumpet and his son, Tom Grimsley-I.N. May, A.J. Fristoe, Atwell Tucker, Frank Berkley, Charlie Clement, P.H. Chelf, Millard F. Sandford and others.
This columnist was invited to be the speaker for Flint Hill's 150th anniversary. In my message, I concentrated on Baptist principles. I stressed the Baptists' obsession with freedom: “Freedom from ecclesiastical restrictions, freedom from the literalism of a creed, freedom from the perils of tradition, freedom to serve and freedom to guide.” The words were not my own. They were borrowed from a 19th-century Baptist statesman but they are timeless.
Afterward the congregation adjourned to the nearby fire hall where a covered-dish dinner was enjoyed. The sounds of happy talk and laughter were good evidence that revival had occurred and the Flint Hill Baptist Church was on the road to full recovery.
As I left to climb the hill from the fire hall back to my car, a man stopped me. He introduced himself as Dale Welch and paid the best compliment that this Baptist historian could have received. He said: “I'm 52 years old and have been going to Baptist churches all my life but today-in what you said about the Baptists and freedom-I really understood for the first time just why I am a Baptist!”
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He can be reached at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.