By Donnie Johnston
Thanks to a retired Culpeper couple, the Shiloh Baptist Association finally has a home.
“One of my goals as director of missions has been for the association to have a home of its own,” Lanny Horton said.
The Shiloh Association recently moved into its new quarters at the corner of Chestnut Fork Road and State Route 229 in Culpeper, a move made possible by retired educators Jeff and Joann Bloomer.
Last winter the Bloomers, who have long been involved in Baptist missions work, decided to buy the house and eight acres after it came on the market.
Both of the Bloomers are retired from the Prince William County school system. Joann was also principal at Culpeper Middle School for almost a decade and Jeff, a lay minister, now works with Germanna Community College.
Jeff presently serves on the Virginia Baptist Mission Board as chair of the glocal missions and evangelism committee. Joann previously served on the Mission Board.
Their intention from the beginning, said Horton, was to turn the place into Shiloh's headquarters.
“I've been director of missions [the association's first] for 16 years, and all that time my office has been in my home,” said Horton. “Now the association has a home of its own.”
The Bloomers are leasing the house, land and outbuildings to the association essentially rent-free, Horton said. “We are very grateful that they took this bold step when [the association] could not afford it.”
Horton added that Shiloh's headquarters, into which he and his ministry assistant moved May 14, will finally give the association a place to house all its ministries under one roof.
“There will be maybe five meetings a year that this place won't accommodate,” he said. “Everything else we can have here.”
The association's counseling center will remain at Culpeper Baptist Church, where it has been for many years, and the office of Hope Builders, a social ministries endeavor, will stay downtown since many of its clients walk to their appointments.
Various classes will be held in Shiloh's new home, including the Rural Institute for Theological Education (RITE) classes.
Under the RITE program, Shiloh has teamed up with the Fredericksburg and Goshen Baptist associations to make educational opportunities readily available for both laypersons and ministers.
Behind the new offices there is a shed where the association can house its impact/disaster relief trailer, which previously was kept on one of the churches' parking lot.
While there are no immediate plans to renovate the approximately 2,200-square-foot brick house, there is a long-range vision for expansion, Horton said. “There is a three-phase plan, but we haven't really fleshed it out yet,” he said.
The new facility accomplishes the first phase by bringing Shiloh's present ministries together. The second phase calls for limited expansion, including perhaps a prayer walk and an outdoor baptismal at the small pond on the property. The third phase includes the possibility of more construction.
Besides its area mission work and education programs, the association sends missionary teams to Eastern Europe and Latin America.
This summer it hosted Impact Virginia with 350 teenagers and their leaders working on 26 area homes “to make them warmer, safer and drier.”
Fredericksburg Free Lance Star
Donnie Johnston writes for the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star, in which this article originally appeared.