Sunday morning marked a momentous occasion for the First Baptist Church on 408 College St. in Clinton as the church celebrated its 170th anniversary.
As the service began early on Sunday morning, nearly every pew was filled with attendees dressed in their Sunday best. Dr Ray Ammons, the church’s pastor, was beaming with energy ahead of the service.
“It has been a team effort to get to this point,” said Ammons. “There is a reason God placed us here at 408 College St. in Clinton.”
Many Clinton residents and officials were at the church to be a part of the anniversary celebration, including the city’s mayor, Lew Starling, who later recited a litany of celebration and legacy for the occasion. The theme of anniversaries and birthdays carried on throughout the entire service. Even as the children were called up for their special sermon, the children’s minister, Amy Turner, spoke to them about the importance of birthdays and lit a candle for the children to blow out. According to Ammons, Turner is a longtime attendee of the church and has been coming there since she was a little girl.
Longtime attendee of the church, Jim Matthews, later provided a brief history of the church and its legacy.
“For our church to have celebrated 170 years is an amazing accomplishment,” Matthews said. “To recognize all the things that could be said about those 17o years would be impossible and take a long, long time. This church has ministered to so many people and each of us have our own memory of how our lives have been changed by our relationship with this church, its staff and its membership. When you look back over the history of our church, their faith has been a common thread.”
According to Matthews, the church was started in 1854 by 16 people in who wanted a Baptist church in Clinton. About 30 years later, the Black members of that church organized their own church, also called First Baptist. Roughly 100 years later, two mission churches were started as sister churches.
“Their faith sustained them through not only organizing one, but building the first church and to continue to grow that membership,” said Matthews. “In 1884 that same faith led the African-American members of our church to establish First Baptist Church at 900 College St. with the support of our church. That same faith led to the beginning of two mission churches during the 1950s. Now these two sister churches, Grove Park and Emmanuel, are strong witnesses to the same faith from which they began.”
After Matthews’ story, guest pastor Justin Jones gave a sermon he called “What Time is It?” Jones is a former resident of Clinton, having grown up here as a child. Jones is also the son of William M. Jones, who was a former pastor at First Baptist.
“It’s good to be back home,” said Jones. “That’s exactly where I am: home. When Ray called me back in June, which seems about two years ago now, I had so many good memories. I reminisced. I thought ‘what in the world am I gonna preach about?’”
As Jones preached, memories of his childhood seemingly flooded back to him and he would then share them with with the crowd. It was a fitting message for Sunday’s occasion. After the message, the crowd gathered for a group picture, a tradition that was carried over from the church’s 150th anniversary 20 years prior. Once the crowd dispersed, they were treated to a catered lunch of fried chicken, barbecue, coleslaw and more. As the crowd ate, they chatted with friends and family about memories of the church. All in all, it was a day worth remembering.