Church anniversary issue settled

By Steve DeVane

BR Managing Editor

Sandy Creek Baptist Church in Liberty celebrated its 250th anniversary in November. But when the Baptist State Convention (BSC) Historical Committee named churches celebrating significant anniversaries in 2005, Sandy Creek wasn't listed.

That omission led to letters, phone calls and eventually a meeting between the church and the committee, who had a difference of opinion regarding the issue.

The BSC's Historical Committee met with Travis Brock, the pastor at Sandy Creek, and two church members on April 17. The committee resolved the issue and agreed that the church could use 1755 as its date of origin.

Brock had sent a letter outlining his concerns to the committee in January. He provided the Biblical Recorder with a copy of the letter and a book published for the church's anniversary in November.

Brock said the BSC has long recognized Sandy Creek as being established in 1755. The BSC placed an obelisk in the church's cemetery in 1955 as the Sandy Creek celebrated its 200th anniversary, he said.

A plaque on the monument reads: "On this site in November-December 1755, Rev. Shubal Stearns, his wife, and those with him, seven other families, 16 souls in all, built their first meeting house where they administered the Lord's Supper.

"It is a mother church, nay a grandmother, and great grandmother. All the Separate Baptists sprang hence, not only eastward towards the sea, but westward towards the great river Mississippi, but northward to Virginia and southward to South Carolina and Georgia. The Word went forth from this sion and great was the company of them who published it, in so much that her converts were as drops of morning dew."

Brock also said that in 1976, the church was recognized by the BSC as a "bicentennial church," a congregation that had continually existed since before the United States was founded.

The recent disagreement initially focused on a split in the early 1900s and the few records from that time.

Not at issue is that Shubal Stearns and others formed Sandy Creek church in 1755 in what is now Randolph County. Also accepted is that in the 1830s, the church split over whether to support the young Baptist State Convention (BSC).

Those opposed to the BSC stayed on the original site and became known as Sandy Creek Primitive Baptist Church. BSC supporters moved a nearby area known as Shady Grove and became Shady Grove Baptist Church. The church later changed its name back to Sandy Creek, then later back to Shady Grove, which is what it's known as today.

Shady Grove was honored last year for its 250th anniversary, tracing its lineage back to the original Sandy Creek church.

In 1905, a group of area Baptists, including at least two members of Shady Grove, started meeting at the original site and adopted the name Sandy Creek Baptist Church.

The issue was whether that church could date its beginning to 1755 or 1905.

John Woodard, chair of the BSC Historical Committee, initially dated the church to 1905, saying that there was "no clear line" to the early church.

A history of the church included in documents from its 250th anniversary celebration indicates that the church formed after a split from Shady Grove. Brock said he thought the split was amicable and resulted from the desire of some people to meet at the original site, not a conflict with people at Shady Grove.

Woodard, who retired in June 2001 as archivist for Wake Forest University and director of the N.C. Baptist Historical Collection, said that a split from Shady Grove could be a "shaky line back" to the original Sandy Creek church. Other links might be formed if church minutes indicated that some of Sandy Creek's charter members could be shown to be former members of Shady Grove, Woodard said.

When the Sandy Creek church members produced the church's minutes from 1905 that showed that two of its charter members came from Sandy Grove, Woodard and the committee agreed to recognize the church's use of the early date.

"It's a tenuous connection but that's what we're going with," he said.

Brock said the church had received a letter notifying them of the change.

"We're satisfied," he said.

Woodard said Shubal Stearns is buried on the grounds where the Sandy Creek church meets.

"It's really a sacred site for Baptists," he said.