Church History of New Prospect Baptist Church

A church’s history is marked by the starts and stops, new buildings and additions and renovations.  The number one marker is the coming and going of pastors. Our history is not the real story of the body of believers called New Prospect. This history cannot express the heart of the church.  It really can’t tell you the who or why of New Prospect.  It is just the markers in the measure of time. 

So here are few of those markers. New Prospect started in March 1845 when a building was built on some property bought for a $1.00 on Burnt Mill Creek Road.  There were 21 charter members.

The early Pastors were either bi-vocational, mostly farmers, or served serval churches at a time. Beginning in 1847-1849 and then in 1852-1868 Rev. Silas Knight served as Pastor. He holds the record for the most years as our Pastor. There were 46 church members in September 17, 1852. After a revival by Rev. Knight in 1853 there were 76 white and 14 African American members. It is reported in the Association Minutes that in 1858 New Prospect has a Sabbath School and they use Southern Baptist Literature.  It is important to note that we are a part of the Southern Baptist Convention which started in May 1845 in response to their desire to appoint missionaries who owned slaves. 

Elihu Cunningham gave land in 1858 for a new church building located at the present-day site. A wooden building was built with two small rooms on the left and one larger room on the right. The baptism was in the middle and open to the sanctuary. The building was rectangle in shape being 40 by 70 feet. This building was called New Prospect Baptist Church since this was the new church building.  The first Pastor was Rev. William B. Boyd (1845-1846,1850-1851). 

For most of the first hundred years our preacher was shared with other churches.  In 1953 we built a parsonage and 1955 -1960 – Rev. Walton Coppedge was called on January 2^nd as our first full time pastor. This family was the first to live in the church parsonage moving in December 28, 1954.  Our current sanctuary was in 1958. The construction cost $94,500.00 and all but $20,000 of this amount was given during a building fund drive. On a warm sunny Sunday, October 12, 1958 we held services in our new church sanctuary for the first time. On June 11, 1961 we had a dedication of new Sanctuary and Educational building built G.E. Moore Construction Company in 1958. We started our Child Development Center in 1979.

New Prospect has had a long history here on highway 221.  The heart of the people a love of Jesus and for one another.  The church has a strong central core.  We have had our problems and our high points.  God has blessed us with a nice useable building and people with a gift to serve. We pray for many more years of working in the kingdom.