ZIRCONIA, N.C. – Inside Mountain Valley Baptist Church on any typical Sunday morning, about a dozen children walk, run and even skip to the front of the sanctuary to offer dollar bills for the church’s missions fund. Their parents and some of their grandparents always sit nearby, beaming with pride as they watch.
The weekly offering is only one of many activities children enjoy at the church. It’s also only one of the many reasons Mountain Valley is home to a thriving congregation of both longtime members and new families.
On Feb. 1, the church will mark its success. And it will honor the day 100 years ago when a few men and women came together in a small, windowless cabin on the edge of a cemetery to create the church.
Mountain Valley Pastor Shannon Owen said the church intends for the centennial service to be a day of celebration.
“We’re celebrating everything God has done for the church in the last 100 years and also looking forward to everything God will do in the future,” he said.
A variety of special activities are planned for the day.
Members will dress in vintage clothing similar to the type worn when the church came together in 1915. They will also put on a skit to re-enact the day leaders in the community met to organize the church.
An antique pulpit from the church’s early years will be used during the celebration service, and old church photographs will be available for inspection. Mountain Valley members will also share a meal to honor church founders and their vision for the church they created.
Owen said he is preparing a special sermon for the service.
“It will be a sermon reflecting on the past but focusing on the future,” he said.
The history of Mountain Valley Baptist Church is documented in two spiral-bound books a church committee compiled. The first book records the church’s history from 1915 to 1973. The second records the history from 1973 to 1998.
The church, which was originally named Poplar Springs Missionary Baptist Church, was organized in 1915 out of necessity, according to the first history book.
“Due to bad roads and lack of transportation, other than mostly horses and wagons, the people realized a need for a church in their own settlement,” according to the book. “On January 31, 1915, a group of ministers and deacons from neighboring churches and some of the people of the settlement met in a little long cabin at the Pearson Graveyard for the purpose of organizing a church, thus Poplar Springs Missionary Baptist Church was organized.”
The 14 members of the new church then began attending services in the cabin, which had no floor, no windows and no heat. The cabin was home to the church until members constructed a new building on the site in 1919.
Over the next several years, as membership grew and road conditions improved, the church decided replace the building with a new one closer to the mountain road. The new church, which was renamed Mountain Valley Baptist Church, opened in 1933.
In 1972, the church built its current facility, also near the road and not far from the 1933 church.
Mountain Valley now has a membership of about 230, with about 140 people attending services on most Sunday mornings.
Church member Jan Maybin joined Mountain Valley in 1954 and served on the committee that created both history books.
She said her work researching the church’s history helped her see that the church has always been made up of people who care about one another and who make the church a central part of their lives.
Members throughout the church’s history have shown their commitment to each other through their contributions when someone in the community dies.
“Everybody brings food in,” Maybin said. “It was always part of the church.”
The church also has continued an early tradition of providing gift bags for all those who attend its annual Christmas play. The paper bags are filled each Christmas with candy, frit and nuts.
Homecoming celebrations at Mountain Valley are also popular, festive events each year, Maybin said.
She said she has been pleased to see that in recent years new families have joined the congregation, along with many descendants of the church’s original founders.
“We’ve got an abundance of young people,” she said. “We’re getting more young people and couples from different areas. It’s great. It’s really helping the church.”
To make room for the growing membership, Mountain Valley bought 20 acres of property in the community in 2012. The church plans to build a new $1.5 million church with a 300-seat sanctuary, a Sunday school wing and a gymnasium on the site.
Owen said he thinks the founders of the church in 1915 would be pleasantly surprised by the current congregation and its plans for the future.
“If I were them, I probably would never dream of the church we’re planning,” he said. “But they would rejoice that the Lord had blessed the church so significantly that we could build a church like that.”
The 100th Anniversary Celebration at Mountain Valley will begin at 11 a.m. Feb. 1.
For more information about the church, visit www.mountainvalleybaptistchurch.org.
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