Community

Two Hundred Years Of Blessings: Sinclairville Baptist Church celebrates 200th anniversary

SINCLAIRVILLE – Celebrating the 200th anniversary of its founding is the Sinclairville Baptist Church.

Founded on June 2, 1826, the church was organized by John McAllister and 11 others with the Rev. John Wilson as their pastor.

By 1834, the men of the church had erected their building in the present location on Park Street at a cost of $2,000. Sometime after 1849, the church bell was installed in the belfry.

Much of the written history of the church was lost when the home of the church clerk was destroyed in the 1800s. Later, in 1963, there was again a loss of the written history when the church burned.

In the early 1900s, Sinclairville Baptist Church joined the Northern Baptist Convention, but in the early 1940s, withdrew from the convention because of doctrinal differences. Sinclairville Baptist Church has since been an independent Baptist Church, owned by the local members and governed by its constitution. It is still an independent church and part of the Northeast Fellowship, a group of independent Baptist churches doctrinally true to the Bible.

In the early 1950s, renovation work was done to meet the needs of the congregation. A new front entrance was added along with new sidewalks that eased getting into the church. In addition, the basement was renovated as well as adding a new kitchen. New Sunday school classrooms were added to accommodate the additional baby boomers. Those were the days of additional folding chairs being added in the aisles and anywhere possible to accommodate all the people.

The Rev. Earl Mueller presided over the rededication of the church in 1955. After he moved on from the church, he became a popular special speaker at churches with his huge charts explaining the end times using visuals and scripture to back it up.

1963 FIRE

On December 5, 1963, about 6:20 p.m., the church's furnace exploded and a few minutes later, firemen arrived on the scene, quickly followed by the church's choir members arriving for the weekly choir practice scheduled for 7 p.m. It didn't take long for the rest of the church members to arrive along with many from the village. The weekly prayer meeting always followed the choir practice. No one was hurt. Everyone was very thankful that God had allowed this to happen before anyone arrived for the two scheduled events. About two weeks earlier, President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The two tragic events so close together stirred up a lot of emotions.

Hours after the fire, other churches and places offered their sanctuaries or meeting areas to the church as a place to hold the church's services and many other supplies were offered to help the church during the time before they could be back in their own church.

Sinclairville Baptist wound up using the American Legion building for its services. It also used the Annex, the home next to the church which had been given to the church by Archie and Agnes Peck. Peck was a Congressional Medal of Honor winner for his heroism during World War I. At the time, it was the church parsonage, housed the church office, and the upper floor was also used for Sunday school classes and youth group activities.

In August 1964, the new church building was started. Except for the arched trusses and beams being brought in and placed by a huge crane, the men of the church built the rest of the church in their spare time. Many tradesmen were members of Sinclairville Baptist at the time, and all the heating, electricity and plumbing were done by them. Pastor William Carter, the pastor at the time, had formerly been a finish carpenter, so he completed all the finish work in the auditorium.

On April 18, 1965, the new church was dedicated. The special speaker for the day was Dr. James T. Jeremiah, the president of Cedarville College. One of his first churches was in Chautauqua County. He was also the father of Dr. David Jeremiah, well known for his TV program, Turning Point and the head of Turning Point Ministries, a world wide TV program that preaches the Bible. He is the author of many spiritual books, and is a special speaker at conferences around the country. Carter closed the service with a prayer of dedication.

The original church bell had not been returned to the new building, but was placed in storage. Some years later, some of the men of the church built a bell tower beside the church and the bell was installed in it. It could once again be rung to call people to worship. Some years later, the tower was deemed unsafe because of the weight of the bell. Again the bell was placed in storage. Just a few years ago, it was permanently installed at ground level, at the side of the front entrance.

In May 1969, Sinclairville had a tornado go through the heart of the village, doing a lot of damage. The only damage to the church was a downed tree, twisted off at ground level.

Over the years, further renovations have been done. The broken stained glass at the front of the church has been removed, insulation installed and filled in with wood, and a cross placed on the outside. A new roof was put on by the men of the church under the leadership of Ted and Janell Lozier, missionaries with Continental Baptist Missions, who also did other work on the church. The church and Annex were resided in light gray vinyl siding to replace the iconic red barn paint.

GROWING LEADERS

During the Baby Boomer times, the church was very active and was supported by many families. One of the blessings of this time was the teaching of the youth in particular to be church leaders. As they graduated from high school, many were off to college, some married and most of them found jobs in other places and became leaders in churches where they lived. Deacons, Sunday school teachers, musicians, and music program leaders, teachers in Christian and public schools, pastors, being a pastor's wife, and youth leaders blessed many other churches. Larry Carpenter for one, became a pastor and retired as senior pastor from a church in Pennsylvania. He was also instrumental in starting a Christian school at the church.

Sinclairville Baptist also produced several missionaries.

Wilma Childs started as a missionary to Chad in Africa. After 17 years there, Chad closed to missionaries and she returned home. She married Carl Abbot and joined him as missionaries to college campuses. They also went to Australia as short-term missionaries. Merle and Doris Richardson were missionaries in British Columbia, camp missionaries in Ohio and served as caretakers at a missionary retirement home. Andy Abbey served as a short-term missionary in India, and Mark Brunson went to Australia as a short-term missionary.

As the Baby Boom days ended, the population of the area was greatly reduced. The church was still alive and active, although it didn't have the same numbers as before. Sinclairville Baptist currently supports Hannah Bender, who graduated from Cassadaga Valley Central School, who went on to college to be a nurse and then went on to become a nurse practitioner, and is presently working on her doctorate. She is a medical missionary with Medical Missions Outreach. She goes on several mission trips a year to places where medical services are mostly non-existent. They hold medical clinics and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The church also supports several other missionaries. David and Lucinda Lewis, former Bethany Camp director and members of Sinclairville Baptist, have been camp missionaries for many years. He was the director of Camp Cedine, and they are currently missionaries to camps around the country lending their years of experience to different camps around the country as short term help. SBC supports several other missionaries also.

This summer several local churches “adopted" staff members of Bethany Camp, located just outside of Sinclairville. Sinclairville Baptist was one of them. Members provided transportation to their staffers to Sunday services at Sinclairville Baptist, provided homemade snacks, cards and notes of encouragement, and prayers on a weekly basis.

CURRENT SCHEDULE

Sunday school is at 9:30 a.m., the morning worship service is at 10:30 a.m. each Sunday. Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. is the ladies Bible study, and at 7 p.m., the weekly prayer meeting is held. Once a month, there is a fellowship dinner held after the Sunday morning service. A handicapped entrance to the basement fellowship hall is being constructed. The front entrance is ADA certified.

Sinclairville's annual History Fair is being held on Saturday, Sept. 12. There will be a booth set up in front of the church.

There will be a 200th birthday party to be announced soon. For more information on the party, or to reserve a place, email Gordon Johnson at GJohnson7157@icloud.com.