As you travel along Highway 150 in Oak Ridge, between Oak Ridge Military Academy and Bunch Road, you will see many churches in this area. Heading east, back in the vicinity of Greensboro, in northwest Guilford County, the Oak Ridge First Baptist Church will be on the left and the St. James AME Church will be there beside it. The pastor of the Baptist church is James A. Webster; his wife Brenda is First Lady.
While the church was actually established in 1894, 128 years ago, the above sanctuary was built in 1999. Imagine how many changes this congregation has experienced over all of those years. The church formed not long after the Civil War, and just about the time cars were being invented. Just think, now, there are computers, cell phones, and one can watch the service online- withou stepping foot inside. Their history reaches across three separate centuries. Sometimes, African American congregations have a hard time keeping up with records when so much was not documented (formally) in the African American community. The First Baptist has a cemetery on site. We're betting that has helped with maintaining records. Church history is so important to document and we wish First Baptist had a searchable data base.
If you are interested in attending, in person worship is held on Sundays at 10:00 am. The service is also available online.
Happy Sunday!
Quite a church.
Posted by: William Kendall | Sunday, February 20, 2022 at 03:56 PM