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HIS Story

In 1755 God led a man named Shubal Stearns, and 15 others, to Sandy Creek, located just outside of what now is known as Liberty, North Carolina.  Stearns and the others with him did not take long to “have church” at Sandy Creek, as David Benedict is quoted in Church records:

 “As soon as they arrived, they built them a little meeting house, and these 16 persons formed themselves into a church, and chose Shubael Stearns for their pastor, who had, for his assistants at that time, Daniel Marshall and Joseph Breed, neither of whom were ordained.”

The original “meeting house” that Benedict refers to was built where an Obelisk now stands in the Church‘s graveyard.  This Obelisk (pictured at lower right) was placed by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in 1955 and the plaque on the North side reads:

    Original Site
    Sandy Creek Church
    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.”

No pictures are available of the first or second meeting houses, but the third is pictured at right.  This building was constructed in 1802 and is now the property of the Sandy Creek Primitive Baptist Church.  Hal Younts, a member of the Primitive church, has worked faithfully and tirelessly restoring this building and he is to be commended for preserving a significant part of HIS Story at Sandy Creek.  This third meeting house was where Sandy Creek was meeting when God split the branch, as Church records note:

    In 1830, a protest arose by some of the members of Sandy Creek congregation concerning the support of missions and the new institutions being formed by the newly organized Baptist State Convention, causing
    a split in the church.  The members who were opposed to the missionary movement of the Convention continued to hold services at the original site, and adopted the name of Sandy Creek Primitive Church . . .

 

    The members who desired to support the missions program and the Sunday School ministry of the Baptist State Convention sought out a new location.  They settled near a school known as Shady Grove and continued to be known as Sandy Creek Baptist Church.  Then in 1905, some of the descendants of those who had left, under the leadership of W.H. Eller returned to the original location, and once again established worship services.  The name of the group who had left in 1830 then became known as Shady Grove Baptist Church.

The next meeting house was constructed upon the return of those representing the “Missionary” side of Sandy Creek and was located close to the location of Sandy Creek’s current sanctuary.     

Due to significant decaying of the fifth building, Sandy Creek’s current sanctuary was constructed in 1942, utilizing some of the timber from the fifth building.  Two additions were added to the current sanctuary which houses a library, two rooms, a small office, a nursery, and five classrooms.  This building is no longer able to meet the current needs of Sandy Creek and a building committee was formed in 2003 for the purpose of providing adequate space for worship and education.       

In addition to the meeting houses at Sandy Creek, a parsonage was built directly across the road from the Church in 1971 and a fellowship hall was constructed in 1995.

The parsonage was built, in large part, due to the generosity of Ms. Ida Williams, as the plaque at the front door reads, “This parsonage is dedicated as a memorial to Miss Ida Williams, 1882-1967, who gave herself as well as her substance in loving devotion to Christ’s service to help make its construction possible.”  Pastor Carl Garner, his wife, Ann, and their children Andy, Joy, James, and John were the first family to live in the parsonage and it has been well used since that time.

The fellowship hall replaced the parsonage basement for events such as fellowship meals, holiday dinners, wedding receptions, and all other church gatherings.  It was constructed while Pastor Terry Hinson was serving at Sandy Creek and few, if any, would express any regret over the funds spent to construct this building.  Space for large gatherings, a baptistery, a kitchen, two classrooms, and an office for the pastor are all provided in this building and it is indeed a true blessing to the body at Sandy Creek.

God obviously ordained the establishment of Sandy Creek Baptist Church and an attempt to recount all that He has produced in and through this church would indeed be futile.   Denominations of a wide variety under the umbrella of “Baptist” have sprung forth and churches have been planted in areas all around the globe that all can trace their roots back to Sandy Creek.  As one of the memorial markers placed by the Baptist History Preservation Society on Sandy Creek’s property in 2005 reads, “There are thousands of Baptist churches as the result of the labours of Shubal Stearns and the Sandy Creek Baptist Church."  Pastor Jeff Faggart of the Society summed it up this way, “I believe God has done more through the ministry of this church than any other church since Pentecost.”  God has indeed blessed and sustained the ministry of Sandy Creek.

Three years after Sandy Creek was established, Stearns organized the Sandy Creek Association, making it the third Baptist Association in America.  Sandy Creek is considered to be the seed God planted, nurtured and blessed as a fruit-bearing branch, with fruit such as that Association and the most notable fruit, the Southern Baptist Convention.  Established in 1845, the SBC is one of the largest protestant denominations in the world today with more than 16 million members, more than 5,000 home missionaries, and more than 5,000 missionaries serving around the globe.