Church History |
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Kelly Baptist Church was organized on October 23, 1841, as the Mt. Zoar Baptist Church with the name later changed in 1935 to Kelly Baptist Church. Matthew and Elizabeth Williams, Elias and Nancy White, and H.H. and Ursula McCutchen signed the original constitution in the presence of Peter Oglesby and Nicholas Lacy. The records are incomplete until 1923 when the first session of the Christian County Baptist Association was held. In this particular year, the records show that W.B. Hammack was the pastor. The enrollment of the church was 77. The first building on the present site was erected in 1903. In 1934 one large and two small Sunday School rooms were added on to the back of the church building. The church building was destroyed by a fire on January 31, 1949. The church was rebuilt on the same site with the first service being held on Christmas Day 1949. With growth in church membership it became necessary to build additional Sunday School rooms in 1958. In 1961 the church voted to construct a church parsonage on the land that had been donated to Kelly by Mr. & Mrs. Roy Frey. Later in 1968 a garage was built at the parsonage site. On April 13, 1969, Kelly Baptist Church voted to construct the present sanctuary. It was dedicated on October 5, 1969. A note burning service was held on March 9, 1975 to retire the indebtedness. In 1990, the church voted to build an educational building, which was dedicated the same year. The church also voted in 1994 to build a garage to house its two vans. Due to a need of more space in the Fellowship Hall, the church voted in 2004 to enlarge it. The expansion was completed that same year. Kelly Baptist Church has always been a mission minded church. Throughout its history, it has been a strong supporter of associational, home and foreign mission programs. Kelly has had a building team that consisted of church members who went on building trips not only to help build new churches but to also witness to others. The trips included building a church in West Virginia (1991), a church in Missouri (1992), and a church in Georgia (1993). In 1995, the team took a mission trip to Bainbridge, Georgia, to help rebuild homes for flood victims. In 2005, Kelly Baptist Church sent the team to Oneida Baptist Institute where they renovated the kitchen in the school cafeteria. The church has also reached out to support other churches such as First Baptist Church in Antwerp, Ohio in 1983 and Lakeside Community Church in Waterboro, Maine in 2003. |