Bethlehem Baptist Church is a church focused on loving and serving God. It is a small country church that meets at a location that has a 200-year history as a place of worship. It is a church that has, with a few setbacks, slowly grown into an innovative church that is implementing new ways of sharing Christ's love with their community.

 

The vision of the Bethlehem Church Family is centered in helping each other on the journey to true discipleship. It is a journey, and we need each other in order to experience and be set free by the truth.

Our Mission at Bethlehem Baptist is to encourage and assist each other in staying on course. We are on this journey together, each needing the other. We would love to have you on the journey with us!  

Our History

from Charles Yerkes presentation for Founders Day, June 25, 2017

Bethlehem Baptist Church was started as a mission outreach in 1985 and it had the good fortune of moving into an existing building; the former home of the Bethlehem Cumberland Presbyterian Church. This was selected and purchased from the Columbia Cumberland Presbyterian Presbytery for $8,000. According to the Bethlehem Community page of the Learning Centers of Ancestry.com, worship services at this location actually predate this Presbyterian church. These services date back to 1815, giving this loactaion a 200 year history as a place for worshiping God.¹

Bethlehem Cumberland Presbyterian Church first met on this site in the 1850s and called it their home until they officially disbanded in 1983. The Bethlehem Cummunity page also shares some interesting facts about this church. For instance, the use of this church building by General Jackson's calvary as a campsite during the Civil War and its having the first woman ordained as a minister, in neighboring Maury County, preach here on more than one occasion. Its first building burnt to the ground in 1915, with its rebuild being finished in 1917.

This church had served this community for over 100 years, when on June 12, 1983, its pastor, Reverend Robert Hall, conducted the final service. At this time, the church only had nine active members which belonged to only two families, the Sharps and the Shires. Then in August of that same year, this church officially disbanded. At which point, ownership of the property transferred to the Columbia Cumberland Presbyterian Presbytery and it sat empty until it was purchased by the First Baptist Church of Lewisburg in order to bring its mission to the Bethlehem Community.²

In obtaining this property, the First Baptist Church had an excellent location in which to begin its missionary outreach. According to its current pastor, Gerald Yerkes, the impetus for this missionary effort was an expected boom in the population of this community. One that was to result from General Motors opening a new manufacturing plant in neighboring Spring Hill, TN. While this boom never materialized, the mission continued its work and within four months became its own independent church. During this time as a mission, much was done to make the building more useable as a place of worship; for instance, a well was dug and central heat and air was installed. Whle these improvements were being made, as those who were there recall, the members would huddle around small space heaters just to stay warm while they sat on uncomfortable chairs.³

Yet, they continued to meet and on February 16, 1986, this mission became Bethlehem Baptist Church. It's very first service was conducted by its first pastor, Lesley McClure in conjunction with the pastor of First Baptist, Paul Woodford. The following Sunday they elected their first officers and a little over a year later Eddie Weaver became their first deacon to be both elected and ordained by this church. Shortly thereafter, most of the members of First Baptist left the Bethlehem church, returning to First Baptist. Yet this new church continued to grow and, on November 12, 1989, a new educational building was dedicated for service. Then in 1991, Pastor McClure retired and, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the church called Pastor Yerkes and he accepted. This also marked the transition into what could be called the middle years of this church body.

During this time, there was slow but steady growth. There was also a renewed commitment to adhering closely to biblical principles by focusing on Scripture being God inspired, fully true, and free from errors. The result being that the congregtion began applying Scripture to their lives as never before. Pastor Yerkes is quick to admit that this was solely the work of the Holy Spirit; it was the Spirit who both helped the people learn and inspired them to implement what they had learned.

There are times when this caused things to go less than smoothly and even led to some church members leaving rather than embracing the changes to which this renewed devotion led. Pastor Yerkes has such respect for all who have been members of this church, that he would not go into details. "That is all water under the bridge, it is over, why rehash it? Especially as those who left are not around to offer their side of things."⁴ He did share that sometimes, those who help establish a church can have great difficulty in accepting changes to their vision. Changes that are initiated by others God has brought to the church and not by themselves. He said, "The church is a living body, and is continually in a state of change. Whenever an individual has become less than open to God's leadership being expressed by others... God has graciously made the necessary changes."⁵ So, it was not a completely smooth period of growth.

But God's hand was with the church during this time; more stayed than left and the church has grown. This is seen in the number of members who call this church home. In 1991, there were twenty members; this year (2017), they have seventy-five. Also, this seventy-five is a truly eclectic mix of people that honestly reflects the population of the community. Yet, as Pastor Yerkes points out, spiritual growth is not about numbers or diversity, it is about maturing in Christ. Which he also attributes to the work of the Holy Spirit as the church maintains its focus on living out what they learn from Scripture. Before going further, Pastor Yerkes wanted to make sure that it is understood that he is not trying to paint a superficial picture of Bethlehem Baptist. It is still full of imperfect human beings. No church will ever be perfect this side of heaven. Yet, as a whole, the church is moving forward. It is this growth that has led to a new era for this church. Yet, before examining these new directions, note should be taken of ways in which they are similar to nearby churches. Pastor Yerkes shared several of these similarities.

They meet on Sundays, at similar times as other churches, and have their business meetings/prayer meetings on Wednesdays. They hold fellowship meals, choir practices, believe that Jesus is Lord, in the inerrancy of the Bible, and in the need to engage each other as a cummunity, the same as most churches in the area.

Yet, it is this same emphasis on engagement that has led to innovations that set them apart as well.

For such a small church, again of only seventy-five members, they have no less than seventeen outreach ministries. While not all of them are engaged upon at the same time, some are seasonal in nature, this is still an impressive amount for a small country church. And again, Pastor Yerkes attributes this to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Due to space limitations, only three of these will be touched upon here, as they represent the new and innovative era into which God is leading this congregation.

First, they are partnering with HOPEtown, a non-denominational Christian ministry devoted to serving and impacting the people, neighborhoods, and community of Lewisburg, especially the vulnerable and needy who live on the margins. The next innovation is their Bridges of Hope ministry. This is a ministry that reaches out to support both the families of and the individuals who suffer from mental illness. Part of this ministry involves reaching out to other churches, inspiring and training them to do the same. A third innovation is their Bridges of Peace ministry, one designed to support veterans and their families in dealing with Post Traumatic Stress. In short, this church is finding innovative ways to care for those in need.

Bethlehem Baptist Church does reside on a location that has a 200-year history of being a place for worshiping God. It is also one that is growing and finding new ways to express their love for God to others. This church embraces James' definition of true religion as found in James 1, "to look after the orphans and widows in their distress" (James 1:27)⁶ May this church enjoy another 200 years of sharing God's love with others.

¹"Bethlehem Church," Bethlehem Community, The Learning Centers at Ancestry.com, accessed June 6, 2017, http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/-bethlehemcommunity/bethlehemchurch.html.
²Ibid
³Gerald Yerkes, interview by author, Berlin, TN, June 8, 2017.
⁴Ibid
⁵Ibid
⁶Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture used is from The NIV Study Bible, the New International Version (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985.