Old Stonefort Seventh Day Baptist Church celebrates 150 years May 15

STONEFORT - As the Old Stonefort Seventh Day Baptist Church prepares to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its organizing, precious memories come back to lifetime church member Sue Bethel of Harrisburg.

Climate control took a more hands-on approach, for one thing.

"As a young girl in the 1950s, I can distinctly remember having services standing around a coal-burning stove," Bethel said. "And on hot summer Sabbaths, the group would journey by tractor and wagon to Bell Smith Springs for a cool swim and picnic."

The Old Stonefort Seventh Day Baptist Church was organized on March 5, 1871.

Neighbors referred to the church as the "Church in the Wildwood," a reference to the well-loved old hymn. Bethel said church members gladly adopted the moniker.

The Seventh Day Baptist Church is a Protestant denomination with very old roots, dating to the early 1600s. According to the global church's documents, the first known service was in London in 1651. It has distinct statements of faith in its doctrine, but the most well known is the eponymous one giving the church its name. Church members believe that Saturday should be recognized as the Sabbath rather than Sunday, as most Christian denominations do.

"We have been referred to and called Adventist, but we are Baptist," Bethel says. "We believe in baptism by immersion."

Those baptisms were held at local ponds and creeks, she said.

"I was baptized in a nearby creek at age 12 with three other young people," Bethel said.

She said her father spent his early years as a Christian trying to find a Biblical reason the church was wrong in the day it chose to keep sacred.

"My father, Carlos McSparin, was the pastor for 33 years. Back in the early 1950s, my dad was saved and studied the Bible so intensely, trying to prove they were keeping the wrong day," Bethel said. "But instead, he discovered they were keeping the right day holy."

The church is located at 1545 Old Town Road, "Old Town" referring to the Old Stonefort area. It's about 1.5 miles southeast of Stonefort.

A church building previous to the current one stood across the road from the present location, Bethel said. In the early 1900s, people in the surrounding area would come on horseback or horse and wagon with their families, or walk many miles to attend, she said.

As an enterprising young teenager, Bethel said she would drive the family tractor to church to clean it each week for $1. That wasn't her only experience driving at a young age.

"Every Sabbath morning, I would drive the car into Stonefort and take two older ladies to church. They would pray all the way to church," she said. "I wasn't even old enough for my driver's license."

Bethel said she and her family, plus other church members, are looking forward to celebrating the 150-year milestone.

"The congregation wishes to extend a warm welcome to everyone to attend the special 150th anniversary at 11 a.m. on May 15," she said. "A potluck dinner will be served in the church basement after the worship service."