The Robinson Tract Mission Story:
Born a Mission...Continuing A Church
In
1942 First Baptist Church was the only Missionary Baptist Church in the
entire county. Pastor B. B.
Sawyer, a young minister in his first pastorate, saw the need for
providing opportunities for worship and service in God's Kingdom in the
Robinson Tract and Dublin areas. This resulted in establishing a church in
Dublin and a full time program in Robinson Tract Chapel.
Trinity Baptist Church
began as a Mission outreach of The First Baptist Church, Randolph Avenue,
Pulaski (then named, Pulaski Missionary Baptist Church). The Virginia
Baptist Board bought the Quesenberry property on Robinson Tract Road and
provided it for the Mission effort. With leadership from First Baptist and
members living in the area, the Robinson Tract Mission opened on May 23,
1943. During the early years the Rev. William Walker, a student worker,
pastored the mission. Rev.
A.J. Seale later served as part-time pastor under appointment of the
Virginia Baptist Board of Missions and Education. The early leadership
returned to First Baptist and the Mission closed because of lack of
leadership in autumn 1948.
The
late John Clark, pastor of First Baptist Church, seeing the need for a
church in the area, challenged the church to open the Mission again. The
Quesenberry home was cleaned, painted, partitioned for Sunday school
rooms, and made ready for beginning a new work as Robinson Tract Baptist
Chapel. Six leaders from First Baptist, along with the members and friends
residing in the area, formally began the work on Sunday, August 10, 1952. The
six members sent from First Baptist Church were Malcolm and Agnes Long,
Leroy and Gladys Livingston, Charley Black and Annie Lou Chandler. Rev.
Earl Tankersley, pastor of Dublin Baptist Church, shared his ministry with
the Chapel and preached the sermon that August Sunday. The Rev. E. V.
Cullum followed Tankersley and was pastor for Robinson Tract until Dublin
became a full-time pastorate. The Rev. Harold Tester assumed duties as
pastor on November 1, 1953, and remained until the following June 1954.
The Chapel shared pastors with Dublin Baptist until
September 12, 1954. It
should be noted that during these early years the Chapel provided the
necessary tools for Christian growth afforded by larger churches. Sunday
School was held from the very beginning, followed by the Woman's
Missionary Society, Baptist Training Union, and Vacation Bible School.
On
September 12, 1954, Rev. Charles Davis was called to be Associate Pastor
of First Baptist Church and Pastor of Robinson Tract Baptist Chapel.
First Baptist Church purchased the parsonage for the Davis'. Upon
the death of Rev. John Clark, in June 1955, First Baptist Church called
Rev. Davis to its pulpit. He resigned the work at the Chapel to become
fulltime pastor of First Baptist on August 5, 1955.
Rev.
Wiley Bumgarner accepted the full-time pastorate of the Chapel August 25,
1955 and served until April 11, 1957. The Chapel was receiving financial
assistance from the Board of Missions and Education and First Baptist.
On
November 1, 1957, Rev. S. Jack Payne became pastor of the Chapel. Under
his leadership the Chapel was constituted Trinity Baptist Church in May
1958.
Rev.
Clayton D. Sweet, Jr., assumed the duties of pastor of Trinity Baptist
Church on Sept. 6, 1959. The church property was purchased from the
Baptist General Association of Virginia on a low-interest loan from the
Association in 1961. By 1965
the property belonged to Trinity Baptist free of debt.
Trinity Baptist assumed payments on the parsonage from First
Baptist in December 1965. The
church grew and plans were approved for a new building August 1967. In
November 1967 the contract was let for the church building.
The new church was
occupied February 9,1969 and dedication took place homecoming Aug.
10,1969. The Rev. Clayton D.
Sweet Jr. resigned June 1971.
Rev.
Howard Hawkins came in September 1971.
His ministry was marked as a period of spiritual and organizational
growth. The church continued to grow and Rev. Hawkins answered God's call
to a mission ministry under the auspices of the Home Mission Board.
Rev.
William Robertson was called in September 1975.
He served as pastor of Trinity and chaplain at Bland Correctional
Institute until his resignation in 1979.
When
Robertson resigned, a Trinity Baptist member, Rev. Johnny Howlett became
interim pastor. In December 1979, Rev. Howlett accepted the call to become
fulltime pastor. Under his ministry the church continued to grow.
By 1984 the church had paid off all debts and members were talking
about the need of expansion of facilities.
Following a vote to build another building, adjacent but connected
to the present building, the building committee was named and bids were
sought for the plans adopted. The building committee reported to the
church that bids for a matching brick building of the size and type voted
for would cost a minimum of $200,000. On the recommendation of the
building committee, the church voted to build a pre-engineered truss
structure, which will be ready for use much sooner.
Trinity Baptist Church was granted a loan of $80,000 from the
Virginia Baptist Mission Board for a 13 year period at 7.5 % interest with
monthly payments of $850. Work
was completed on the new building in September 1988. The new sanctuary was
dedicated on Oct. 30, 1988. The mortgage on the new building was paid off
in Jan. 2000. The note-burning service was held in June 2000. Resignation
of Rev. Howlett came as a surprise to the congregation.
Rev.
Edward Greer was called as pastor and assumed the pulpit on Oct. 1, 1988.
He stayed until retirement in 1999.
Rev.
Jeff Brown was called in Nov. 1999. Rev.
Brown left the church in April 2000.
Several
men have helped us through the years in our times of need including Rev.
Robert Marshall, Rev. Terry Waiters, Rev. Perry Slaughter, Rev. William
Rinds, Rev. Chester Linkous, Rev. Mark LeBlanc, and Rev. Howard Hawkins.
Rev. Hawkins served as our Interim Pastor in 2001 and 2002.
Rev.
Dwight D. Haynes, who was Associate Pastor of First Baptist Church,
Randolph Avenue, Pulaski, accepted a unanimous call as fulltime pastor of
Trinity Baptist Church and began official ministry duties on August 4,
2002. His first Sunday presiding in services at Trinity was the
church’s 50th Anniversary Homecoming, August 11, 2002.
A unique addition to our community outreach came with Pastor
Haynes’ chalk-art ministry to Pulaski County extended care facilities.
Pastor Dwight Haynes resigned from Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday
morning, January 16, 2005, to accept a call to pastor Antioch Baptist
Church of Winston-Salem, NC. We experienced much renewal and growth
during his two and a half years as pastor and during this time advanced in
many ways toward a better future for ministry.
Trinity
Baptist Church accepts the Baptist Faith and Message of the Southern
Baptist Convention as our Statement of Faith.
We consider ourselves as conservative in the best sense of the
word, holding to the fundamentals of biblical inerrancy and salvation by
Grace through Faith is Jesus Christ alone.
WOMAN'S MISSIONARY
UNION--TRINITY BAPTIST CHURCH
The Woman's
Missionary Union began with the organizing a Woman’s Missionary Society
in November, 1952. When the Mission produced leadership among the resident
members, the youth organizations of WMU were begun.
The Baptist Women's organization is composed of 18 active members.
These missionminded women continue to lead forth in mission action,
mission training to include the entire church, gifts to missions through
the Cooperative Program in our budget giving, and in the WMU special
offerings such as the Lottie Moon Christmas offering and the Annie
Armstrong Easter offering.
In January 2003, the
WMU director and the Women On Mission group saw the need to commission
another ladies mission group in the church that could appeal to working
women and meet at different times. So,
the Women in Action (WIA) was formed and serves alongside the WOM. These two groups visit the sick, welcome new residents into
the community, send cards to shut-ins, the sick, the bereaved of the
church family and their friends.
