The American frontier and churches like
Station Camp helped shape the lives and attitudes of Southern Baptist
churches. Who has not thrilled at the stories of Roger Williams, John
Leland, and others who fought for freedom of worship in America? Every
school child knows the Pilgrims came to America seeking freedom of
worship; but what every school child does not know is that Baptists and
many other nonconformist groups were persecuted by the very people who
sought religious freedom for themselves. What many Southern Baptist do not
know is how deep their roots run in the independence of the American
frontier. Station Camp Baptist
Church, located in Sumner County, Tennessee, about 25 miles north of
Nashville, is named among the early frontier churches of America. The
church was organized in 1796, the same year Tennessee became a state and
just 20 years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. The
church was 49 years old when the Southern Baptist Convention was born in
Augusta, Georgia. The church has had many names: Mooney's Meeting House,
Phipps Meeting House, Station Camp Primitive Baptist Church, the United
Baptist Church of Christ of Station Camp. Today, Station Camp is a proud
member of the Southern Baptist family of churches and is typical of the
ancestral churches of the Convention.
The beautiful white church rests in a
lush, green valley next to Station Camp Creek. Peering through the early
morning mists that rise from the creek, you almost can see the hardy
pioneers as they came to the log meeting house to worship. Ghostly figures
of Indians that roamed the territory in Station Camp's early days glide
silently through the dense woods. The presence of ancestors of
today's church members can still be felt around the church in the cool,
quiet evenings.
Just as the station camp (from
which the church got its name) provided settlers and weary travelers a
refuge from frontier dangers, Station Camp Baptist Church has provided a
refuge for weary souls for over 200 years. May it continue to do so.
