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The History of Palestine Baptist Church
Palestine Baptist Church began in 1850 when Staunton
Baptist Church (or Moody’s Meeting House as it was known
then)”...consented to extend an arm of this church to Meadow Ridge
School House...” The first meeting was held on October 2,
1850. The Meadow Ridge School House was located just east of the
present church.
 In
1852 the church became self-supporting. According to the minutes
of Staunton Church, on July 23, 1852 “a list of members belonging to
the Meadow Ridge Church was taken from Moody’s Church.” There
were 20 members, two of whom were Negro boys. The church was
constituted on May 21, 1853 into a church. Rev. Abner Anthony was
the first pastor.
In 1855 the land on which the church now stands was
purchased from John H. and Lucy C. Turner for $20.00. The next
year a frame building was begun. It was built with hand-hewn and
hand-dressed lumber and was “32 by 40 feet in the clear and 12 feet
high.”
 The name was changed from Meadow Ridge to Palestine Baptist Church at a meeting on Saturday, July 4, 1857.
Palestine is said to have had one of the most elaborate horse blocks
around. The horse block was necessary for women, children and old
men to mount and dismount their horses. Most churches had one in
those days.
Work began on a new church building in 1935 but it was not
until April 3, 1938 when the first service was held in the present
building. The dedication service was May 29, 1938.
On May 17, 1953 Palestine Church celebrated its 100th anniversary with a Homecoming Day Service.
Palestine and Mentow Baptist Churches shared the same
pastor until November 21, 1965 when this field was dissolved and each
church went full time. Rev. Joseph Stirman, Jr. was the first
full-time pastor of Palestine.
Eight men from Palestine have been ordained for the
ministry, They are G. G.Turner, Jesse V. Ashwell, Grover M.
Turner, Leo Kendrick, Nolan Crowder, Melvin Harris, Luther Lemon, and
Vernon DeLong.
In 1976, as our country celebrated a bicentennial,
Palestine had a Homecoming in which everyone dressed in early American
clothing.
In 1990 Palestine Church welcomed Rev. Chris Fowler and that same year celebrated with a Homecoming.
It became evident during the early 1990's that our church
was growing and there was a need for more classrooms, a larger
fellowship hall, and a more modern kitchen. It was voted in
1993 to pursue these additions and in 1995 a new "wing" consisting of
six additional classrooms, a choir room, two restrooms, a pastor's
office, a church office, storage space, and a new fellowship hall and
kitchen were dedicated.
Palestine Church welcomed our first Minister of Music in
February 1999. Don Clark, along with his wife Jeanne, led the
congregation in worship with praise music and choir
specials. This was the first time in the history of
Palestine Church that a music director was a paid position.
In the summer of 2002 with the growth of various
ministries within the church such as AWANA, and our men's and women's
ministries, we again realized Palestine Church needed more room to meet
our needs. The sanctuary was out dated and small and more
classrooms were needed. It was voted to contact a local
architect and investigate our options. The church was given
the opportunity to purchase much needed land. It was approved by
the members to purchase land from the W. Thereon Howell family and the
William Snow Turner family. With the immediate need the
church had for a more modern sanctuary it was voted to remodel the
existing sanctuary and place the plans for a new sanctuary in a near
future plan.
Renovations to our sanctuary were complete during the
spring of 2003. A special called informative meeting was
called in March 2003 to educate members about Family Life
Centers. It was decided to investigate the possibility of
such a center being built to facilitate the needs of our
church. We opened the doors to our Family Life Center in
2004. To facilitate our growth, we offered two services.
One service in the Sanctuary and the other in the Family Life Center.
Author Unknown--Taken from 1981 Palestine Baptist Church Directory--Resent history Author Robyn Tuck and Margaret Adams
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