There are numerous opportunities that I have as executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention. I enjoy none better than the opportunity to preach in our churches.

On some of those occasions I have the honor of celebrating with them the history of their church. This Sunday, August 5, I will have such an opportunity as I join the Poplar Springs North Baptist Church in Dublin, Georgia. We will be celebrating the 200th Anniversary of this outstanding church.

In his published account of the history of Poplar Springs North, R.M. Johnson recounts some very interesting facts about this church. When the church was founded on frontier land on Saturday morning, August 1, 1807, it was the western-most church of any denomination in Georgia, Johnson writes that “it wielded significant influence in the early history of Wilkinson County, Georgia … it served well during the establishment of Laurens County and, later, in the establishment of the town of Dublin, Georgia … it organized the first Sunday School within the Ebenezer Baptist Association and one of the earliest in the State of Georgia.” Johnson continues, “… it appointed a messenger to the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta … it is the Mother of a number of churches in the area and the Grandmother of many others … many of its early members, including those who were later ordained as ministers, became leaders in a number of developing counties, communities and churches throughout the then growing State of Georgia.”

Johnson states that while “nothing is seen to allude to the number of veterans of the Revolutionary War, and their families, who received religious instruction there … at least one, if not more, of these who fought for the cause of the Colonists is buried nearby in hallowed ground.”

As I read the history of Poplar Springs North, I learned some interesting things about living on the frontier of Georgia that I had not known. Getting to church was not an easy thing to do in those days.

The earliest settlers to the area “traveled over the narrow hard-packed, one-lane paths which had been left by the Indians, but in some cases, a path didn’t go to the plots of newly won or purchased land. Trees and brush had to be cut for lanes and all of the paths and lanes had to be gradually widened to accommodate the widest incoming carts and wagons. With no bridges or ferrys over the Oconee river and other streams, crossings were made where the water was most shallow. Spring and winter rains made even those crossings impassible until the water subsided. These same rains made bogs of the red clay ruts which had been cut into the roads by wagon wheels.”

Perhaps we should think about those early settlers making their way to church through those kinds of conditions. Today, we complain if our travel over paved highways and streets is slowed because of excessive traffic. We don’t have the challenges just getting to the church that were experienced by these early Baptists.

Another thing we hear a lot about is time, but what was it like before there were watches to time the worship service or the pastor’s sermon? Johnson says, “Few but the well-to-do settlers had any type of timepiece but these really weren’t a necessity for anyone. Standard Time had not yet been established in the world so the time of day by any type of timepiece varied everywhere, even in the same town, village, or settlement.

“The pioneers depended upon and were proficient at estimating the ‘sun time’ and that suited their needs. The earliest church meetings at Poplar Spring church probably began when the ‘sun was right’ and when all the expected members of the congregation had arrived. There were no trains, no time clocks to punch, no schedules to meet, or any other reason to be punctual ‘to the minute’ as we know it today; consequently, accurate time served no purpose.”

I am inspired to greater faithfulness and commitment when I think about these early Baptists in Georgia. Their times were challenging and their faithfulness to Christ and His Church built our earliest foundations in Georgia. Sunday will be a great day for me as I share in the celebration of a church that is 200 years old!