Our Mission

Briar Hill Baptist Church

Seek the heart of God in authentic, true worship, to help each other in the church body as we strive together to become more like Jesus Christ, and to impact our community and the world with the Gospel message of our Lord.

A History of Briar Hill Baptist Church

Briar Hill Baptist Church was organized on October 7, 1888 by nineteen men and twenty-eight women as a Missionary Baptist Church and as a member of the Strong River Baptist Association. Services were held once per month on the morning of the first Sunday. Surnames of founding members were Alford, Alliston, Barnes, Bolton, Boteler, Butler, Cooper, Cox, Dickson, Hasty, Hill, Mangum, Reed, Ross, Smith, Stubblefield, Sutton, Taylor, Webb, and Williams, and many of their descendants are still members of Briar Hill. Rev. Wayne Sutton was the first pastor, continuing in that position until November of 1917; Briar Hill has had seventeen pastors in its 117-year history. A building was constructed shortly after the church was organized. This building, though it underwent additions several times, continued to serve the church well until it was razed in 1996 to accomodate a much larger building. Tearing down the old building was not an easy decision to make, but lack of sufficient land to keep it and also make room for growth simply left no other alternative. The memory of this building is preserved in one of the etched windows above the entry doors to the new building.