The Need for a Place

Weekly Update – September 11th, 2025 

In the 1840s, two Baptist preachers named Jeremiah Farmer and W.P.C. Caldwell, along with two deacons from the West Fork Baptist Church decided to organize a church closer to their community. The new church, named the United Baptist church of Jesus Christ, was constituted on Monday, July 10, 1848, with 12 charter members. At this time, the area that we know now as Grandview wasn’t incorporated yet. In fact, it was a rural community which after the Civil War became known as the Anderson District, Nevertheless, there was a need, not just for a once-a-month bible study or an evangelistic campaign. but for a church, a place where men and women could gather together in the worship of God. So, these 12 charter members began to meet once a month at the Blue Ridge Meeting House, which was a one-room log school building belonging to the community.

After the Civil War, the Anderson District began to grow, and the church decided that it was time to move. In 1891, the church found a new location on corner of Main Street and Grandview Road. But they would need a place. So, they built and in 1907 the church was completed. At this time, Grandview still had not constituted as a city, but when it did in 1912, the United Baptist Church of Jesus Christ changed their name the very next year to Grandview Baptist Church Yet, this place would not last forever.

In 1949, to meet the spiritual needs of a growing community, the church again undertook a building project. This time, it was on the corner of 15th Street and Main Street in Grandview. Now in 1949, the highway had not been built, the post office was not across the street, and the thrift store wasn’t next door. Yet, the church looked ahead and saw the need they would have for a place in the upcoming years. This place would be completed and then dedicated on Christmas Eve, 1950. Soon after, a classroom building was added in 1955 and fifty years later a gym, yet the focal point always remained the same, as the church prioritized its main gathering in the sanctuary.

Now, perhaps you have heard it said that the church is characterized by the people and not the building. To that, I agree 100% percent. At the same time though, the church cannot be the people unless they gather together. Claiming to be the church and not gathering would be like a baseball team that never comes together to play a game or a husband who doesn’t know his wife. Sure, a team is a team even when they are not playing and a husband is married to his wife even when he is away from her, but it doesn’t make any sense if a team never plays and a husband never sees his wife. The same is true with the church. The church is defined by its gathering.

That means that what we do every Sunday morning at 10:30am is unique. Our main times together are more than just a “spiritual pick-me-up” for whoever is here. It is an opportunity to collectively come into the presence of God as we strive to reveal the mystery of the gospel by together enduring in our faith until the end. The church, in many ways, is like an embassy or an outpost of the Kingdom of God. There is a certain culture here and a central focus as we come together to find reprieve from the world and rest together in Jesus. It is not an optional part of the Christian life. Instead, God’s people gathered together is an essential characteristic since creation, anticipated through Israel, renewed through the church and will one day be realized in the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 7:9).

Therefore, as God’s people, we need a place. Sure, we could gather in a field or at a school, but we have been blessed with a building. And as we will further see, we believe that this place God has given to us is key to fulfilling the mission he has given to us as well. This means that we ought to care for the place we have. This is why we, as a church, are seeking to revive our space, so that we can renew our future. What this means is that we are seeking to preserve what God has given to us, so that we, as the people of God, might primarily carry out the call to gather together, but also preserve the place from where all of our ministry flows. Our church framers believed that a place was necessary in Grandview, and we have echoed that conviction since 1848. So then, I want to invite you to join with us this month as we commit to revive our space so that we might renew our future.

Serving Him with You,
Pastor Michael Nelson