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Thursday
March 18, 2010 Since 1922 |
Church preparing for 130th anniversary
By Jessica Robertson
Baytown Sun Published September 25, 2006 More than a century ago, just as the community of Barrett Station was beginning to take shape, a small group of residents formed a church that now has a congregation of more than 400.
Founded in 1876 by the Rev. L.J. Landford, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church will celebrate 130 years of spiritual and community service next month with a special Sunday service and a banquet.
Longtime parishioners Myrtle Clark-Armstrong, 88, and Willie Anderson, 98, have both seen the church take shape over most of last century — from services held in a brush arbor and baptisms in the canal off Highway 90 to the construction of a more traditional church off Crosby-Lynchburg Road.
“I’ve been here since we didn’t even have a church (building),” Clark-Armstrong said. “I was here when we had services in the (nearby) school. This church means everything to me.”
Under the leadership of several dedicated pastors, longtime church member Willie Goodlow said, Shiloh has grown and developed into a Barrett Station institution. The Revs. Lewis Chillis Allen, S.J. Sanders and P.H. Brown led the congregation until 1931, when the Rev. Wyatt Gamble became one of the church’s longest-serving pastors.
Gamble lived in Houston but never let distance get in the way of his leadership at Shiloh, Goodlow said. He traveled back and forth to Barrett Station by bus and became known for baptizing many church members of all ages, including Clark-Armstrong in 1937, in the community’s canal.
Anderson, who has served as a church deacon since the late 1920s, helped to construct a home for the congregation with the original Shiloh building. Anderson said he spent many Sunday afternoons with Gamble and other preachers to discuss what features should be part of the church.
“We’d go to the store where they sold watermelons and other things,” he said. “We’d sit and eat behind the church and talk to the preachers before services started again about the church and what we were gonna do and how we were gonna do it.”
Anderson, who retired from Humble Oil & Refining Co., now Exxon Mobil, in 1963, said he did much of his construction work at night.
“I’d have my carpenter clothes on at night when they were in the church having revival,” he said. “They’d sing and pray, and I’d do my work.”
Since then, four buildings have housed Shiloh, including the most recent built in 2001. Baptisms continue to be an integral part of the church, current pastor Israel E. Holmes said.
“When I brought my first message to the church (in 1996), we baptized 22 people — the largest number in the church’s history,” he said. “It was a confirmation of leadership to me. It was telling me that God had called on me, and his message was received.”
He said one of his goals for the future of the church is to pay off the newly constructed building. Church members plan to help him achieve this goal, Goodlow said, by each giving $1 for every year of the church’s history.
Anderson’s granddaughter, Kathy Bass, who now serves as president of the church’s usher board, said her grandfather instituted a similar policy decades ago.
“We paid 10 cents for the number of windows and doors in our house,” she said. “We all paid that every second Sunday of the month.”
Although Anderson is now physically unable to attend Shiloh on a regular basis, he counts his faith and participation in church as one of his many blessings. A sign facing his door reads, “Have Faith in God. God is able.”
“I’m not supposed to drive, and I have pain in my legs,” he said. “That’s why you don’t see me there anymore. It’s hurting me to miss church. Everything that happened, I was there, and now I’m missing it. But look where God has brought me with all these years and all these blessings.”
Anderson, a former member of the men’s choir at Shiloh, said he still worships in his own way and hopes to attend the anniversary service Oct. 15.
“I remember all those old songs, and sometimes you’d think someone was in my house singing along with me,” he said.
The church has played a major role in helping to shape community and family values, Anderson said.
“We were raised in the church,” he said. “We did like we were taught to do. We were taught that if we saw somebody doing something wrong, we’d go tell our mother and daddy so they could tell them they were doing wrong. If I did wrong at my aunt’s house, I got a whoopin’ from them, and if I went home and told my mother, I got another.”
Clark-Armstrong, who taught Sunday School at Shiloh, said the future of the church will soon be left to the next generation.
“I’m really pleased with the way the church is going right now,” she said. “But the younger generation is going to have to take over. It’s something we want to keep going. Don’t let it go down, and don’t forget about where it comes from. One hundred and 30 years — that’s something.”
The church will hold an anniversary service Oct. 15 with a sermon from Leonard Favorite of Houston Outreach Missionary Baptist and a banquet at 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at Goose Creek Country Club.
Texas Southern University debate team director T.L. Freeman will be the keynote speaker. For more information, contact the church at 281-328-1851.
Baytown Sun Published September 25, 2006 More than a century ago, just as the community of Barrett Station was beginning to take shape, a small group of residents formed a church that now has a congregation of more than 400.
Founded in 1876 by the Rev. L.J. Landford, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church will celebrate 130 years of spiritual and community service next month with a special Sunday service and a banquet.
Longtime parishioners Myrtle Clark-Armstrong, 88, and Willie Anderson, 98, have both seen the church take shape over most of last century — from services held in a brush arbor and baptisms in the canal off Highway 90 to the construction of a more traditional church off Crosby-Lynchburg Road.
“I’ve been here since we didn’t even have a church (building),” Clark-Armstrong said. “I was here when we had services in the (nearby) school. This church means everything to me.”
Under the leadership of several dedicated pastors, longtime church member Willie Goodlow said, Shiloh has grown and developed into a Barrett Station institution. The Revs. Lewis Chillis Allen, S.J. Sanders and P.H. Brown led the congregation until 1931, when the Rev. Wyatt Gamble became one of the church’s longest-serving pastors.
Gamble lived in Houston but never let distance get in the way of his leadership at Shiloh, Goodlow said. He traveled back and forth to Barrett Station by bus and became known for baptizing many church members of all ages, including Clark-Armstrong in 1937, in the community’s canal.
Anderson, who has served as a church deacon since the late 1920s, helped to construct a home for the congregation with the original Shiloh building. Anderson said he spent many Sunday afternoons with Gamble and other preachers to discuss what features should be part of the church.
“We’d go to the store where they sold watermelons and other things,” he said. “We’d sit and eat behind the church and talk to the preachers before services started again about the church and what we were gonna do and how we were gonna do it.”
Anderson, who retired from Humble Oil & Refining Co., now Exxon Mobil, in 1963, said he did much of his construction work at night.
“I’d have my carpenter clothes on at night when they were in the church having revival,” he said. “They’d sing and pray, and I’d do my work.”
Since then, four buildings have housed Shiloh, including the most recent built in 2001. Baptisms continue to be an integral part of the church, current pastor Israel E. Holmes said.
“When I brought my first message to the church (in 1996), we baptized 22 people — the largest number in the church’s history,” he said. “It was a confirmation of leadership to me. It was telling me that God had called on me, and his message was received.”
He said one of his goals for the future of the church is to pay off the newly constructed building. Church members plan to help him achieve this goal, Goodlow said, by each giving $1 for every year of the church’s history.
Anderson’s granddaughter, Kathy Bass, who now serves as president of the church’s usher board, said her grandfather instituted a similar policy decades ago.
“We paid 10 cents for the number of windows and doors in our house,” she said. “We all paid that every second Sunday of the month.”
Although Anderson is now physically unable to attend Shiloh on a regular basis, he counts his faith and participation in church as one of his many blessings. A sign facing his door reads, “Have Faith in God. God is able.”
“I’m not supposed to drive, and I have pain in my legs,” he said. “That’s why you don’t see me there anymore. It’s hurting me to miss church. Everything that happened, I was there, and now I’m missing it. But look where God has brought me with all these years and all these blessings.”
Anderson, a former member of the men’s choir at Shiloh, said he still worships in his own way and hopes to attend the anniversary service Oct. 15.
“I remember all those old songs, and sometimes you’d think someone was in my house singing along with me,” he said.
The church has played a major role in helping to shape community and family values, Anderson said.
“We were raised in the church,” he said. “We did like we were taught to do. We were taught that if we saw somebody doing something wrong, we’d go tell our mother and daddy so they could tell them they were doing wrong. If I did wrong at my aunt’s house, I got a whoopin’ from them, and if I went home and told my mother, I got another.”
Clark-Armstrong, who taught Sunday School at Shiloh, said the future of the church will soon be left to the next generation.
“I’m really pleased with the way the church is going right now,” she said. “But the younger generation is going to have to take over. It’s something we want to keep going. Don’t let it go down, and don’t forget about where it comes from. One hundred and 30 years — that’s something.”
The church will hold an anniversary service Oct. 15 with a sermon from Leonard Favorite of Houston Outreach Missionary Baptist and a banquet at 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at Goose Creek Country Club.
Texas Southern University debate team director T.L. Freeman will be the keynote speaker. For more information, contact the church at 281-328-1851.