by Mary E. Preece

Created on: July 24, 2008

When I hear things preached that peak my interest it causes me to do a lot of thinking and meditating on those things and really helps to open up my mind on things I hadn't thought about before. Recently on a taped sermon I was listening to, the preacher spoke of how churches are often misunderstood, by those who know nothing about them. I'm speaking of denominations here within the Christian faith, and in particluar I'd like to write about the

misunderstood things about the United Baptist Churches and the Old Regular Baptist Churches that adorn the rural valleys and highways of the Southestern United States.

They are unafiliated with the Southern Baptist Conference. They are on their own except for the small Associations they are connected with which are comprised of the same type churches within their local district or perhaps surrounding states, but never very far away from each
other. Often as few as four or five churches make up an Association, and the Association letters up with other Associations that have the same kind of churches which may consist of four or five Associations that letter up together and are in fellowship. Still the total number is often less than a thousand members for a whole association. A thousand members is small for one of the large churches that is in one of the big cities. But to our church it would be three buildings full of people, and what a meeting that would be if that many attended.

A few times we have had a baptisim of a person who was well known in the community and it bring in three or four hundred people, with many of them standing outside the door because no room was left inside the church after folding chairs had been put out and people standing against the wall. But in any case when it got time for the baptism, the church congregation would file out to the creek bank where the water had been backed up for the baptising and
the ice had been broken and moved away if it was winter time. As in the case where I attend church there is a bridge nearby that overlooks where the baptising area is and it gets loaded down with people viewing the person or persons as they are buried with Jesus Christ in water baptism. Only a few of these churches have installed baptistries due to the tradition handed down to them that John the Baptist baptised Jesus in the River of Jordan. Due to the pollution of the creeks and waterways this may not be allowed by the State much longer. It will hurt many of the people who believe in observing the

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