Beth Henderson remembers her childhood growing up attending Blue Mountain Baptist Church in Anniston. Henderson’s grandfather, Gean Hinds, would gather all the children in the family and neighborhood and walk down Railroad Avenue to church on Sundays. When he died 24 years ago, Henderson’s grief evoked such sadness that she didn’t return to the church until recently.
As Henderson and her aunt, LaShea Bruce, sat in the fellowship hall May 27 during a covered-dish luncheon, they reminisced about a recent turn of events.
Bruce, 49, said she found her grandparents’ photos on a wall at the church and is glad she and her family recently placed membership back at what she considers her home church.
Henderson said she, too, feels at home.
‘I have to see this’
“We were in this fellowship hall 24 years ago this week. I started seeing Nick’s Facebook posts,” Henderson said, referring to the new associate minister at the church, Nick Mickler, who made online posts about a renewal occurring at the church.
For the past eight years, the church, which began in the early 1900s, had less than a dozen members, and that number stayed consistent until April. Now it seems a fresh new spirit has taken hold, and members are giving credit to God.
“I keep hearing in conversation and from Nick the phrase, ‘But God …,’” Henderson said. “I thought, ‘I have to see this, so here we are. I had never been baptized, and Nick baptized me [recently], along with my cousin, my nephews, my mother-in-law and her friend. There were seven of us.”
The group of faithful members has grown to an average of 50 attending the 10 a.m. weekly worship service.
Events leading to change
Blue Mountain Baptist, like many churches in the area, is located in an aging community, and the younger residents have not been in attendance. Some of the church’s members left during the COVID pandemic, and COVID took the lives of some. The situation had the remaining members wondering what to do.
A series of events and new faces at the church seems to have ushered in a fresh spirit.
First, pastor Don Pilcher underwent heart surgery in December.
Filling in for him was Mickler, a member at Hillcrest Baptist Church on U.S. 431. In March, he encouraged Blue Mountain Baptist leaders to host a Saturday morning event and call it Preaching on the Porch.
Gospel musicians from the area sang, and various members including Mickler gave testimony about what Jesus had done in their lives. Afterward, the members shared hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and cookies with the crowd of 60 who gathered that day
They repeated the event in April. About 70 people attended. The following Sunday, nine people became members of the church, and seven were baptized.
‘Spread the word’
Then a recent tornado that struck the Blue Mountain area gave church members an opportunity to minister to the community. They prepared food, including 275 hot dogs, for those in the area who had no power and got busy cleaning up after downed trees had blocked roads.
Seventy people were present for the worship service May 27 as two guest singers, Nashville’s Kelli Johnson, who grew up in Calhoun and Talladega counties, and Chase Inman, led the music.
Several members wiped tears as they sang, and others went to the front of the sanctuary, kneeled and prayed.
Sayyvion Griffin, 22, was at that service and shared his story about why he was there.
“I was walking down from my house because our power was out, and Pastor Nick called me over,” Griffin said during the fellowship luncheon that day. “‘We’re helping the community,’ he said, and he asked me if I wanted some food. He then asked if I would spread the word. I went around to the neighbors in Blue Mountain and people from Norwood (community) heard. By the time I got back to the church, there was a line of people getting hot dogs.”
Griffin said he was attending because Mickler had invited him, and now he was thinking about becoming a member.
The change in spirit
Richard Sego, a new minister at Hillcrest, said he, too, is delighted at the stories his members are telling him.
“Nick has been delivered from some things in his past, and he seems to have identified with the community, and they with him,” Sego said. “The Hillcrest members have helped, but we can’t take the credit. God seems to be doing the revitalization.”
Mickler is just happy to be of service to God.
“I grew up here,” he said. “I lived on Twine Street and rode my bike up and down these streets when I was a boy, and now these guys have brought me back full circle as an associate pastor.”
Pilcher, who is healthier now, is mentoring Mickler.
Longtime member of Blue Mountain Baptist, Eddie Tannkersly, 83, is a deacon in the church. For years, he served on the grounds committee, and has worked in the kitchen with his wife Barbara to make meals for those in need.
“The church is on the upswing, I hope,” he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article was written by Sherry Kughn for The Anniston Star and is reposted with permission.
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