Pickens Baptist Association recently celebrated its 165th anniversary. Throughout its 165 years of serving Baptist churches in Pickens County, Pickens Association has grown steadily and done a lot of good things for area residents, according to Gary Farley, director of missions for Pickens Association.
The association, founded in 1835, celebrated its anniversary at its October annual meeting.
Although the association has grown from 19 churches and 1,156 members to 33 churches and 5,990 members, its members remain closely tied to Pickens Association history and tradition.
The annual meeting displayed a strong connection to the past as well as a tribute to the founders and members who worked diligently to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20) through missions and evangelism, associational leaders said.
“The Baptist work is strong here,” said Farley. “Two churches have joined the association this year — Double Branches Baptist Church and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Fayette.”
To commemorate the efforts of the founding churches, messengers from the continuing founding churches met at the site of the first association meeting and held a devotional service with the same Scripture used in the first meeting — Psalm 118:22.
In addition, descendants of initial members and pastors during the first 100 years were recognized.
Missions focus
Maintaining the original goal to equip and involve its churches in missions in the United States and abroad continues to be a priority for Pickens Association.
Consequently, missionaries from Pickens have served on missions fields in the United States and in South America, Africa and Asia.
“Seventeen people from the association have served Southern Baptists as foreign missionaries (through the International Mission Board) beginning in 1851 and continuing down to the present,” Farley said.
Farley noted there have been people from the association serving on the foreign missions field continuously since 1851, “and we’re proud of that,” he said.
Throughout the years, Pickens Association transformed an annual homecoming into an ongoing organization to respond to the changing way of life in Pickens County.
Many of the member churches became full-time churches offering worship services twice each Sunday. “We (also) had an ‘I Love America’ program that drew better than 400 people,” Farley noted.
Other accomplishments of Pickens Association include its community ministries: Baptist Center Thrift Store which provides household goods, clothing and food to the needy; volunteer chaplaincy at Pickens Hospital; benevolences; disaster relief van and rural teaching ministries.
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