Nine years ago, when Wesley Hampton’s family was looking for a pretty place to take some family photos, they ended up on the front porch of Church of the Forest, Houston.
His daughter was 2 at the time, and the church was pretty — that was all there was to it. And at that point, he wasn’t in the ministry in a big way — he preached here and there, but he also worked full time for the Winston County Road Department.
‘The Lord led us’
Hampton had no idea that a few years later, he would be pastor of the little church in the woods.
“A lady in my office at the road department went to the church, and when their pastor left, she asked me about coming to preach,” he said.
He did, and over time, he said he “kept praying about it, and the Lord led us in that direction.”
Church of the Forest is on the North Alabama Hallelujah Trail, a list of 32 churches that are at least a century old, still stand on their original sites, are accessible to the public and still hold services. Round Mountain Baptist Church, Cedar Bluff, is also on the trail, as is Helton Memorial Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, Stevenson.
It’s a pretty church with a lot of history behind it, Hampton said — a few decades ago it even made it on the cover of National Geographic. But for him, even though the building is special, it’s never been about the building.
“We just want to serve the Lord,” he said. “We want to see souls saved and the Spirit work.”
When Hampton first started preaching there about six years ago, about six people came regularly. But as the years have passed, the church has had times where 15 to 20 children attended alongside members in their 90s. Currently, they run between 25 and 40 on a Sunday morning.
“God’s good — He’s really good to us, really blessed us,” Hampton said. He said he especially feels blessed that God would allow him to be a part of what’s happening there.
Watching God work
“I ran from the ministry for about five years,” he said.
But God is showing their community a lot of His goodness, Hampton said. “To see Him work like that in a small church is amazing. We’re a small country church, and we just obey the Lord — that’s all we do.”
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