Welcome from our Pastor, Dr. Roy Kilby

Welcome visitors and also church members, look around and use this site to help find information such as a church calendar and information about some of the church's programs.

A Bit of History

Bethel Baptist Church in 1950

Early History of Bethel Baptist Church

The early settlers near the forks of the Pigeon had begun making permanent settlements during the time that Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren were Presidents of the United States. Evangelist Charles Finney was holding great revivals in London and the United States and D. L. Moody was growing up in Chicago.

Some of these settlers felt God's call to establish a place of worship in Pigeon Valley. Organized worship prior to that time had occurred in homes and camp meetings where stumps and rocks served as pulpits and logs as benches.

The first House of Worship in the Bethel Community was a common meeting house built in 1838-39 for the Baptist, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Property for the meeting house was given by Elijah Deaver.

By 1845 the Baptist had increased in numbers sufficient to found a church for this
community. Bethel Baptist Church as founded on May 23, 1845. The membership at the time of organization was 18. Two of the 18 were Negro slaves.

Bethel Baptists continued to use the Common Meeting House as a place of worship until 1892 when the congregation moved into our first building. The building was built by J. B. Stalcup and was located on property now know as Bethel Junior High. We have grown over the years and have had several building and expansion projects.

In the early 1950's our church moved to its present location on land donated by Mr. & Mrs. Corbit Wright. Our church parsonage was built in 1959. In 1967 Mrs. Lucy Terrell donated a strip of land to improve our parking. Two other areas of land were bought from the Terrells and Wrights in later years. Our education building was built in the early 1980's.

The old picnic shed was built in to our Youth Annex in 1990. God has blessed Bethel Baptist from its early beginning until present. We are thankful for our physical facilities and material blessings. But our greatest blessings have occurred through the "Changed Lives" of individuals who have accepted Jesus Christ in and through this church and its missions programs.

Bethel Baptist Church was organized in 1845 with 15 members. Two of the members were slaves. Our first building was built in 1892. The building pictured above was built in 1952. The parsonage which is pictured in the background was built in 1959 at a cost of $23,000. Four acres on the east side of the building was purchased in 1969 for expansion. The parking area was paved in 1972 at a cost of $7,000. Church membership in 1973 was 340 with 247 enrolled in Sunday School, 104 enrolled in Church Training, 52 enrolled in Baptist Women organizations, 30 enrolled in Baptist men, and 68 enrolled in music.

Rev. Thomas Erwin was our pastor in 1973. He pastored our church 3 times. Bethel was the last church that he pastored before his death. Rev. Erwin was a native of Haywood County. He attended school at Bethel, Western Carolina, and UNC at Chapel Hill. He taught school for 24 years and pastured 13 churches in Haywood County. The last three churches that he pastured were Mt. Zion, Calvary in Canton, and Bethel. He was married to Maggie Long. They had 3 sons and 1 daughter. Pastor Erwin became ill during his final ministry at Bethel. He gave up the pastor position but remained a member of the church. His final message for Bethel Baptist was printed in the April 4, 1976 bulletin. (This message is printed at the bottom of this page.)