Activities and Schedule

Sunday
- Sunday School: 9:45 to 10:45 A.M.
- Worship: 11:00 to 12:00 P.M., 6:00 to 7:00 P.M.
- Choir Practice: 5:00 to 6:00 P.M.

Wednesday
- Worship 7:00 to 8:30 P.M.
- Awana: 6:30 to 8:30 P.M.

Thursday
- Prayer/Visitation: Evenings (Meeting time is predetermined according to the number of visitations that will be made that evening.)

Activities: Awana Club, a Bible-study for children aged five to seventeen, and Ladies’ Club, a gathering of the adult women of the church one evening every month to dine and socialize with one another. This club is also involved with the church’s community projects, and aids in making some decisions that impact the church community. The Kitchen Committee consists of three adult women and is directed by a husband and wife. Their goal is to prepare menus and assign dishes for church events that involve food. The choir performs during Sunday morning worship, and also performs a Christmas concert every year. Pleasant Grove Baptist Church also supports fifteen to twenty international missionaries, and, if the missionaries request them, the community members send care packages to the needy overseas.

History

The church was founded in October 1891 by the Camby, Garren, Morrow, Kirstein, Lee, and Macabee families. The church deacons were ordained by the deacons of Middle Fork Baptist Church of Gerton, North Carolina. The first building was located in front of the cemetary (now the lower parking lot). The second building was moved to where the upper parking lot is located now, and it was joined by a church-sponsored school across the street (which is now overgrown). The third building is the current building, and it is joined by the Fellowship Building, which sits on a hill overlooking the property. The entire property was constructed with buildings, graves, and other sacred spaces facing the East, in response to this community’s belief in the Second Coming of Christ.

Demographics

The majority of the church members are native to the Fairview, North Carolina area, and many of them can trace their lineage back to the original founders of the church. They are Caucasian and middle-class. Approximately eighty percent of the church members are elderly, fifteen percent are between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five, and the remaining five percent of the membership is comprised of children aged one to twenty years.

Food

Pleasant Grove Baptist Church holds an annual Thanksgiving dinner, a Homecoming luncheon, and various other meal-meetings on a to-be-announced basis throughout the year. If a member dies, the funeral meal is often hosted by the church; the Kitchen Committee provides the food. These events occur in the Fellowship Building.

Links

Food Interview at Pleasant Grove Baptist
Beautiful Dishes: Phyllis Scott Kirstein's Food Roles in the Pleasant Grove Baptist Community
Summary Analysis: Pleasant Grove Baptist Church

Research by:

Ashley J. Kirstein