Alder Springs Missionary Baptist Church will celebrate their 175th Anniversary on Sunday April 7, 2024. The celebration will be during the 11:00 am worship service with lunch to follow. All former Pastors and past and present members are welcome.
Alder Springs Church was established March 31, 1849 by a group of people who gathered under a Pear Tree. The name Alder Springs came from a spring where an alder bush grew. This land was on the corner of Hickory Star and Little Valley Road. The alder bush was still there until some clearing was done several years ago.
The first church was built of logs on the east side of Hickory Star Road where Frank and Georgia Foust live at present. The church also served as a school where students were taught reading, writing, and counting as they then called it. The log church was used for 37 years. The Gospel was preached and many souls and lives were changed.
The church has been a member of the Northan Baptist Association since 1876. A few of the delegates at that time were Lynn Weaver, Glaspy Turner, and M.L. Keller, and the pastor at that time was Rev. Alvis Stooksbury. Other pastors that served in the old log church were Rev William Hickle, Rev. Prior Anderson Morton, Rev. Jacob Eldridge, and Rev. H Dew. Many men have been ordained in the presbytery of Alder Springs Church.
A pump organ was bought for the church by Green and Enza Turner, and was returned to the Turners after the church no longer needed it. Upon their death, Linda Coppock had possession of the organ, and in 1995 it was loaned to the Roy Acuff Museum and Library where it can now be on display.
A special display case in the foyer of the present Alder Springs Church which holds the communion flask and glasses from the original church built in 1849. These were the only two glasses, so the women drank from one and the men from the other. The ladies would sit on one side of the church and the men on the other side.
In 1883, a decision was made to build a new church up the road above the old log church. This is the second facility. A committee was appointed for the purpose of gathering funds to build. In 1887, a wood framed church was completed, and later that year, the log church was sold for $20.00. At the beginning of 1890, the church consisted of 28 males and 37 female members. In 1907, the first Sunday School class was started. In 1911, the church agreed to build a new belfry beginning from the ground upward. The wood frame was used from 1887 until 1967.
Land was giving in the early 1900’s to the Union County School System by Harvey and Lucy Turner of Union County (to be giving back to them if the school was no longer necessary) to build an Alder Springs School adjacent to the church. It was a two-room wood framed school with eight grades and two teachers. The school was used until the consolidation of Union County Elementary Schools in 1954. The school later burned in 1957. The Trustees of the Alder Springs Church in 1958 purchased the adjacent school property back for $1.00 from the Union County Schools.
In 1967, a beautiful new brick church with a basement was built just above the wood structure (which was torn down for parking), and the Belfry was moved to this new church. The church did remodel in 1984. New restrooms were made handicapped accessible and the front of the porch made with ramps on both sides. By May of 1987, the church voted and built a fellowship hall with a baptistry where a shed had once stood. It was built with the love and labor of many of the church members.
In 2016, a new and present location was built back the corner of Hickory Star and Little Valley Road under the Leadership of Rev. Jimmy Davidson. It sits on 9.5 acres and can seat just less than 300 people and has 10 Sunday School rooms, a fellowship hall and a full commercial kitchen, where they have homecomings, wedding receptions and family gatherings.
Pastor Jimmy Davidson said the church is very active and the youth group, led by Aaron and Regina Stiner, is doing great things. The Women of Faith, as they now call it, have a food pantry, and are fixing Christmas baskets and reaching out to meet the needs of others. The church now has approximately 220-250 in attendance on Sunday mornings with about 140 in Sunday School. Some things that have changed since times passed are the services are now live streaming on their web site https://alderspringschurch.com and they now have Security Service, which was unheard of in the past. Pastor Davidson said they are thankful for God’s Blessings and are just trying to stay focused and strengthen that which is good.