By RORYE O’CONNOR
rorye.oconnor@register-news.com
MT. VERNON – One local congregation is celebrating a historic milestone for their church.
Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, 1015 Conger Avenue, is marking its 100th anniversary with a celebration at 3:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 22.
The celebration, themed “Down Through The Years, God Has Been Good” will feature a morning service and an afternoon celebration with a meal. The congregation will celebrate with a guest church, Pleasant Grove Baptist Church from Paducah, Ky.
“God has blessed us to be together for 100 years,” said pastor the Rev. Lawrence James. “We have been served spiritually and physically through the years. We have been saving souls and feeding souls, and we serve God by serving mankind.”
The church was originally located on Vaught Avenue, according to church elder J. L. Doggan, and the congregation met at that location until the building was sold in the early 1960s.
“We had nowhere to go,” Doggan said. “For a few years, we had church at the house.”
In the early ‘70s, the current property was purchased, and members of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church came to services there until 1999, when the old building burned down.
The church’s current facilities, which feature a church, offices, storage and a multipurpose room, were finished in 2000.
James said the multipurpose room, which features basketball goals, has helped the church’s members to be able to reach out to the community. The church’s program, “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure,” offers basketball and snacks to high-risk youth, James said. Last Sunday, the church had 50 young people attend.
“We also try to have movie nights and teach responsibility,” James said. “As outreach, we go out on the streets and witness to young men who have kind of lost their way.”
James said members of the community outreach program are working towards being able to offer a boxing program as well.
The church’s anniversary program will feature performances by the choir and dance team as well as a speaker, James said. The event is free and open to the public.
