LOCAL CHURCH - Membership - Lesson 3/3

Today we completed our three-part study "Why should I 'JOIN' a local church?" looking first at the history of the First Baptist Church, Dothan, and what membership in the local church might have looked like in 1887.

As far back as 1830 friendly Indians met and traded with each other at a thick poplar grove about half way between their home territories. This meeting ground became what is now Dothan. A large spring in the grove made it an ideal site for those in the area with cattle to trade. By 1850 nine families had settled there. The name Poplar Head was chosen but was abandoned on learning that another town already bore that name. The Methodists were the predominant religious group at first, and they are credited with being responsible for the biblical name, "Dothan," being chosen from Genesis 37:17. Later the Dothan Eagle popularized the phrase from this verse, "For I heard them say, let us go to Dothan."

In the early months of 1887 a small group of Dothan men and women of the Baptist faith began meeting for worship in homes, and at other times in the Methodist Church, which had been formed by 1879. In November of 1887, under the leadership of Reverend J.C. Skipper, the group organized into a church with Skipper as its pastor. Brother Skipper was 65 years of age when he became pastor. He was a farmer with a large family and proved to be a dedicated and energetic man of God. The nine charter members met for worship in a one-room frame building formerly used as a school.

Just imagine what the commitment must have been like for this young fellowship of believers. At that time (1887), Dothan (Poplar Head) was a very small settlement. Two years earlier, there were only 25 families living in Dothan. The nine charter members would have represented almost half of the families in Dothan.

Over the past 129 years, the First Baptist Church, Dothan, has grown from a small group of 9 to nearly 5,000 members at its height, and established five other churches in Dothan. All this started because 9 people felt it was important to "join" together as one body of believers.

The Bible teaches that people are in different stages of commitment and we only grow by making commitments. FBC Dothan is an example of what can happen when believers are committed to membership, maturity, ministry, and mission.

Next week we will begin the series, Angels and Demons.