It used to be a country church. Now it’s in the middle of the suburbs, on two of the busiest roads in the state.
Oak Grove Baptist Church sits on Highway 119 near the intersection of U.S. 280. In the eighties it drew attendance of dozens weekly. That’s dwindled. “Now there are more people in the cemetery than the church,” said Rob Langford, who grew up on the other side of the woods behind the church and started walking to attend services at age 11….
The Rev. John Killian, former pastor of Maytown Baptist Church in Sylvan Springs and former president of the Alabama Baptist Convention, has seen the heyday of the rural church slip away.
“That’s what I deal with all the time,” said Killian, now director of missions for Fayette County. “Some of them are barely hanging on. Some seem to be doing okay.”
That Old-Time Religion: Heyday of the rural church slips away as country church gets swallowed by the suburbs https://t.co/FVCudU2P5G
— Kent Faulk (@krfaulk) December 8, 2019