Elm Grove Baptist Church celebrates over 100 years of service

PINE BLUFF, Ark. – Elm Grove Baptist Church got its start in 1843, The history of the church traces back to when slaves living on the Johnson plantation got permission to organize a Baptist church.

The iconic bell that sits outside the church is 178 years old and was used by slaves. Each ring represented those still enslaved.

Now here they are 181 years later with the same care and devotion to the Pine Bluff community.

Pastor Jesse Turner’s message during their celebration was keeping a strong foundation. He says that’s how they’ve been able to keep their doors open all these years.

“This congregation is oldest in Arkansas as a black Baptist, it helps us to learn about our history, it helps us to learn about our resiliency,” Turner said.

Turner has been a pastor for Elm Grove Baptist for 30 years and says despite the church’s mishaps, they remain solid.

“The emancipation proclamation wasn’t even written when those slaves, enslaved people in the Noble Lake area asked to have a church built,” Turner said.

To him the church’s history means a lot, but more importantly it’s the people that keeps church going.

“The church is in us so the teachings of Christ was put in us by our grandfathers, grandmothers great grandmothers, and were still exercising that today,” Turner said.

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