History of Our Ministry
Sand Ridge Baptist Church is a dynamic congregation whose mission is to carry out Christ’s great commission (Matthew 28;19-20). The three purposes of the church are to exalt the savior, to equip the saints, and to evangelize the sinner. We believe that our church is tasked with the responsibility to lead as many as possible to Christ, to baptize them, and to provide a spiritual atmosphere which is conducive to Christian growth and fellowship in order that every believer may become a fully developing disciple of Christ.
The ministry of Sand Ridge is guided by its mission. The worship, evangelism, education, and outreach ministries of the church are focused on the mission of exalting our risen and living Savior. The church offers three Sunday worship services (8:30, 10:50, and 6:00) designed to allow the body of Christ to rejoice together in celebration as Christ is exalted. In addition to the three “Big Church” services there are opportunities for worship designed for children. Every child from birth through sixth grade is offered an age appropriate ministry during worship that is intended to address their specific ministry need. A midweek worship opportunity is available each Wednesday at 6:30. Believers are equipped for service through a program of Christian education featuring a vibrant Sunday School ministry, Youth ministry, Children’s program, Pioneer Club and various discipleship opportunities. Each week hundreds of people gather at Sand Ridge for bible study, fellowship, and discipleship.
Sand Ridge Baptist Church has a heart for missions. In addition to supporting the International and Domestic mission efforts of the Southern Baptist Convention, members of Sand Ridge are actively involved in both local, national, and international efforts to carry out the great commission. The church is involved in ongoing work in Mexico to start churches, provide ministerial education for church leaders, intentionally train local church leadership, and meet the needs of at-risk children by supporting a Baptist Children’s home.
As the focus on missions has developed so has the church’s missions ministries. In recent years the church has added an active Disaster Relief Unit to its mission ministry. The church has responded to hurricanes relief efforts in Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, flood relief efforts in Middle Tennessee, tornado relief efforts in West Tennessee, and our Disaster Relief director spent two weeks in Thailand assisting with Asian tsunami relief.
Missions is also a priority among youth and children at Sand Ridge. Mission work has been conducted by our youth ministry in Colorado, South Carolina, Mississippi, as well in many local areas. At Sand Ridge we believe we are saved to serve!
The purpose of Sand Ridge is to exalt the savior, equip the saints, and the result of focusing on these two purposes is evangelism. Over the past decade the church has almost doubled in membership. Truly the Lord has been good to Sand Ridge Baptist Church.
How did the church get to where it is today? Sand Ridge has a rich history of faithfulness, service, struggle, endurance, and triumph which began in the same year that Tennessean Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States, 1828, and seventeen years before the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845.
When messengers met at the First Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia for what would become the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention on May 10, 1845 Sand Ridge Baptist Church had already been ministering to settlers in Henderson County Tennessee for at least seventeen years. Sand Ridge Baptist Church was originally known as Hepzibah Baptist Church. The Hebrew word Hepzibah means “my delight is in her”. In Isaiah 62:4 this word was used to refer to the city of Jerusalem. The prophet writes that the city of Jerusalem will be called Hepzibah “for the Lord will take delight in you.”
The oldest existing record of Sand Ridge Baptist church comes from the annual meeting of the Forked Deer Baptist Association in 1828. In that year Sand Ridge (Hepzibah) was represented at the annual meeting of the Forked Deer Baptist Association at Hopewell in Henderson county.
Twenty two years later, in 1850, the church was donated four acres of land located eight miles southwest of Lexington, TN, approximately 4 miles from the church’s current location. A small frame church was built on this site in 1855.
Following the Civil War the church struggled over the issue of missions. The difficult days of Reconstruction following the war caused many churches in the South to turn their focus inward instead of aggressively supporting mission endeavors. The conflict between mission and anti-mission Baptists was also theological in nature. Some Baptists held to a form of predestination that made evangelism and missions irrelevant. In 1866 the members of Hepzibah Baptist Church who were opposed to missions left the fellowship and formed a Primitive Baptist Church. The remaining members of Hepzibah Baptist Church continued to worship, witness, and support missions. In the 1870’s the church affiliated with the Beech River Baptist Association.
The Hepzibah congregation struggled, however, during the latter decades of the 19th century. Church membership declined during the 1870’s and 1880’s and after 1896 the church became inactive and the building that was erected in 1855 fell into disrepair.
The church was reorganized in 1917 following a 21 year period of inactivity. In the fall of that year the church was represented at the annual meeting of the Beech River Baptist Association.
The 1920’s were a decade of tremendous change for the church. In 1924 the church was donated property at its current location and relocated. In 1927 the church’s named was changed to Sand Ridge Baptist Church.
This move was seminal moment in the history of the church. It signified a new direction and new period of growth in ministry. Earlier debates about missions and evangelism were now faded memories and the church began to move ahead in ministry. To accommodate the needs of the church ground was broken in 1961 for the construction of a new sanctuary. This facility served the church’s needs for almost four decades before it was completely renovated and expanded. This project was completed in 1998. In the intervening years the church completed construction of its educational and fellowship facility in 1974 and expanded it in 1994.
In 2002 the church embarked on the most ambitious building project in its history. Construction began on a Christian Ministry Center which would house adult educational facilities, a Youth Center, Nursery and Children’s departments, Welcome Center, Fellowship Hall, and commercial kitchen. This facility was completed and dedicated in August 2003 and has allowed the church to enhance and strengthen almost every ministry and facet of church life.
For 180 years Sand Ridge Baptist Church has ministered to its community in West Tennessee. Through decades involving everything from Civil War to the Great Depression Sand Ridge has been a beacon of hope. In all of those eras the church as exalted Christ, equipped Christians, and evangelized its community. Our prayer is that in the future Sand Ridge will continue to fulfill its historic purpose and that God would enlarge our impact on the world as members of Sand Ridge Baptist Church continue to share the light of Christ along the way.
