Churches of Rural Georgia

Take any back road through the South, and you’re bound to see steeples dotting the landscape. In Georgia, like most states in the region, rural churches have long served as hubs for Southerners. “The church was as much about community as it was theology,” says Sonny Seals, co-author of the new book Historic Rural Churches of Georgia. “It was law-and-order, a dating service, a country club, and the community center all in one.”

In the book, Seals and George S. Hart compile the stories and images of forty-seven houses of worship—each at least a hundred years old. From First African Baptist on Sapelo Island, founded by newly freed slaves in 1866, to the Great Revival camp-meeting ground in Warren County, a religious gathering spot since 1822, these sites tell the story of the state. A foreword by President Jimmy Carter introduces the book, which includes three hundred color photographs of chapels, graveyards, and sanctuaries in every condition. “Some of these rural churches are thriving,” Seals says, “some are barely hanging on, and some are almost gone but could still be saved.” And that’s what Seals hopes this book and ongoing research project will do—record memory and inspire others to protect it. “Every church has a story rooted in history,” he says. “We have to dig it out and document it as much as we can.”

September 22, 2016

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Mt. Olivet Methodist in Banks County, organized in 1868.

Randy Clegg

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Sturdy pine pews at Mt. Olivet Methodist were constructed just after the Civil War.

Randy Clegg

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Young’s Chapel Methodist in Ben Hill County, organized c. 1875.

Scott Farrar

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The crumbling piano inside Young’s Chapel Methodist.

Scott Farrar

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Liberty Baptist in Brooks County, organized in 1843.

Steve Robinson

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First Presbyterian of St. Marys in Camden County, organized in 1808.

Wayne Moore

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Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran in Effingham County, organized in 1733, is the oldest church building in Georgia.

John Kirkland

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Carroll’s Methodist in Franklin County, organized in 1797, still has its original heart-pine floors.

Randy Clegg

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Powelton Methodist in Hancock County, organized in 1795.

Scott Farrar

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A woodstove made cold winter mornings bearable for churchgoers at Powelton Methodist.

Scott Farrar

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Wealthy planters founded Midway Congregational in Liberty County in 1752.

Wayne Moore

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Slaves sat in this gallery above the Midway Congregational sanctuary.

Wayne Moore

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Monuments dating to the mid-eighteenth century dot the cemetery surrounding Midway Congregational.

Wayne Moore

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Newly freed slaves founded First African Baptist on Sapelo Island in 1866.

Wayne Moore

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Beginning in 2000, supporters of Sapelo Island’s First African Baptist carefully restored the church’s exterior and sanctuary.

Wayne Moore

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Mt. Enon Baptist in Mitchell County, organized in 1856.

Steve Robinson

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Pennsylvanians who moved to the area to minister to Native Americans founded Oglethorpe County’s Beth Salem Presbyterian in 1785.

Scott MacInnis

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Benevolence Baptist in Randolph County was organized in 1840 and features huge Gothic stained-glass windows.

Steve Robinson

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A Revival tabernacle at Fountain Campground in Warren County, organized in 1822.

Gail Des Jardin

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A Native American mound on the grounds surrounding Crescent Hill Baptist in White County, organized in 1872.

Randy Clegg

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St. Cyprian’s Episcopal in McIntosh County, organized in 1876, was constructed with cement made of lime, sand, and oyster shells.

Wayne Moore

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Old Ruskin Church in Ware County is all that remains of a failed Utopian colony formed in the 1890s.

Randall Davis

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The book’s cover.

Churches of Rural Georgia

SealsHartChurchesCov

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